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Liverpool 3 - 0 West Brom
Ed Colenutt, November 8th 2008
Robbie Keane scored his first league goals for the club as
Liverpool returned to the top of the table with a comfortable 3-0 victory over West Bromwich Albion at Anfield.
Following a minutes silence to mark Remembrance Sunday, which was impeccably observed, Anfield erupted into a wall of noise, and both sides looked up for it with the game starting at a good pace. It was the visitors who had the first glimpse of goal when Ishmael Miller was put through in the opening minutes, but that chance aside Liverpool contained the Baggies in the early exchanges as they searched to carve out a chance of their own.
The first chance for the Reds came on 13 minutes, Albert Riera flying down the left wing before playing Dirk Kuyt through with an extravagant back-heel. Kuyt spread the ball out to Yossi Benayoun on the right, who crossed for Keane but the Irishman could only direct his shot straight into the arms of Scott Carson.
Minutes later West Brom had a chance to take the lead themselves after Borja Valero got a head start on Jamie Carragher, but the resulting shot ended up going harmlessly wide of Pepe Reina’s goal.
That was about it in terms of attacking play from the visitors for the first half, as Liverpool seized control of the game and went on the offensive.
Benayoun had a good opportunity to open the scoring, going on a mazy run down the right before cutting inside and shooting. The resulting shot was a poor one though, and it rolled wide without ever really worrying Carson.
Kuyt was next to come close, but the Dutchman was well dealt with by the West Brom defence and was unable to get on the end of Fabio Aurelio’s cross after Keane had done well to find him in space down the left.
And there were shouts for a penalty when Benayoun’s shot was deflected off the arm of Jonas Olsson. The referee waved play on but replays showed the decision to be incorrect.
Credit to the visitors, they didn’t come here for the draw and whilst they were pegged back for much of the first half they did try to get men forward when possible, but with so many chances coming their way it seemed only a matter of time before Liverpool broke the deadlock.
The breakthrough came on 34 minutes when Riera found Aurelio on the left flank. The Brazilian passed to Steven Gerrard on the edge of the penalty area, who played a defence splitting ball to find Keane in space and bearing down on goal. The striker made no mistake with his finish, a neat dink over the advancing Carson to open his Premier League account with his new club.
It may have taken Keane 12 games to score his first league goal, but the second was a little quicker in arriving, as the Irishman doubled the home lead nine minutes later.
Aurelio was again in the thick of things as he played in Keane, who beat both the offside trap and the keeper before firing home from a narrow angle into the empty net.
Going into the break with a lead, a rare occurrence for the Reds these days, Liverpool were able to take their foot off the gas a little, and the second half didn’t kick off at quite the same pace as the first, nothing of note happening until the 52nd minute when Valero took a pot shot at Reina’s goal, which the keeper dealt with comfortably.
This seemed to kick the game back into life though, and a period of end to end play followed, Benayoun going close soon after followed almost immediately by a chance for Robert Koren at the other end.
Liverpool were possibly guilty of trying too hard to set Keane up for his hat-trick, on a couple of occasions the ball found it’s way to the Irishman when a colleague may have been better placed.
Despite this Keane did come close to netting a third though, first being ruled offside twice on 59 minutes before almost getting the better of last defender Ryan Donk, but he was pushed too wide and unable to fire off a decent shot.
With West Brom putting up an admirable defence but barely able to get out of their own half, Benitez decided to turn the screw further with the introduction of Ryan Babel, on for Riera after 67 minutes. The Dutchman's fresh legs gave Tony Mowbray's men a new problem to deal with down the left for the remainder of the game, and ensured the visitors continued to be pegged back.
Next up was the welcome return of Fernando Torres, who was brought on to a standing ovation on 72 minutes, though much of that applause was probably directed at goal hero Keane, leaving the pitch to be replaced by the Spaniard. If there was any rustiness from his absence it wasn’t clear to see, and the striker saw a stinging shot saved by Carson seven minutes later.
With the game deep into injury time it seemed only Keane’s goals would be the difference between the two sides, but Alvaro Arbeloa made extra sure of the three points with a curling effort into the top corner. The right back stayed forward when the Reds had a throw in the final third, and was perfectly placed to score only the second goal of his Anfield career.
Seconds after the restart the referee blew for full time, rounding off a good day at the office for Liverpool.
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