Michael Owen has claimed that Liverpool were helped against Bournemouth due to the fact that Mo Salah failed to find the back of the net.
The Egyptian King missed a couple of huge opportunities to score his third Premier League goal of the season and the Cherries can take some sort of consolation from the fact that they kept the Reds’ No. 11 quiet despite being thrashed 9-0.
Owen believes that because Salah hadn’t found the back of the net Jurgen Klopp’s side continued to work hard and create opportunities all afternoon.
“Going a couple of goals ahead in the first minutes was the perfect start,” Owen said on PL Productions (via The Boot Room).
“And then when you’ve got certain players – there’s certain teams when they score a few you think they’ll ease off now – but when you’ve got people like Mo Salah that still hadn’t got on the scoresheet and didn’t all game, you think ‘you know what, they’re going to keep going here’, because they’re all hungry for goals, and you just knew it was going to be a big score.”
Trent Alexander-Arnold arguably scored the best goal of the lot but Harvey Elliott scored his first ever Premier League goal with an absolute rasper of a finish.
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Luis Diaz looked as sharp as ever and both opened and closed the scoring with two powerful headers.
Despite Salah not registering a goal or an assist, the Egyptian still threw in an impressive showing and his movement and intelligence helped create chances for those around him.
Bobby Firmino also deserves praise after scoring two and creating another three on what was a dismal afternoon for Bournemouth on Merseyside.
We now turn our attention to the visit of Newcastle to Anfield on Wednesday in what will be a difficult clash with Eddie Howe’s undefeated side.