Liverpool get over tough start to the Premier League by battering Bournemouth
Liverpool equalled a Premier League record held by Manchester United and Leicester City, by absolutely obliterating Bournemouth 9-0 on Saturday afternoon.
It had not been a good start to the league for Liverpool, after drawing their first two games of the season, and the loss to United last Monday left them in 15th place.
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However, the weekend was an opportunity for them to start turning things around, and how Jurgen Klopp's team took it, in the biggest way possible.
The Anfield didn't exactly 'welcome' Bournemouth to Merseyside, instead treating them with the disdain of an unwanted house guest.
It took the hosts just three minutes to take the lead, through Luis Diaz, before Harvey Elliott doubled the lead before the 10 minute mark.
Mohamed Salah should have made it 3-0, but put forward his attempt at miss of the season, but they didn't have to wait long for more goals to flow.
Trent Alexander-Arnold, Roberto Firmino and Virgil van Dijk all scored before half time to give the Champions League runners up a five goal lead at the break.
If Scott Parker was hoping that half time would give him the chance to inspire the Cherries into some sort of fightback, his hopes were soon killed off.
Just 57 seconds after the restart Alexander-Arnold crossed the ball into the box and, with Diaz pressuring him, Chris Mepham turned the ball into his own net.
VAR did give the goal a look to see if there was an offside in the build up but, unfortunately for Mepham, there was nothing to overturn it.
Liverpool's biggest win at home in the Premier League had been the 7-1 against Southampton in 1999 and they'd beaten Crystal Palace away in 2020.
Firmino got his second of the game, to go with three assists, in the 62nd minute, knocking the ball from close range, to tie that record win over Palace.
Klopp's side then went a whole 18 minutes without scoring again, but Fabio Carvalho then scored his first goal for the club in the 80th minute to bring up their biggest win in the league.
With five minutes to go, Diaz bagged his second of the game to put the Reds level with United and Leicester with the biggest wins in the league's history, at 9-0.
Their nine goals also mean that only Manchester City have scored as many as them so far this season, boosting their tally to 13 already.
City had a big win themselves, in a very different way, having gone 2-0 down to Crystal Palace, Erling Haaland's hat-trick earned them a 4-2 win.
Topics: Liverpool, Premier League, Bournemouth
Ryan Sidle