There will come a moment when Arne Slot discovers that the Premier League isn’t so very easy after all. Days when it is a bit of a slog.
But as 2024 ticks its way to 2025, the only question is whether a rival will be within a mile of Liverpool if such a slip occurs.
For now, we are watching a glorious canter towards the title and an achievement from Slot that is every bit as astonishing as the collapse of Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City.
With a cushion of eight points, they are devastatingly effective and reliably brutal, this side that was sensibly tipped to struggle when Jurgen Klopp left but instead got better. Utterly remarkable, really.
We can balance all of that by saying a 5-0 drubbing of West Ham requires perspective. Because it does. They were useless and Julen Lopetegui’s immediate future will again be plunged into doubt on account of that recurring fact.
But it was never about them. It was about the unstoppable force of Mo Salah, of an attacking three that generated 22 chances, of a side that is unique in the division for the absence of anything even approaching a wobble.
Liverpool closed out 2024 with a dominant win over West Ham at the London Stadium
Arne Slot’s side are now eight points clear of second-place Nottingham Forest at the top of the Premier League table
For them to fall now, feels incredibly unlikely. Of course they have a bit of previous in that regard – on six previous occasions when they have topped the Premier League going into the new year, they have converted only once.
But who is going to chase them down? Nottingham Forest? They are a beautiful surprise, but let’s not be silly. Chelsea? They aren’t on that stage of the curve according to their own manager. Arsenal have just lost Bukayo Saka and one win does not mark a resurrection for City.
So it is very much Liverpool’s to lose and that is impossible to imagine when Salah is playing like this. He assisted Cody Gakpo for 2-0 and Diogo Jota for 5-0 and scored himself for 3-0.
He is a machine, a technicolour, hip-twitching wizard. A scalpel and an axe in one – his 17 goals and 13 assists for half a season is an absurd return. Pay him what he wants and have done with this contract charade.
They might not have such a choice with Trent Alexander-Arnold, who scored the fourth in a week when Real Madrid blew him kisses, and here was yet another reminder of his brilliance, too. Adding to the vibe, Luis Diaz, adapting to a new brief as a centre forward, scored the opener, and a defence that has been less than perfect also kept a clean sheet.
Again, perspective. It’s West Ham. They had been on a mini-revival of four games unbeaten but Liverpool smashed them hard against the rocks.
While defeat was predictable, the manner of it will hurt more for Lopetegui on the basis that his side could have conceded six or seven in the first half alone. Neither the personnel nor the system Lopetegui drafted was worth its weight in paper.
In the details, that meant four changes to the side which beat Southampton, with Alphonse Areola brought in to cover Lukasz Fabianski’s absence due to concussion and Vladimir Coufal, Edson Alvarez and Lucas Paqueta given starts.
Alphonse Areola was made a number of fine saves in the early going to keep the game level
Liverpool were able to break the deadlock after 30 minutes when Luis Diaz opened the scoring
Just minutes later Joe Gomez were forced off with an injury and replaced with Jarell Quansah
The visitors doubled their lead after Salah found Cody Gakpo who fired home from close range
Alvarez, notionally a midfielder, was stationed so deep West Ham effectively played with a back five, but if the mission was to contain, to stifle, it failed miserably.
In the space of 15 minutes, Liverpool had mauled that backline so comprehensively they had three excellent chances and could ultimately afford to take none of them.
Sure, they were assisted by the flimsiness of what they faced, and Slot on another day might grumble about loose finishing, but watching Liverpool at full speed, nudging those devastating little balls around tight corners, creating from all angles, is one of the most beautiful sights in sport.
Needless to say, Salah was central to most of it, but so too was Gakpo – his ability to read the Egyptian’s intentions is an underrated facet of Liverpool’s attacking trident. Combined, they were a riddle West Ham never got close to solving, even if they each botched chances created by one other in a frantic opening.
Salah’s opportunity from a one-on-one was saved by Areola and Gakpo’s was lost when he misread the flight of a Salah ball to the back post. In close proximity to those moments was an even cuter move that saw Salah twist Aaron Wan-Bissaka inside and out before teeing up Curtis Jones for another strike at goal. Areola was awfully busy on his first start since October.
Alas, his sheet did not remain clean for long. Diaz, favoured ahead of Darwin Nunez and growing more comfortable with the No 9 role, broke through on the half-hour mark, after attempting a one-two with Curtis Jones and benefitting from a kind ricochet off Coufal. Steadying himself with a touch, he rolled the finish for his 12th goal in all competitions this season.
Mohammed Kudus hit the post in retaliation – it was one of only two meaningful West Ham attacks in the first half – before Gakpo made it 2-0.
The move started with a lob over the top from Alexis Mac Allister and some ball-watching from Wan-Bissaka gave Diaz room to cut inwards and find Salah. With a lovely touch off his heel he took out Konstantinos Mavropanos and then scrambled a pass to Gakpo for the strike.
Salah then heaped the misery on Julen Lopetegui’s side by making it 3-0 before half time
Trent Alexander-Arnold made it four for the Reds with a deflected effort after the restart
West Ham had chances in the second half but were unable to test Alisson in the Liverpool goal
Diogo Jota came off the bench to close out the rout with a curling strike in the top corner
Liverpool were cruising by the time of the third, nailed by Salah after Carlos Soler allowed himself to be robbed in midfield by Mac Allister. West Ham’s complicity to their demise was a partial story of the game, but let’s not understate the rampancy of Liverpool’s attacks.
If they had one sour note, beyond a few minor misjudgements from Andy Robertson, it was a suspected hamstring injury for Joe Gomez. The rest of the half a canter.
The second followed the pattern, with Alexander-Arnold taking the rout to 4-0 with a drive from outside the area, assisted by a sizeable deflection off Kilman, before Salah went on a 40-yard counter through an indifferent midfield prior to setting up Jota for the fifth. A fine finish, certainly, but Lopetegui might wonder if his players were really giving their all in preventing it.
In between those strikes, Kudus hit the frame for a second time – had it gone in, it would have been more than his side deserved.
