Defending champions Liverpool crush West Ham, Arsenal rain goals in League Cup

The two late matches of the third round of the League Cup witnessed a rain of goals when defending champions Liverpool came from behind to crush West Ham and Arsenal easily defeated Bolton with the same score of 5-1.

Playing in the third round of the League Cup, coach Arne Slot had a reason to keep more than half of Liverpool’s main squad even though the visiting team West Ham is also playing in the Premier League.

The tight schedule ahead forces “The Kop” to not be subjective, having to rotate the force to be ready for all fronts. Although they are called reserves, the squad of players such as Wataru Endo, Joe Gomez, Kostas Tsimikas, Federico Chiesa… are not weak.

Not to mention, the Dutch coach is careful when arranging strikers such as Diogo Jota, Darwin Nunez and Cody Gakpo to find solutions from the.

The last three matches in all competitions have been draws and losses, making West Ham extremely cautious in their away match against the reigning cup holders.

However, Julen Lopetegui’s players started the game quite well, even creating clear scoring opportunities. After Danny Ings had a goal denied against his former team in the 18th minute for offside, just 3 minutes later, in a messy situation after a West Ham corner, Jarell Quansah accidentally let the ball hit his foot and go straight into Liverpool’s own net.

There was not much time to regret or endure, Liverpool responded strongly just 4 minutes later.

Cody Gakpo broke the offside trap and escaped on the left wing and his cross was passed by Federico Chiesa for Diogo Jota to head home the equalizer.