Liverpool headed into the match with a 19-point lead at the top of table, looking to make it a 22-point gap with an 18th consecutive win, equalling the record set by Man City centurions in 2017/18. And coming up against West Ham, who were travelling up to Liverpool in the relegation zone, the victory for the league leaders turned out to be all but simple as Liverpool left it late yet again in a 3-2 triumph.
Liverpool were left without their captain, Jordan Henderson, through injury and Naby Keita came into the starting eleven to replace him with Van Dijk taking the responsibility of leading the team out.
It was a shaky start for visitors on a blustery Monday night in the north west, as Łukasz Fabiański set the tone for night with an early hiccup as he was chased down by Sadio Mane and lost the ball, but to the keepers delight the tackle saw the ball drift out of the pitch for a goal kick.
However less than five minutes later the home side did manage to make the visitors pay as Wijnaldum was able to head home a trademark Alexander-Arnold cross putting the reds 1-0 up within the opening 10 minutes.
Moments later however it was a case of ‘anything you can do, I can do worse’ as the Brazilian, Alisson Becker, blundered equally as bad, as Issa Diop was able to find an equaliser from his headed effort.
Going in at the break it was clear there was significant improvement needed for the league leaders, but coming out it was West Ham who were able to take an advantage as the substitute, Pablo Fornals, sent the away section into jubilation with his low effort putting them in a dream scenario, leading 2-1 at home of the Champions of Europe.
The clock ticked down and Liverpool’s need for an equaliser grew greater and as usual, no matter how poor of a game they seem to be having, they can of course rely on their fullbacks and their forwards to pull them out of a hole and take the three points. It was a combination of Robertson to Salah for the equaliser and then Alexander-Arnold to Mane for the winner as Liverpool scrapped the win in the final 22 minutes of the game.
The right-back from West Derby was however denied a third assist of the night after Mane drifted offside before tapping in another cross. Despite this, Liverpool hung on and achieved their 26th win of the season out of 27 games played.
Alexander-Arnold spoke on his team’s mentality after the game, “We’re confident more than anything, we believe in our own ability.
“The overall feeling is hunger to be the best team we can and win everything around.” And win everything around is something they are exactly doing, being on track to end the season with more than 100 points.
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