LONDON STADIUM, EAST LONDON // Liverpool moved into eighth place in the Premier League and got back on track after a dire spell with a much more solid showing against West Ham United.
Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz both could have scored in the first half, but the first 45 minutes ended goalless. And it was the Swede who broke the deadlock when he finished well after being teed up by Cody Gakpo.
Lucas Paqueta was sent off for a bizarre double yellow card in the space of a couple of minutes and then Gakpo netted a second. Here are the four things Liverpool.com spotted as the game unfolded.
Mohamed Salah calls pays off
It was, clearly, a big call to take Mohamed Salah out of the starting XI, even if Arne Slot said pre-match that the Egyptian had played a lot of minutes lately and was therefore rotated rather than dropped.
Leaving him on the sidelines, though, and going with the fit-again Florian Wirtz as a number 10, with Dominik Szoboszlai on the right, was a big decision.
Slot knew, as much as his options were limited, that dropping Salah, and playing the likes of Milos Kerkez and Ibrahima Konate was a bold call — one that would have backfired had it not paid off.
For a while, though he didn't have a choice but to play Isak given Hugo Ekitike was injured midweek and unable to start, it looked like Liverpool was to be frustrated. Going in front through the former Newcastle man, the plan worked.
There is no question that Liverpool looked more balanced in attack here, even if Isak and Ekitike still didn't play alongside each other. Keeping Salah out of the team for a second successive game, though, would be an even bigger call, even if the evidence says it might be the right one.
Liverpool head coach Arne Slot.
Liverpool head coach Arne Slot. (Image: MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Joe Gomez impresses
The clamor for Joe Gomez to come into the Liverpool starting team has been growing for some time, and understandably so.
This was his first league start at full-back under the management of Arne Slot and his first Premier League start of any kind since he limped off at the London Stadium last season.
Playing a solid role at right-back, though, this is not the end of the debate about who should play there. Gomez is not fit enough to play this game, and then Sunderland and Leeds in the next two, as well as he performed.
The big question now is how often he can play without going into the red zone and risking injury.
Midfield improves
Midweek, Alexis Mac Allister and Ryan Gravenberch were terrible and left gaps that were far too open against PSV. The Liverpool team, on that occasion, simply looked like it was incapable of defending as a unit, as it was cut through with ease.
While neither was particularly brilliant here, Mac Allister and Gravenberch were at least pretty solid. That was simply a must for Arne Slot.
It was a good sign that even with Wirtz back in the starting XI, Liverpool could still look difficult to play through, even if Lucas Paqueta did get some joy at times. It wasn't perfect, but it was a step forward, at least; something to build on.
Premier League table
Liverpool knew not only that it needed to find a way of improving drastically from the midweek disappointment in the Champions League, but that it could also move up to eighth with a win. The mood around the club, no doubt, will be helped by that.
It remains to be seen whether or not the Reds can back this up with more good steps in the right direction against Sunderland and Leeds, but that would have felt much tougher had this result not happened.
Arne Slot needed a morale-lifting performance as well as the three points. Relative to the current circumstances, it would be fair to say he got it, even if there remains more work to be done in the coming weeks.