The final five minutes of this Premier League encounter were rather surreal. ‘We want 10’ sang the home supporters. They wanted to set a new Premier League record. However, Liverpool had to settle for nine, and with this 9-0 demolition job on Bournemouth, Jurgen Klopp’s team achieved a new club record win.
The Liverpool manager delivered some home truths after last Monday’s defeat at the hands of Manchester United and clearly, his players listened to every word. The mammoth amount of goalscoring started on three minutes and ended in the 85th. It was a thrashing in every sense of the word and, most importantly, saw Liverpool collect their first victory of the league campaign.
Liverpool were 4-0 ahead by the 31st minute and scored another before halftime. Nevertheless, Klopp wasn’t willing to linger around in his dugout to congratulate his players at the interval, instead opting to run down the tunnel to the dressing room from where he would urge his players to continue in a scintillatingly similar vein.
They heeded his message and the goals flowed from the first minute of the new half with another three to come as the home side performed a procession to victory. The only surprise was that Mo Salah didn’t make it onto the scoresheet.
With every goal came another head-in-hands moment for Scott Parker, the Bournemouth manager. His team have now conceded 16 goals in their last three league games — against Manchester City, Arsenal and now Liverpool — without finding the net themselves; confidence will be near rock bottom for the newly-promoted team.
Maybe Bournemouth were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, but their supporters stayed to the sorry end before making the long journey back to the south coast.
Story of the game
Sloppy starts have been too frequent an occurrence for Liverpool of late, with them conceding first in each of their past seven league matches, but from the first minute here they were in the groove. Bournemouth’s defence appeared nervy even before the first goal went in on three minutes.
Roberto Firmino, starting in place of the suspended Darwin Nunez, who was serving the second part of his three-game punishment, produced a stunning first-half display. It was his clipped cross that Luis Diaz headed home to kickstart the rout. 1-0.
Minutes later the Brazilian teed up Harvey Elliott, who struck a fizzing strike from distance which flew past Mark Travers. It was Elliott’s first Premier League goal for the club and his father seated in the main stand threw off his coat in celebration at watching his son open his Anfield account. 2-0.
That would have been the goal of the afternoon had it not been for Trent Alexander-Arnold’s fire-cracker just before half-time. Firmino completed his hat-trick of assists by playing into the Liverpool right-back and his fine right-footed shot travelled like an arrow before crashing into the top corner. 3-0.
It was then time for Firmino to score the goal his first-half performance deserved. The Brazilian converted a deflected cross to find the back of the net for his first league goal at Anfield since December 2020. 4-0.
A powerful header from Virgil van Dijk ensured this was the first time since 1958 that Liverpool have scored five in the first half of a league game. That was in the old second division. 5-0. At half-time, few could believe what they were seeing, but Klopp was demanding more.
Any thoughts of greater Bournemouth resistance at the start of the second-half evaporated within seconds as Chris Mepham deflected Alexander-Arnold’s cross past Travers. 6-0. Firmino grabbed his second of the game after an hour when he found the ball at his feet after the Bournemouth ‘keeper parried Andy Robertson’s dangerous cross. 7-0. Firmino soon left to a standing ovation for his afternoon’s work.
Salah, who missed a golden chance from no more than two yards out in the first half, spurned another opportunity when he tried to flick an effort over Travers. However, Fabio Carvalho, who had come on for Elliott at the interval, picked up the scoring in the 80th minute. Kostas Tsimikas, another substitute, found Carvalho in the area and the 19-year-old coolly volleyed home. 8-0.
By this stage, the editors of Match of the Day were most likely scrambling for more air time. Yet another goal was to arrive on 85 minutes. Tsimikas sent in his second well-placed delivery and it was dispatched by Diaz who headed home. 9-0. The tenth, however, wouldn’t come.
Teams
Liverpool: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold (Clark 83), Gomez, van Dijk, Robertson (Tsimikas 69); Elliott (Carvalho 46), Fabinho, Henderson (Bajcetic 70); Salah, Firmino (Milner 69), Diaz.
Subs (not used): Adrian, Davies, Phillips, van den Berg.
Bournemouth: Travers; Smith (Solanke 46), Mepham (Bevan 82), Senesi, Zemura; Cook (Pearson 77 (Marcondes 82)), Lerma, Anthony, Christie (Billing 46), Tavernier; Moore.
Subs (not used): Neto, Hill, Stacey, Haydee.
Referee: Stuart Attwell.