Liverpool vs West Ham: Anfield treated to goal-fest as 5-star Reds crush Hammers

Arne Slot's Liverpool have produced inconsistent performances for most of the season, a trend that has seen their title defence fade away.

However, the Reds were ruthless at Anfield on Saturday afternoon, punishing a hapless West Ham side.

It took the hosts just five minutes to open the scoring.

A fine pass from Ryan Gravenberch found Hugo Ekitike inside the box, and his composed finish beat Mads Hermansen to register his 11th league goal of the season.

The Reds doubled their lead midway through the first half when they took advantage of some shocking defending from West Ham.

An excellent corner from Dominik Szoboszlai set Virgil van Dijk to head home from close range.

The Hammers responded well to the second goal, but despite their improvement, Ekitike set up Alexis Mac Allister to score Liverpool’s third of the afternoon.

To West Ham’s credit, they refused to give up and managed to grab a goal back through Tomás Soucek.

Cody Gakpo then restored Liverpool's three-goal advantage, but a lapse in concentration from Liverpool’s defence allowed the Hammers to reduce the arrears back to two goals, as an unmarked Taty Castellanos was able to head the ball past Alisson at the far post.

Yet any hope from travelling supporters of an unlikely comeback was quickly crushed when Axel Disasi inadvertently put the ball into his own net from Jeremie Frimpong’s attempted pass.