Liverpool routed Swansea City, 4-1, on Monday and in doing so looked more like the Reds of old (think, 2013-14 season) than the toothless side that struggled its way to a mid-table start to the 2014-15 season.
Adam Lallana bagged himself a second-half brace, while Alberto Moreno, Gylfi Sigurdsson and Jonjo Shelvey all found the back of the net or one team or the other.
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Lallana had two chances to put Liverpool ahead in the 18th minute but hit his first effort straight into the chest of goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski and blazed the rebounded effort well over the bar.
Liverpool finally broke through when Moreno finished a well-worked bit of Reds build-up play in the 33rd minute. Jordan Henderson scuffed his cross from the right side, but the ball’s bounce evaded a defender at the near post and found an unmarked Moreno three yards out from an open goal.
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It was Lallana who doubled Liverpool’s lead with one of the flukiest goals you’re likely to see this year, in the 51st minute. Fabianski took too much time on the ball near the top of his penalty area. As Lallana closed him down, Fabianski finally tried to clear the ball, but hit it straight into the chest of Lallana and watched the looping the deflection bound into his empty net.
Sigurdsson put the Swans right back in the game when he pulled back a goal only a minute later. Wayne Routledge’s left-sided cross was won by Liverpool defender Mamadou Sahko and headed down into the path of Sigurdsson who hammered the ball over Simon Mignolet to cut the lead in half.
Raheem Sterling came inches from instantly restoring the two-goal lead a minute later when his shot ricocheted off the post following a blistering counter attack.
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Lallana slotted him his second goal of the game in the 61st minute, rounding Fabianski and most of the Swansea defense with a clever dribble from the top of the penalty area. Lallana slotted his left-footed shot low and to the far post, putting Liverpool ahead 3-1.
Shelvey scored the game’s final goal, an own goal in the 69th minute, when he inadvertently flicked a Liverpool corner kick across the face of goal and just inside Fabianski’s far post.
With the result, Liverpool (28 points) move up to 8th in the Premier League, while Swansea fall to a place behind them, level on both points and goal differential (+1).
Lineups
Liverpool: Mignolet, Can, Skrtel, Sakho, Manquillo, Moreno, Lucas, Henderson, Lallana, Coutinho, Sterling
Goals: Moreno (33′), Lallana (51′, 61′), Shelvey (og – 69′)
Swansea City: Fabianski, Richards, Fernandez, Williams, Taylor, Britton, Shelvey, Dyer, Sigurdsson, Routledge, Bony
Goals: Sigurdsson (52′)
