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The contrasting strengths of Liverpool and West Ham are reflected on the balance sheet, the team sheet and ultimately the score sheet. Arne Slot’s side improved their prospects of qualifying for the Champions League with a commanding victory at Anfield, underpinned by their newfound prowess at set pieces.
In the week Liverpool announced record overall revenue of £703m in their latest accounts, most of it ploughed back into the bank balances of a title-winning team, West Ham warned they will have to sell players this summer whether they avoid relegation or not having suffered a £104.2m loss in the same financial year. Their prospects of staying up appear increasing slim, despite Nuno Espírito Santo’s team impressing in flashes at Anfield.
This game was effectively over by half-time. As damning as that was for West Ham, and depressing for their short-changed fans, they still had hope of getting back into the contest before Alexis Mac Allister extinguished it in the 43rd minute. The midfielder’s brilliant volley was the third Liverpool goal to originate from a corner as Slot’s side continued their metamorphosis into the Premier League’s set-piece specialists.
Poor at defending them and scoring from them in the first half of the season, resulting in the departure of set-piece coach Aaron Briggs in December, Liverpool have now scored more set-piece goals than any other team in the division – excluding penalties – in 2026. West Ham were slow and weak defensively as Liverpool took their set-piece goals total to eight for the calendar year.
Hugo Ekitiké gave the hosts an early lead after El Hadji Malick Diouf had cleared the first corner of the afternoon. Ryan Gravenberch returned a fine ball into the France international, who was left unmarked on the left of the penalty area and took the shot early. Ekitiké’s effort took a slight deflection off Konstantinos Mavropanos en route to Mads Hermansen’s bottom corner. Both the West Ham centre-half and goalkeeper could have done more.
The visitors responded well to their first setback. Mateus Fernandes and Crysencio Summerville were to the fore as Liverpool were opened up frequently, but West Ham could not find the finishing touch. Mavropanos scooped wildly over from close range when a Jarrod Bowen corner landed at his feet and Mac Allister worked tirelessly to cut out a dangerous counterattack led by Summerville. The threat from West Ham was growing, and then Liverpool scored another simple goal from a corner.
Virgil van Dijk headed home Dominik Szoboszlai’s delivery after bumping aside Soungoutou Magassa and beating Tomas Soucek to the ball. It was the Liverpool captain’s second set-piece goal in three games and his team’s seventh of the year. Number eight was executed brilliantly. Mohamed Salah took a corner from the right, Van Dijk flicked on at the near post, Ekitiké cushioned the ball out to Mac Allister and he volleyed into the roof of the net via the head of Aaron Wan-Bissaka. The ball did not touch the ground from the moment it left Salah’s foot.
West Ham had had their moments before the third goal, Alisson saving well from Soucek and gratefully from Bowen after hitting a clearance straight at the visiting captain, but were facing a long old afternoon. To their credit, Nuno’s side did not concede to the inevitable. Soucek reduced the arrears early in the second half when sliding in to convert Diouf’s low cross.
Anfield was getting a little edgy after Fernandes tested Alisson from distance and Liverpool conceded possession cheaply on several occasions, but Cody Gakpo restored their three-goal cushion when his low shot struck Wan-Bissaka and deflected into the far corner.
West Ham responded once again when Bowen’s corner sailed over a crowded six-yard box and enabled Taty Castellanos to score with a free header at the back post. But a late, unfortunate own goal by Axel Disasi, who deflected a low cross from the Liverpool substitute Jeremie Frimpong beyond Hermansen, completed a punishing day for relegation-threatened West Ham. “You’re going down with Prince Andrew,” taunted the Kop.
