Bournemouth 0-4 Liverpool:
Reds win big
(December 17 2017)
Mohamed Salah struck his 14th goal of the Premier League campaign as Liverpool thrashed Bournemouth 4-0 at the Vitality Stadium to climb to fourth place.
Egypt forward Salah became the first Premier League player to reach 20 goals in all competitions this season, with Philippe Coutinho, Dejan Lovren and Roberto Firmino also on target.
Jurgen Klopp's men extended their unbeaten league run to nine games under precious little pressure, getting back to winning ways after successive draws against Everton and West Brom.
The Reds' routine win tees up a tasty Premier League encounter at Arsenal on Friday night, given Liverpool leapfrogged the Gunners in the table with three points on Sunday.
Bournemouth slipped to their sixth league match without a win, leaving Eddie Howe's side just one point off the relegation zone.
Post-match reaction
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp hailed his side's all-round performance.
"I'm really pleased about pretty much everything because the start was serious like it should be," Klopp told Sky Sports.
"We knew how Bournemouth can play if you let them - we saw in the last game against (Manchester) United, they had their moments - so we knew what can happen.
"How we defended these different situations and our tactical discipline was good.
"We scored a fantastic first goal... we could have scored more. We gave just the one chance, but that's pretty much normal; I think really well deserved and I enjoyed the performance."
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain launched a staunch defence of Philippe Coutinho's commitment to Liverpool after the match.
Interviewed on Sky Sports alongside team-mate Oxlade-Chamberlain post match, Coutinho was asked whether he wanted to stay at Liverpool until the end of the season.
"I always say the same thing - I try to enjoy the moment," Coutinho said. "I like to play football and every time when I go on the pitch I try my best."
Oxlade-Chamberlain then interrupted, adding: "He's a Liverpool player right now and he's doing really well for us.
"He's been the most professional person I've seen all season; he's been top quality from the start and every time he gives his all for the club.
"That's the most important thing right now.
"It's not fair to ask those kind of questions, I don't think, but he gives us his all every game and that's all you can ask of him."
Having been unlucky to lose 1-0 at Manchester United last time out, Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe admitted his side had been thoroughly outclassed on this occasion.
"You have to look at yourself, you can't look at the opposition," he said.
"We were flat today for whatever reason, we never got going.
"The whole game I don't think we had a good feel about us today. We didn't get our game going in a number of aspects.
"I'm surprised at what we've delivered today because we're a lot better than that. I'd back us to come back from this."