In the aftermath of Arsenal’s win over Chelsea earlier in the day we had been pushed down to 7th, but a comfortable win over Roy Hodgson’s West Brom moved Liverpool back up to 5th place in the Premier League.
After the disappointing draw against Norwich, and arguably the United draw too, it was vital that we built on our performance against Stoke midweek. Dalglish started with Carroll and Suarez up front, though Gerrard missed out after a minor knock in training.
Though initial Liverpool exchanges looked sloppy, we were dominant from the off with Suarez winning a penalty in the 7th minute. Up stepped Charlie Adam who comfortably slotted it to Foster’s right, giving us an early lead.
The pressure from Liverpool carried on with a number of chances wasted again, including a Skrtel ball back to Suarez who hit it over the bar and some good exchanges on the left hand side involving Downing, Agger and Enrique.
It took until the 43rd minute for Roy Hodgson’s side to conjure up anything worthy of alarm with Jerome Thomas getting into the box and forcing an interception from Pepe Reina, who scooped up the danger effortlessly.
As half time neared, Lucas snatched the ball up in midfield, after a mistake from Jonas Olsson, and found Luis Suarez who slotted it through to Carroll. Though Carroll was under pressure from the West Brom defence and an oncoming Ben Foster, he found the necessary touch to put it past the keeper to put us up 2-0 going in at the break.
The second half brought more of the same from the reds, with West Brom seeming reluctant coming forward. The Liverpool pressure continued with Luis Suarez orchestrating and leading by example.
But for a couple of offside calls West Brom could easily have been looking at a three or four goal gap by the 75 minute mark, though they will not feel any relief after their highly vocal complaints about some of the referees decisions.
Carroll went close a couple of times – the first after a lay off from Suarez with a huge shot from outside the box whizzing past the post and the second after chesting down another fine ball from Suarez and shooting wide again.
Going into the last ten minutes, West Brom started to challenge with Morrison taking on two red shirts before being ushered out by Skrtel. A corner followed shortly afterward after a rare moment of miscommunication between Reina and Enrique but Olsson could only head wide.
Full time came, it could have been more, but the 3 points were all we wanted after a couple of frustrating draws in the league.
Reina, Johnson, Enrique, Skrtel, Agger, Adam, Lucas, Henderson, Downing, Carroll, Suarez.
Subs: Doni, Maxi, Coates, Kuyt, Spearing, Flanagan, Bellamy.