Yes, We Know, 3-0 Against West Ham, We Shouldn't Get Carried Away...

Maxi celebrates after his header...

Liverpool showed signs of an amicable performance yesterday after they beat West Ham in a comfortable 3-0. Of course, we shouldn't get up on our high horses though due to the Hammers' current form and table position, even if we'd of won this one by a cricket score nobody was ever going to dish out the compliments and rightly so.

Despite this it's always a nice feeling to watch the boys win. A good first 45minutes was perhaps cancelled out by a slower second half but as so many people have said, we'd rather have a slow second half than a slow first.

Roy had to make changes to the side with the injury to Steven Gerrard and suspension of Lucas Leiva causing him the most selection troubles. Ironically the lack of two of our top performers meant that Hodgson was pretty much forced into playing Raul Meireles in his correct position of centre midfield.

It was clear straight away that the lad was more comfortable here and i just hope Roy picked up on the differences in his performances both in and out of his favoured position.

Poulsen was the other adjustment to the midfield and although he didn't play bad at all to be fair to him (he even had a great attempt at goal, who knew he could attack???) i still stand by my judgement of him not being good enough to start for the Reds. Nevertheless he played well against West Ham so fair does.

Glen Johnson included in defence was first to get the Reds off the mark. Some sloppy and downright poor defending from the Londoners meant Johnson was allowed enough space to chest the ball from the incoming corner down and line up his shot which went straight past Green and their man on the post.

Showing remnants of a strikers goal this once again backed up Glen's extra attributes in the attacking portion of his game. Thankfully though proving some of his critics wrong he was back in defence directly afterwards glancing away a dangerous ball that would have reached a West Ham player had he of not interfered. A nice game overall for Johnson.

Liverpool's second goal came just ten minutes later. Within the interval between the two goals West Ham were reluctant to change things it appeared, allowing Liverpool all the freedom they liked it seemed Avram Grant hadn't set up his side with the "let's have a pop at them at Anfield" attitude.

To be perfectly honest i think that's the only way teams like West Ham can ever do us over at home, they may as well set up like that and lose 7-0 rather than allow the Reds to walk all over them. Some of their defending was abysmal and their sense of urgency to get to the ball? Well where was it?

Dirk Kuyt was the man to put the boys 2-0 up from a spot kick after Fernando Torres helped cause panic and confusion in the box resulting in Gabbidon hand balling for the away side.

Kuyt finished straight down the middle and a quick thumbs up to Steven Gerrard in the stands showed he'd been paying attention to the man we usually see line up for the peno's.

By now we were looking like we could score 4 or even 5 and sure enough 5minutes before half time the Reds found themselves with a third.

Maxi Rodriguez with a superb header from a way out had everyone with mouths agape. A lovely finish from the winger and Anfield began to ring out the Argentine's song to the tune of Heartbeat.

3-0 and we were laughing, yes we know "It's only West Ham" blah blah blah. Don't you wish commentators would just let you enjoy it sometimes? More to the point, we were well up for this, at half time it seemed like we still had more goals in us!

Second half however ended up being a total opposite of the first. We had some chances and were moving the ball around the field well. Torres was still looking pretty lively and West Ham were still looking poor but the pace had slowed and the desire.

Just after 70minutes Ngog went off and on came Fabio Aurelio, a pleasing sight for all Liverpool fans who have missed his ingenuity no doubt. He went on to have one of his power shots but unfortunately saw his attempt go over the bar.

Shelvey also made an appearance as did Ryan Babel but none of the three subs could add and extra goal to yesterday's tally. The Hammers failed to get on the score sheet and Reina in fairness had little to do.

We can take some positives from this of course we can but with Spurs away up next prepare for a dose of "Reality Check" and a spoonful of "Gareth Bale".