Liverpool reached the Carabao Cup semi-final with a 5-1 win over West Ham.
Dominik Szoboszlai broke the deadlock midway through the first half with a sublime long-range attempt from 25 yards out to beat Alphonse Areola.
The Reds went further ahead after the interval when Curtis Jones beat the visitors’ goalkeeper with a tight-angled shot after Darwin Nunez teed him up.
Cody Gakpo added a third for Jurgen Klopp’s side with a shot just inside the area to further cement a place for an eventual last-four meetng with Fulham..
The Hammers still threatened to spark a late fightback as Jarrod Bowen unleashed powerful effort to beat Caoimhin Kelleher from inside the area.
But Mohamed Salah ended their hopes with a surging run and trademark finish before Jones doubled his tally to round off a comprehensive rout.
Here were the key talking points from Anfield:
Goals rain after Reds’ drought
What a difference four days has made for Liverpool.
Fresh from a frustrating stalemate with Manchester United last weekend, Jurgen Klopp’s side looked fresh out of ideas and a goal-scoring touch.
In the face of such profligacy, their forthcoming Premier League clash with leaders Arsenal appeared an ominous task for the ‘mentality monsters’.
Fast-forward to the end of Wednesday’s Carabao Cup quarter-final with another United – this time West Ham – and all appears right again at Anfield.
Where the Reds registered a total of 34 fruitless attempts against their arch-rivals, their latest meeting with the Hammers saw five goals from 29 shots.
Relentless and ruthless, not even the sight of a visitors’ section in the Anfield Road Stand emptying out deterred the hosts from heaping on further misery.
Admittedly the Hammers’ largely passive approach helped smooth over that path yet it still does not detract from the prolific nature of Klopp’s charges.
A confidence-boosting win carrying the added bonus of a semi-final meeting with Fulham is just what the doctor ordered after coming up short on Sunday.
Stand-ins offer compelling auditions
One of the beauties of Klopp’s latest Liverpool iteration is its flexibility.
With Mohamed Salah soon headed to the Africa Cup of Nations and his direct replacement in Ben Doak now injured, alternative options appeared sparse.
Klopp, however, may have stumbled upon a solution in deploying Harvey Elliott in the mercurial Egyptian’s favoured wide-right role of the attack.
The 20-year-old’s positional audition was highly promising with a series of narrow long-range attempts which saw him emerge as the first-half standout.
Only Curtis Jones’ goal-scoring heroics eclipsed Elliott’s output but he was not alone in proving to be a viable alternative in a starting line-up of six changes.
Kostas Tsimikas remains a dependable understudy to Andy Robertson while Conor Bradley, his in-game replacement, is equally effective at right-back..
Elsewhere in defence, Joe Gomez stepped into the Greek international’s void as auxiliary left-back to add a new string to his increasingly impressive bow.
Fighting on multiple fronts would always require a greater squad depth and it appears that Liverpool have found theirs from previously unlikely sources.
Klopp reignites Anfield fan fire again
Clinical though his team were, Klopp could not resist poking holes in this win.
The Liverpool manager used his post-match address to sound a note of caution to his own supporters ahead of Saturday’s meeting with Arsenal.
He did not hold back in an assessment of the Anfield faithful was which highlighted a need for the fanbase to be unconditionally ‘on their toes’.
Anyone unable to match the required intensity was advised to consider passing on their ticket for that Premier League top-of-the-table showdown.
Those remarks have already sparked consternation but this was not the first time that the German has attempted to light a fire – and it won’t be the last.
He spent a small portion of the first half attempting to understand the muted response from fans sat in the Main Stand to what would prove to be a rout.
Barely 12 months into his reign, he went direct in calling for those same supporters to roar on their team in games at the midway point of 2016/17.
It’s a while since Klopp tried to light a fire in fans but if that extreme message is heeded for the Gunners’ visit, he will consider it mission accomplished.