Liverpool winger Mohamed Salah grabbed a brace as the Reds thrashed West Ham United 4-1 in an extremely one-sided Premier League game at the London Stadium on Saturday night.

Jurgen Klopp sprung a couple of surprises in his selection for Saturday’s late game as he handed a first-ever Premier League start for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and dropped Dejan Lovren for Ragnar Klavan.

The Reds, seeking their third league win on the trot, took the lead via their in-form Egyptian winger in the 21st minute and within three minutes, would double their advantage thanks to a close-range finish from defender Joel Matip.

Sadio Mane, returning from a hamstring injury, broke with frightening pace after a West Ham corner and laid it on a plate for Salah to score his seventh league goal of the current campaign.

West Ham, on a dreadful run, saw their evening take a turn for the worse soon after as their inability to clear a Salah corner cost them dear as Matip took advantage of some slack defending to find the back of the net for the first time this season.

At 2-0, the game looked done and dusted and the home fans were braced for another onslaught but the visitors were unable to add to the scoreline before referee Neil Swarbrick sounded the half-time whistle.

Slaven Bilic knew he needed to mix things up and brought on Andy Caroll at the interval and the Hammers switched to a 4-4-2 formation which brought almost instantaneous results.

Young Liverpool fullback Joe Gomez switched off while marking Manuel Lanzini and the Argentine made him regret his absent-mindedness with a fine finish to reduce the deficit in the 55th minute.
The London Stadium was roaring in delight but large swathes of the crowd were silenced within scant seconds as Oxlade-Chamberlain scored his first-ever league goal for the Reds in the 56th minute.

And if there were any doubts over the outcome of the result, they were quelled when Salah scored his second on the night and once again, Mane was the architect. The Senegalese winger rode two challenges before finding Salah inside the box with a clipped pass and the Egyptian’s fine volley left Joe Hart with no chance in the 75th minute.

Klopp took off Mane but Liverpool maintained impetus and could easily have scored another but the Hammerws weren’t to be breached for a fifth time.

The Reds, who had seen Burnely overtake them after their 1-0 win at Southampton earlier on Satruday, climb back to sixth place, nine points behind leaders Manchester City but crucially, level with third-placed Chelsea.

Coincidentally, four teams have a points tally of 19 points as of now. Chelsea, fourth-placed Arsenal( both have played a game less), Burnley and Liverpool.

West Ham slip to 17th in the league table and could drop further should Everton beat Watford on Sunday.