Liverpool Vs West Ham: Liverpool’s five-star display heaps more pressure on wobbling West Ham
liverpool vs west ham finished 5-2 at Anfield on 28 Feb, 2026, a result that sharpened the contrast between the clubs on the balance sheet, the team sheet and the score sheet. The win underlined Liverpool’s set-piece surge and left West Ham facing growing concern about survival and finances.
Commanding first-half performance
The game was effectively over by half-time. Hugo Ekitiké opened the scoring after El Hadji Malick Diouf had cleared the first corner; Ryan Gravenberch returned a fine ball and the France international, left unmarked on the left of the penalty area, took the shot early. Ekitiké’s effort took a slight deflection off Konstantinos Mavropanos and found Mads Hermansen’s bottom corner. It took Liverpool just five minutes to make the breakthrough after their added-time winner at Nottingham Forest last weekend.
Virgil van Dijk then headed home Dominik Szoboszlai’s inswinging delivery after bumping aside Soungoutou Magassa and beating Tomáš Souček to the ball. The captain’s header was described as his second set-piece goal in three games and his team’s seventh of the year; another account recorded it as his third in eight games and his fifth of the campaign.
The third Liverpool goal — Alexis Mac Allister’s brilliant volley in the 43rd minute — was the third Liverpool goal to originate from a corner in the first half, the culmination of Mohamed Salah’s corner, a Van Dijk flick, Ekitiké’s cushioned pass and Mac Allister’s volley that left the ball in the roof of the net the head of Aaron Wan-Bissaka without touching the ground.
Liverpool Vs West Ham recap
Those three first-half corners made Liverpool only the second team in the competition’s history, after Manchester United in 2016, to score three first-half goals from corners. Ekitiké’s finish was his 16th goal of the season and 11th in the league. West Ham twice failed to clear a corner in the opening period and were criticised for being slow and weak defensively as Liverpool’s set-piece total for the calendar year reached eight.
Second-half swings and errors
West Ham responded early in the second half. Tomáš Souček slid in to convert Malick Diouf’s low cross and reduce the arrears four minutes after the break. A series of errors followed: Crysencio Summerville even tackled one of his own players as he tried to shoot; Alisson passed the ball straight to Jarrod Bowen and had to pounce on the rebound; Gravenberch made a similar mistake when the winger's touch took him too wide, though Alisson saved at his near post from Souček.
Cody Gakpo scored his first league goal in eight matches, cutting in on the angle and shooting inside the far post. Axel Disasi turned in Jérémy Frimpong’s cross after Tomáš Souček and Taty Castellanos had earlier made things a little less comfortable, and although Castellanos raised the visitors’ hopes with 15 minutes to go, Disasi’s own goal ultimately ended them and left the final score 5-2.
Line-up and subs
Joe Gomez returned to the starting line-up for Liverpool at Anfield, replacing Curtis Jones in the only alteration from the team that played at Nottingham Forest. The Liverpool starting XI read: Alisson, Gomez, Van Dijk, Konaté, Kerkez, Szoboszlai, Mac Allister, Salah, Gakpo, Ekitiké, Gravenberch. Subs named were Mamardashvili, Woodman, Chiesa, Jones, Robertson, Frimpong, Nyoni, Ramsay and Ngumoha.
Off-field contrasts and consequences
The contrasting strengths of Liverpool and West Ham were visible beyond the scoreboard. In the week of the match Liverpool announced record overall revenue of £703m in their latest accounts, most of it ploughed back into the bank balances of a title-winning team. By contrast, West Ham warned they will have to sell players this summer whether they avoid relegation or not, having suffered a £104. 2m loss in the same financial year. Nuno Espírito Santo’s side impressed in flashes at Anfield but their prospects of staying up were described as increasingly slim.
At the turn of the year Arne Slot’s side had the worst record in terms of set-piece balance, a problem that led to the departure of set-piece coach Aaron Briggs in December. Since New Year’s Day they have scored nine and conceded three, a run described as the best form of any top-flight team in that period, and the transformation has helped maintain Liverpool’s bid for Champions League qualification. West Ham have now won just once in 59 visits to Anfield.
For West Ham, the result intensified pressure on the squad and the manager; for Liverpool it was another emphatic demonstration of a newly honed strength from set plays and a boost in a season where marginal differences are decisive.
