Tame West Ham are no real match for easy-street league leaders Liverpool
West Ham United (0) 0
Liverpool (3) 5 Diaz 30, Gakpo 40, Salah 45, Alexander-Arnold 54, Jota 84
For Hammers, this was an all-too familiar feeling.
A few weeks ago, Arsenal's first-half blitz strangled their hopes before they could really get going. This time, Liverpool were the ones leaving the Irons' defence in a heap of rubble.
Julen Lopetegui, never less then lugubrious-looking, had every reason to keep looking disenchanted.
His team have lost at home five times already this season in the Premier League and it is just as well the promoted clubs are doing their best to nail down the relegation slots.
Alphonse Areola was soon being called into action - keeping out a Mo Salah effort, then denying Cutis Jones and Luis Diaz, as the league leaders quickly found their grove.
It was the Colombian who finally beat Areola - a dart into the box followed by a lucky deflection of a pass back into his path off Vladimir Coufal left the striker with an unopposed target and he made no mistake.
The Hammers almost got back on level terms when Mo Kudus took the ball on from Lucas Paqueta and sent in a low shot that beat Alisson's left hand and rolled back across goal off the inside of a post.
But in the next instant, it was 2-0 when Alexis Mac Allister's dink forward down the right left the Hammers exposed and Luis and Salah combined before Cody Gakpo slammed in a ball that ran away from a tackled Salah.
Spaces were now opening up alarmingly and when Carlos Soler lost possession in a dangerous area, Mac Allister's pass found Salah with plenty of room and time to fire past Areola's left hand.
There was no reason to believe things might improve with a half-time rejig as Niclas Fullkrug and Jean-Clair Todibo came on for Coufal and Edson Alvarez and it wasn't long before Trent Alexander-Arnold inflicted more pain - his shot from outside the area deflecting off Max Kilman for goal number four.
Kudus headed against the bar during the going-though-the-motions phase towards the end and Salah blazed over when he had a chance to make it five but the Egyptian wasn't finished yet, making a brilliant run from halfway before slipping in sub Diogo Jota for the final nail in a coffin that was already having earth shovelled over it.
Unsurprisingly, the game played out to emptying stands and near silence from Irons fans.
Hammers: (4-2-3-1): Areola - Coufal (Todibo h/t), Mavropanos, Kilman, Wan-Bissaka - Paqueta, Alvarez (Fillkrug h/t) - Kudus (Guilherme 81), Soler (Irving 73), Emerson - Bowen (Summerville 60)
Reds: (4-2-3-1) Alisson, Alexander-Arnold, Gomez (Quansah 37), van Dijk, Robertson (Tsimikas 73) - Gravenberch (Endo 58), Mac Allister - Salah, Jones (Elliott 74), Gakpo (Jota 58) - Diaz
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