Liverpool 4-0 Wolves: Jurgen Klopp's side move level on points with Tottenham at the top of table

Report as Liverpool extend their unbeaten home record to 65 games; Klopp's side brush aside Wolves in front of 2,000 supporters; Goals from Salah, Wijnaldum, Matip and Semedo's own goal seal emphatic win; They move level on points with Spurs at top of table; Defeat leaves Wolves 10th

Monday 7 December 2020 06:05, UK

Liverpool moved level on points with Tottenham at the top of the Premier League as they put on a show at Anfield for their returning supporters with a 4-0 victory over Wolves.

The lucky fans in the ground on Sunday evening were seeing the champions play in the flesh for the first time since their Premier League title win in June, and they weren't disappointed.

Mohamed Salah pounced on Conor Coady's error to open the scoring in the first half before goals from Georginio Wijnaldum (58), Joel Matip (67) and a Nelson Semedo own goal sealed the emphatic victory and extended their unbeaten league home record to 65 games.

The three points see Liverpool, who handed a Premier League debut to goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher in the absence of Alisson Becker, move back up to second in the table, level on 24 points with Spurs, who beat north London rivals Arsenal earlier in the day.

Meanwhile, Wolves stay 10th after suffering a fourth league defeat of the season.

How the teams lined up | Match stats
Premier League table | Fixtures | Results
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The fans return to Anfield...

How Liverpool celebrated the return of their fans...

With the Kop having 1,500 fans and 500 in the Main Stand, the atmosphere was good at Anfield.

There was warm applause for Kelleher early on as he showed good footwork to get to and claw away Daniel Podence's clever chip from the edge of the penalty area.

However, the biggest cheer of the half was reserved for Salah's 24th-minute opener.

Former Liverpool academy graduate Conor Coady made a mess of trying to control Jordan Henderson's long ball forward and Salah pounced, nipping in to win the ball and fire home his first goal in four matches.

Coady, who had a rare off night, was involved in the action at the other end too after going down in the penalty area after Sadio Mane's attempted overhead clearance. Referee Craig Pawson initially awarded a penalty but after being told to look at the pitchside monitor by VAR Jon Moss, he quickly reversed his decision after seeing no contact between Mane and Coady.

Liverpool upped the tempo after the break and a second goal wasn't long in coming.

Team news

Caoimhin Kelleher made his Premier League debut for Liverpool for the visit of Wolves just five days after making his first European start. In the continued absence of Alisson Becker, the Republic of Ireland U21 international was again preferred to long-time second-choice Adrian, with the only change from Tuesday's win over Ajax being Roberto Firmino replacing Diogo Jota, who missed out against the club he left in September.
Wolves also made one enforced change from last Sunday's win over Arsenal, with Ruben Neves coming in for Raul Jimenez, who is recovering from a fractured skull.

Henderson was again the provider, launching a quick counter-attack with a long pass to pick out Wijnaldum, who curled a shot beyond the dive of Rui Patricio and into the top left corner.

Matip then added a third, emphatically heading home Salah's cross four yards out before Semedo got the final touch as Mane looked to bundle in substitute Trent Alexander-Arnold's cross to round off a perfect evening for Liverpool.

What the managers said...

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp: "Wasn't it the perfect night? Imagine 10 months ago people would have told us we would have a game and 2,000 people would turn up. When we came out we all had goosebumps. I had no idea how it would feel. It was perfect. The noise, what the people did, they were on their toes you could see and feel and smell. They had waited so long for it. It is so much more enjoyable with people involved."

Wolves boss Nuno Espirito Santo: "It was definitely a tough night. We could have done many, many things different - before the game, during the game... We didn't have enough of the ball. We didn't deal well with the pressing of Liverpool. We were organised until the moment of the first goal. We had a poor second half. I didn't see the images of the penalty decision."

Man of the match - Mohamed Salah

Salah has scored 52 Premier League goals at Anfield for Liverpool - only Lionel Messi at the Camp Nou (63) and Robert Lewandowski at the Allianz Arena (59) have more at a single venue in the big-five European leagues since the Egyptian joined the Reds in 2017.

It was also the 17th time Mo Salah has both scored and assisted a goal in the same Premier League game for Liverpool; since 2017-18, this is five more times than any other player in the competition (Heung-min Son, 12).

Opta stats - Liverpool extend amazing home record

Liverpool have won 31 of their last 32 home league games (D1), scoring 93 goals while conceding just 25 in this time.
Since Liverpool's first match after Virgil van Dijk's injury against Everton (Ajax in October), the Reds have conceded just six goals in 11 games in all competitions, keeping six clean sheets in the process.
At 22 years and 13 days, Caoimhin Kelleher became the third youngest Liverpool goalkeeper to keep a Premier League clean sheet, after Scott Carson (19y 211d) and Chris Kirkland (21y 234d), and youngest to do so on his first such start for the Reds.
Wolves have lost eight consecutive league meetings with Liverpool, conceding 19 goals and scoring just twice in this run.
In his 87 Premier League appearances, Wolves' former Liverpool player Conor Coady has only made three errors directly leading to a goal; two of those have come on Merseyside (v Everton at Goodison in September 2019 and today v Liverpool at Anfield).

What's next?

Wolves host Aston Villa in the Premier League next Saturday at 12.30pm.

Liverpool ravel to FC Midtjylland for their final Champions League group-stage match on Wednesday at 5.55pm, before travelling to Fulham on Super Sunday at 4.30pm - live on Sky Sports Premier League.