It wasn’t the prettiest win Anfield has ever seen before, but it was vital, meaning the Reds need just three more win to be crowned the Premier League champions.
It also marked Liverpool’s 22nd consecutive win at home, setting a new top-flight record, beating the previous record set by Bill Shankly’s Liverpool side in 1971.
Story of the match
A nervous opening 10 minutes from the home side saw them fall behind to a Callum Wilson goal, stunning Anfield as fears over a slump grew.
After being played through, he seemed to push the tracking defender, Joe Gomez, in the back, but the referee deemed it a fair challenge. Bournemouth carried on the attack, nicely working the ball out wide before crossing the ball into the box for Wilson to finish off the move.
Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp were furious with the decision, incensed after VAR looked at the push and decided against disallowing the goal.
However, The Cherries were victims of their own downfall, gifting Liverpool two relatively easy goals.
The first came in the 25th minute, through Mohamed Salah. Substitute defender Jack Simpson cheaply gave the ball to Sadio Mane, whose pass to Salah was behind him. However, the Egyptian forward was able to create a yard of space to the onrushing defenders and stroked the ball into the near corner.
Mane turned from provider to goal scorer with Liverpool’s second coming in the 33rd minute. Bournemouth tried to start a counter attack but lost the ball on the halfway line, before Virgil Van Dijk played a simple through ball to Mane who calmly slotted the ball past Aaron Ramsdale.
Neither team made a real impact in the second half, with the home side allowing the game to drift. James Milner was forced to hook the ball off the line after Ryan Fraser lobbed Adrian. Roberto Firmino had a chance to get Liverpool’s third but his shot went over the bar.
Getting back to winning ways
It was nice to see the Reds get back to winning ways after three defeats in their last four games prior to this fixture. However, the performance will worry some fans, with Atletico Madrid coming to Anfield on Wednesday night defending a one-goal lead.
Bournemouth are currently 18th in the Premier League, have the tied second most defeats in the Premier League and were still able to cause Liverpool some real problems.
They used the pace and strength of Wilson to get in behind and created a number of good chances, as well as leading in the game. Had it not been for their defensive frailties, which have shown all season, Eddie Howe’s team could have posed very hard to beat.
Looking forward to Wednesday night, Atletico will play in a similar manner, and will force Liverpool to be better than what they were. Should they not rise to the challenge, their progress in the Champions League will be a real struggle.
Going forward, their were a number of times were Liverpool struggled to create a goal-scoring opportunity, leading to them hopefully crossing the ball to no effect. Firmino is still looking for his first home goal this season and once again looked absent from the game.
Salah scored his 20thgoal of the season and again looked in good form. He linked up well with Mane and continued his good goal scoring form. The ‘Egyptian King’ has been very under-appreciated this season. If there is to be a hero on Wednesday night, it will more than likely be Salah.
Defensively, Liverpool looked nervous at times. Adrian, who played in goal today for the injured Alisson and will again on Wednesday, made a couple of rash decisions and created a nervous atmosphere around Anfield when making saves. This is something that Anfield has seen all too often with previous goalkeepers.