Salah 21' 76'
Matip 24'
Lanzini 55'
Oxlade-Chamberlain 56'
Liverpool away from home remains a roller coaster. Thankfully, this roller coaster stayed on the tracks rather than careening through a guardrail and killing everyone aboard. West Ham helped.
It begin with a tense, scrappy opening 20 minutes. A confusing Liverpool in a surprising XI, closest to a 4-2-4 with both Firmino and Salah up top, Oxlade-Chamberlain and the somehow-returning Mané on the flanks, and a two-man midfield of Wijnaldum and Can. We got an early set play chance, Hart saving Firmino from close-range with his back heel, but not much more. An unfamiliar XI and formation taking time to coalesce is no real surprise.
That disjointed Liverpool mostly held West Ham at bay, with less Liverpool possession than usual but only one real West Ham chance. Still, one good chance: Lanzini's throughball deflected directly to an onside Ayew, his shot off the post with Mignolet making himself big. So far, West Ham aren't bad, Liverpool aren't great. This one could go either way.
And then, a West Ham corner. And then, a goal. A Liverpool goal. Matip heads clear, Salah and Mané fly up the pitch, Mané feeds Salah, Salah scores. Meep meep. I think they left scorch-marks down the center of the London Stadium pitch.
And West Ham fall apart. Liverpool score a second almost immediately, Salah's corner ricocheted on goal by Noble, saved, but Matip with the rebound. West Ham do literally nothing for the rest of the half, although Liverpool remain a bit out of sorts and nowhere near as threatening as you'd hope. But Liverpool are still Liverpool, and 2-0 remains the most dangerous lead in sports™.
West Ham were always going to be at least a bit better after halftime, especially when throwing on Andy Carroll to give Liverpool something different to worry about. A switch to 4-4-2 more closely matches Liverpool's formation and gives Liverpool's fullbacks a lot more to deal with. And it takes ten minutes for West Ham to pull one back: a cross-field pass to Lanzini at the back post, shrugging off Gomez too easily but also beautiful control and finish.
Uh oh.
But then West Ham went and West Hammed again. Within a minute, Liverpool restored its two-goal lead: Firmino controlling Moreno's pass, jamming through the defense, finding Oxlade-Chamberlain, his first shot saved, his second under Hart.
It's literally less than a minute. We missed almost the entire move because they're still showing replays of Lanzini's goal. Well done, West Ham. And we're done here.
As at Leicester, Liverpool made us worried. Liverpool threatened to throw away a two-goal lead, but ultimately didn't. Liverpool looked okay, then good, then frightening, then good again. Liverpool never conceded a second, as against Leicester. Liverpool added even more gloss than against Leicester with a fourth on the break: Salah's second goal, Mané's second assist. Liverpool could have added still more.
It was better than against Leicester. It was less frightening and less dumb than against Leicester. That's progress? Also, West Ham are worse than Leicester.
So, yeah, it's annoying that two goals never seems enough away from home, even if it would have been today. It remains confusing that Liverpool didn't shut up shop until after scoring their fourth, leaving an exposed midfield and defense despite all we've seen before. End to end, drunk and dumb, for the first half-hour of the second half. Four of West Ham's six shots came between the 55th and 69th minutes: all four in the Danger Zone, two clear-cut chances for Lanzini, two close-range headers from Chicharito. We didn't see a Liverpool substitution until after the fourth goal, when Milner finally came on to give Liverpool a three-man midfield. Coincidentally, West Ham didn't have another shot for the rest of the match.
Still. For all of the heartburn we've had, Liverpool have now won each of its last three games by a three-goal margin. The last time that happened was March 2014. Liverpool have won its last three games, full stop.
Liverpool have been patient, diligent, and secure at home in two of those last three matches. Liverpool were wild today, in all three area of the pitch, but ultimately throughly deserved winners. Salah's now got 12 goals through 17 starts, Oxlade-Chamberlain has two goals in his last five games, and don't look now but Sadio Mané's back.
It wasn't comfortable, because that's not Liverpool, but – for the third game in a row – Liverpool did what Liverpool needed to do. Tottenham aside, it's been a perfectly cromulent month of football since returning from the last international break.
And now we've got another international break. Then we start again.
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