West Ham’s perfect start to 2021 was brought to an end by Liverpool and two moments of magic from Mohamed Salah.
Having had to wait until injury time at the end of the first half for a shot on target, the champions made a quicker start after the break.
They would have gone ahead through Salah quickly after the restart were in not for a brilliant last-ditch intervention from Aaron Cresswell, but it didn’t take them too much longer to find the breakthrough.
Curtis Jones, less than a minute after his introduction, drove the visitors forward, exchanged passes with Xherdan Shaqiri before playing in Salah, who checked onto his left and despatched a trademark curling finish into the far corner.
West Ham responded well and could have been level when Andy Robertson almost turned a Michail Antonio corner into his own net. While the Hammers were enjoying perhaps their best spell of the game, however, Liverpool ruthlessly knocked them back.
Trent-Alexander Arnold sent them flying away after a West Ham corner with a booming diagonal across for Shaqiri. The stocky Swiss raced after the ball and sent a pin-point first time cross into the path of Salah who collected and dinked over Fabianski.
Giorginio Wijnaldum added a third inside the final ten minutes, finishing off a free-flowing move which was aided by a loose touch from Declan Rice.
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