Arne Slot confirms bad news for Liverpool after 5-0 West Ham win

Arne Slot has confirmed Liverpool will be without Joe Gomez for several weeks due to a suspected hamstring injury. The centre-back was forced off in the first half of their 5-0 rout of West Ham on Sunday.

The Reds moved eight points clear at the top of the Premier League table thanks to goals from Luis Diaz, Cody Gakpo, Mohamed Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Diogo Jota at the London Stadium.

But Gomez had to be withdrawn on 37 minutes with a muscle complaint. He was replaced by Jarell Quansah who helped see out a clean sheet for Liverpool in the capital.

Speaking to Sky Sports post-match, Slot said: “If a player says he wants to stop, he has to be changed. We know it’s a hamstring and we know it will take a while before he is back.

“I don’t know how long but he’ll be out for quite a bit. These situations can happen in a season.”

Quansah will now be asked to step up in Gomez’s absence while Ibrahima Konate is steadily nearing a return from a knee problem sustained against Real Madrid in the Champions League in November.

Slot added of Liverpool’s emphatic victory over the Hammers: “[I enjoyed it] a lot because it doesn’t happy many times that I could just sit back and enjoy.

“It was the situation against Tottenham that we were 5-1 up and they came back to 5-3, but today we kept control over the game. We talked before the game about conceding chances.

“We conceded two or three today, and against Leicester, they had two and scored one. In attack, we have created a lot of chances and in a game like today, we scored many.

“Although I said to the players that it was 3-0 at half-time but it wouldn’t have been if after 10 minutes, we were 3-0 [ahead] because we created a lot of chances.”

Salah scored his 20th goal of the season against West Ham and is on a ridiculous 17 goals and 13 assists from 18 Premier League matches this term. The Egyptian’s contract expires in the summer but he there has not been much progress over an extension.

Asked by Sky Sports interviewer Patrick Davison if Salah is the best player in the world right now, Slot said: “If you look at his numbers, you can’t argue that, but there are different players in different leagues that have a lot of quality.

“But Mo is definitely up there at the moment. He could have scored more today, but I also liked his work rate for the team without the ball. He’s in a very good place. Let’s hope he can stay like this for a long time.”

And the Dutch coach made it clear what he’s looking for from his team as they look to lift the league title in May: “Consistency. Enough challenges will come ahead of us, starting with Man United at home, which is a big game.

“Even if you only look at league tables, it is already a big game, but you want to keep your lead as long as you can. It’s nine games in January [for Liverpool], so many games are played and you saw today an injury to Joe Gomez.”