Photo by Michael Steele/Getty Images
Liverpool play through a routine victory at Vitality Stadium against AFC Bournemouth.
Bournemouth 0 – 3 Liverpool
Liverpool: Oxlade-Chamberlain 35’, Keïta 44’, Salah 54’
Pre-Match
Mané, Alexander-Arnold, and Wijnaldum get the call to sit out this one as Liverpool travel to Vitality Stadium to take on Bournemouth. The much-awaited return of Naby Keïta will have fans excited. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain also gets the start. He’s been on fire recently, so hopefully he could get a first Premier League goal in this match. Curtis Jones and Harvey Elliot make the bench, so let’s see if they can get any playing time in the second half.
First Half
As expected, Bournemouth begin the game on the defensive, ceding the ball to Liverpool at any opportunity. Without Mané in the team, though, they seem a bit toothless in attack.
Mo Salah has been involved a lot, but so far hasn’t been able to make an impact on the game. Luckily, Bournemouth haven’t had any significant opportunities either. The defense hasn’t allowed them any fast break opportunities and quickly stifled every burgeoning attack.
Oof, Aké goes down after a sprint down the pitch, and that’s a huge loss for Bournemouth. Sad for Aké, but that pretty much confirms that Liverpool will score after almost half an hour of deadlock between the teams.
GOALLLLL!! 34’ – Oxlade-Chamberlain – As predicted, Liverpool quickly take advantage of Bournemouth with a quick, incisive pass from Henderson that made its way right onto Oxlade-Chamberlain’s outstretched toe for a tap-in. The Reds finally have their first goal, and it’s great to see Oxlade-Chamberlain’s name on the score sheet.
It’s a little worrying that Dejan Lovren gets yanked at the 40 minute mark, replaced by Trent Alexander-Arnold. Joe Gomez should move into the open centre-back position to finish out the game. Lovren didn’t look to be struggling, so hopefully this is precautionary measure on Klopp’s part, because Liverpool are not exactly swimming with healthy centre-backs at the moment.
GOALLLLL! 44’ – Keïta – Mo Salah delivers a delicious backheel that finds the onrushing Naby Keïta, who skillfully slots it home. Keïta was kept onside by Billing, just hanging out five yards ahead of the rest of his defenders. It was an absolutely gorgeous goal from start to finish, and Liverpool have doubled their advantage just before the break.
Second Half
The second half restarts with no further changes to either team. Bournemouth seem to have began with more endeavor and they look to avoid conceding anymore goals.
GOALLLL!!! 54’ – Salah – Well, that didn’t take long. This time, Keita returns the favor for Salah, feeding him in for the third goal of the match. They’re just having fun out there now. It’ll be interesting to see if the Reds can keep a clean sheet here.
More bad news for Bournemouth as Callum Wilson also goes down clutching his hamstring. Eddie Howe is forced into his final substitution with 30 minutes to go.
Curtis Jones is looking to take a victory lap for the last 20 minutes of this game. He’ll come on for Andy Robertson.
It’s all Liverpool as the game winds down. Bournemouth seem to have completely given up the pretense of scoring. It just remains to be seen if Liverpool can find a way to score another.
Shaqiri is coming on for Liverpool’s last change of the match. Oxlade-Chamberlain will make way for him to finish out the last five or so minutes.
Final Thoughts
That was the kind of casual stroll of a game that Liverpool could use in the midst of this insane month of matches. Nice to see several players get a break, and Curtis Jones get his debut. That’s three more points to add to the tally, and much-needed clean sheet to go along with it.
