Salah scores again as Liverpool thrash West Ham

Mohamed Salah was inevitably on the scoresheet as Liverpool took full advantage of the inactivity of their top-four rivals to thrash West Ham United 4-1 at Anfield and provisionally move into second in the Premier League. With leader Manchester City facing Arsenal in the League Cup final Sunday, when Manchester United host Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur travel to Crystal Palace in the league, Juergen Klopp's free scorers topped 100 goals for the season in their 40th match. Emre Can, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane also netted in another Liverpool goalrush that moved them 15 points behind Pep Guardiola's City. At the bottom of the table, the future of West Bromwich Albion manager Alan Pardew looks increasingly bleak after their 2-1 defeat at home to relegation rival Huddersfield Town. Swansea City crashed 4-1 at Brighton & Hove Albion and Bournemouth came from two goals down to draw 2-2 with Newcastle United. Liverpool's win was not quite as routine as the scoreline suggested with West Ham occasionally threatening on another nerve-tingling Anfield afternoon although David Moyes' long wait for a first win at the ground continues.

This year's top #PL scorer will be _______ pic.twitter.com/qgjTzQLHF9

— Premier League (@premierleague) February 24, 2018

Salah scored for the sixth successive game in all competition and his goal took him level with Harry Kane at the top of the Premier League scoring chart with 23 this season. But Can was equally influential in Liverpool's win, heading the opener and laying on a superb through pass for Firmino to score Liverpool's third before Mane chipped in with a fourth goal in two games. Elsewhere, West Brom's defeat will add to the pressure on manager Pardew whose side are now seven points off safety. Rajiv van la Parra and Steve Mounie scored for Huddersfield, whose win moved them three points up the table, one point ahead of Newcastle. Rafa Benitez's side looked to be guaranteed back-to-back victory for the first time since September after Dwight Gayle ended his recent goal drought by scoring twice before the interval. Yet Adam Smith and former Newcastle midfielder Dan Gosling completed an astonishing comeback by one of the league's never-say-die specialists.

Here's how the top 6 of the #PL shapes up ahead of Sunday's vital action... pic.twitter.com/MivMN551Or

— Premier League (@premierleague) February 25, 2018

Swansea also scored late at Brighton but Lewis Dunk's own goal proved academic with the home side already 3-0 up. Dutchman Juergen Locadia's goal on his Premier League debut completed the rout as Swansea dropped back into the relegation zone, just ahead of Stoke City, who drew 1-1 with Leicester City. It would have been better for Paul Lambert's side had keeper Jack Butland not parried the ball into his own net when under no obvious pressure, a howler made all the more embarrassing by the presence of former Stoke, Leicester and England legend Peter Shilton in the stand. Manager Lambert refused to criticise his keeper, whom he described as "the best in Britain" although such an obvious howler will do little to help Butland secure the England jersey for the World Cup. At Turf Moor, Southampton's Manolo Gabbiadini scored a 90th-minute equaliser as the visitor secured a nerve-jangling 1-1 draw at Burnley, who still await their first win of the year. Everton remained in ninth place but still only seven points above the relegation zone after a 1-0 defeat at Watford who moved up to 10th in a tangled bottom half. Troy Deeney scored Watford's late winner at Vicarage Road.

Mo Salah has scored 20 goals with his left foot in the #PL this season

That's the most by a player in a single season in the competition's history #LIVWHU pic.twitter.com/JBrD80c4Do— Premier League (@premierleague) February 24, 2018

RESULTSLeicester 1 (Butland 70-og) Stoke 1 (Shaqiri 43)Bournemouth 2 (Smith 80, Gosling 89) Newcastle 2 (Gayle 17, 45+1)Brighton 4 (Murray 18-P, 69, Knockaert 73, Locadia 90) Swansea 1 (Dunk 86-og)Burnley 1 (Barnes 67) Southampton 1 (Gabbiadini 90)Liverpool 4 (Can 29, Salah 51, Firmino 57, Mane 77) West Ham 1 (Antonio 59)West Brom 1 (Dawson 64) Huddersfield 2 (Van La Parra 48, Mounie 56)Watford 1 (Deeney 79) Everton 0 SUNDAY'S MATCHESPalace v Tottenham and Man Utd v Chelsea