Roberto Firmino and Virgil van Dijk gave Liverpool a five-point lead at half-time after Trent Alexander-Arnold’s superb long shot scored three in the space of half an hour.
After the break, Chris Mepham’s own goal, Firmino’s second, Fabio Carvalho’s first goal for Liverpool and Diaz’s second capped a goal-filled afternoon for the hosts.
A record nine-goal victory, which has been achieved three times, twice at Manchester United and once at Leicester City, kick-started Liverpool’s stuttering new season.
Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp called it a “perfect football afternoon” after weeks of poor results and said a big win was “needed”.
“We just need to give the game the right direction and that’s why we loved how we started today. It was a battle in the right area in the box, around the box, the body in the box, the second ball situation, going again and so on.”
rebound
After winning two trophies last season and two more, expectations are high for Liverpool this season.
And those flames were only fanned in the season-opening Community Shield against Manchester City when Liverpool comfortably beat the reigning Premier League champions.
However, when the season finally started, the results were staggering.
It opened with a draw with newly promoted Fulham before settling for a draw at home to Crystal Palace. New signing Darwin Nunez was also sent off after headbutting Crystal Palace defender Joachim Andersen in his home debut.
Things only went from bad to worse with a stunning 2-1 loss to Manchester United in the third game.
Just when the problems seemed piling up, Liverpool responded emphatically.
Brazil international Firmino had two goals and three assists throughout the afternoon. Klopp said the 30-year-old had a “massive game” against Bournemouth.
Liverpool finished club first with five goals in the first 45 minutes. This is the Reds’ first time in his league game in the Premier League.
Reaching a nine-goal difference, Liverpool matched the records set by Manchester United against Ipswich in 1995, Southampton last year and Leicester against Southampton in 2019.
According to Opta, it also equals Liverpool’s largest league victory difference in league history, matching the record set against Crystal Palace in 1989 and Rotherham Town in 1896.
After a disappointing last game against Manchester United, Klopp expressed his joy at the team’s ability to bounce back strong against Bournemouth.
“This game was us, a little bit more of us. We should have won this game. I don’t say that about every game we play against United… we lost in different situations,” he said. .
Klopp continued: “But it’s not out of this world that we lose 2-1 to United. It can happen, especially if we’re not performing at the highest level. And the rest…we can’t guarantee results, but what we expect of ourselves is a guaranteed level of performance. , started today.”
