A clinical Liverpool performance helped them beat battling West Ham in the Premier League and move level on points with fourth-placed Manchester United.

The hosts were 3-0 up at the break thanks to goals from Hugo Ekitike, Virgil van Dijk and Alexis Mac Allister.

West Ham pulled one back early in the second half through Tomas Soucek before Cody Gakpo restored Liverpool’s three-goal lead in the 70th minute.

Nuno Espirito Santo’s side scored again through Taty Castellanos, but an Axel Disasi own goal ensured Liverpool hit five goals in a league game for the first time this season.

All three of the Reds’ first-half goals came from set-pieces – with Arne Slot’s side now leading the table in 2026 when it comes to goals from set-plays (excluding penalties)

In the fifth minute, Ryan Gravenberch teed up Ekitike, who finished smartly to beat Mads Hermansen at the near post for his 16th goal of the season.

West Ham threatened to equalise, but against the run of play Liverpool doubled their advantage when Van Dijk headed in Dominik Szoboszlai’s corner.

The visitors failed to take advantage of Liverpool’s complacency with Konstantinos Mavropanos, Jarrod Bowen and Soucek all wasting chances.

And just before half-time, Mac Allister’s superb volley took a deflection and ended in the back of the net. That was the cue for sections of the travelling support to head for the exits.

From there, Liverpool should have put the game to bed – but they struggled to exert control on proceedings.

West Ham gave themselves a lifeline early in the second half when Soucek got on the end of a delightful delivery from El Hadji Malick Diouf.

Gakpo then made up for missing a sitter when his deflected effort left Hermansen with no chance, to calm the nerves inside Anfield.

Castellanos scored West Ham’s second to give the visitors hope again, but Jeremie Frimpong’s cross was deflected in by Disasi to complete the scoring.

Liverpool move above Chelsea – who play leaders Arsenal on Sunday – into fifth, while West Ham remain 18th, two points behind Nottingham Forest.

Slot happy to be on right side of ‘important’ set-pieces

Perhaps the most impressive aspect from a Liverpool perspective was the fact they virtually put this game to bed in the first half. That has been a rarity this season.

Though they did make it hard from themselves, losing the ball carelessly on a number of occasions, there can be few complaints when you score five in a game.

Liverpool were far from brilliant – but Slot’s men were clinical and, for the first time this season, they scored three goals in the first half of a league game.

Before this game, you had to go back to 13 December for the last time Liverpool scored a goal before the 41st minute in a league game at Anfield.

But they were 2-0 up after 24 minutes on Saturday – and ended up scoring five in a Premier League match for the first time since they beat Tottenham in April to clinch the title last season.

Four of the five goals involved some kind of deflection, but they all count the same.

In terms of goals from set-pieces (excluding penalties), Liverpool were joint-bottom between the start of the season and 31 December.

But in 2026 they are leading the league – with eight set-piece goals so far this year.

Slot will also have been encouraged to see Joe Gomez start at right-back and the return of Frimpong from injury, but Mohamed Salah remains without a league goal in his past 10 games.

‘A lot of positives’ despite ‘frustrating’ loss – Nuno

West Ham will travel back to London and wonder how this game ended 5-2. For what it is worth, the final xG tally was 1.75 for Liverpool and 1.84 for the Hammers.

Nuno’s side played well in phases, but simply did not win the key moments – and it is hard to have many excuses when you concede five goals.

But West Ham, who were unbeaten in February until this defeat, will take some solace from the fact they gave Liverpool a much better game than the scoreline suggested.

Nuno suggested as much in his post-match comments, saying: “It is hard to explain, maybe it is absurd to say it is a good performance when you lose 5-2.

“But there are a lot of positives, a lot of negatives too… we really made mistakes from set-pieces.

“Saying it is a good performance maybe sounds really silly, but it is what I saw. But we go home with a poor result.”

In a week where the Hammers confirmed they will need to sell players this summer even if they avoid relegation, after revealing a £104.2m loss for the last financial year, this was ultimately a damaging defeat.

And the sight of some travelling supporters heading for the exits before half-time summed up the bleakness of their situation. West Ham are in serious danger of going down – but there is still time to turn things around.

What’s next for both teams?

Liverpool travel to Wolves on Tuesday (20:15 GMT) while West Ham visit Fulham on Wednesday (19:30). (BBC)