West Ham United 1-3 Liverpool

MOHAMED SALAH ENDED his goal drought in spectacular fashion as Liverpool beat West Ham 3-1 on Sunday afternoon.

The Egyptian forward had gone six Premier League matches without a goal, equalling his longest barren spell for the Reds.

But Salah returned to form with two exquisite second-half strikes, taking his league tally to 15 for the season and firing Liverpool up to third in the table.

It was West Ham who possessed the in-form striker going into the match and Michail Antonio must have been relishing the prospect of running at Liverpool’s latest makeshift defensive pairing of Jordan Henderson and Nat Phillips.

But Antonio spurned a glorious chance moments before Salah struck. Georginio Wijnaldum added a third for the champions before Craig Dawson’s late consolation.

It was not just Liverpool’s defence that was patched up. With Sadio Mane out with a muscle injury and Roberto Firmino starting on the bench, Divock Origi and Xherdan Shaqiri joined Salah in attack.

West Ham dealt with all three during a first half in which Liverpool had 70% possession but precious little to show for it.

After a scoreless first half, Antonio’s big chance arrived in the 55th minute when Jarrod Bowen crossed from the right, the 30-year-old taking a touch to steady himself before curling his shot inches wide.

Instead it was Salah who made the breakthrough two minutes later after substitute Curtis Jones found him lurking on the right of the area.

Salah wrapped his left foot around the ball, sending it looping over Fabianski and curling into the back of the net.

In the 68th minute Liverpool ruthlessly killed the game off with a lightning counter from a West Ham corner.

Trent Alexander-Arnold’s 60-yard pass found Shaqiri, who sprayed the ball back into the path of Salah to bury first time.

Liverpool grabbed a third when substitutes Firmino and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain combined to set up Wijnaldum for a tap-in, before Dawson struck from a corner with three minutes to go.