Roberto Firmino was happily walking away, celebrating his well-deserved moment in the sun, when Scott Parker took a long, lingering look at the scoreboard.
At first glance, you might have assumed the Bournemouth manager was working out how long he had left to inspire a comeback, and under normal circumstances you would have been right. But on closer inspection you could see Parker’s face was scrunched up in fear and you knew he was looking at his watch.
With just 31 minutes played and the unplayable Firmino having just scored Liverpool’s fourth goal, Parker was clearly wondering how much more punishment Bournemouth would endure and what chance they had of keeping the score low.
Luis Diaz celebrates scoring Liverpool’s ninth goal as they beat Bournemouth in one of the Premier League’s biggest wins
Liverpool were unstoppable, building a five-goal lead at the break and continuing their relentless assault after the break.
Liverpool were simply irresistible as they scored nine goals at Anfield to teach Bournemouth a Premier League lesson.
The answer to these questions was simply ‘a lot’ and ‘none’ – Liverpool, after such a disjointed start to the campaign, were in no mood to waste any more time and it was Bournemouth’s great misfortune to find themselves with a team that had rediscovered its enthusiasm and fluency.
What Liverpool produced from there was quite remarkable, on a day when statisticians went furiously through their notebooks to work out the implications of this flurry of goals meant in the grand scheme of history.
Simply put, Liverpool equaled their top-flight win, matching the 9-0 thrashing of Crystal Palace in September 1989; they also equaled the highest Premier League score achieved by Manchester United, Tottenham and Leicester.
But more than anything, they made the most of a Bournemouth side that had come bearing gifts and gleefully embraced the chance to secure a victory that will have done wonders for confidence and reminded critics of the folly of snap judgments.
Diaz soared over the Bournemouth defense to head in Liverpool’s first goal after just three minutes of the game.
Harvey Elliott doubled Liverpool’s lead just seven minutes later and the writing was very much on the wall for the Cherries.
Afternoons aren’t much more painful for catchers, and poor Parker looked like he’d lost all his worldly possessions at the end, but then again, afternoons don’t get any better for a team than when it’s clicking so spectacularly, as it goes do for Liverpool
After six seconds, when Luis Diaz chased down Bournemouth captain Adam Smith and forced a throw-in, leaving Jurgen Klopp cheering enthusiastically, that Liverpool were in the mood and had heeded their manager’s plea for a conversion in “the team no one wants to play”. .’
Parker, instantly, would have known what Klopp meant. Before their side had a chance to try and become the eighth team in a row to score first against Liverpool, they were playing catch-up and braced themselves for 90 minutes of unrelenting misery.
After having made the first pressure of the game, he thought it was appropriate that Díaz contributed the first goal. It was also a beauty, a bullet header from a precise cross from Firmino on the right; VAR was needed to check its veracity, but Diaz was played on by Chris Mepham.
Normally this would be a moment to talk about Diaz’s majesty, but there is so much to cram in from here that it simply makes sense to offer an abbreviated version of the Colombian’s efforts: he was exceptional, a constant, elusive threat who looked capable of scoring. anytime.
Trent Alexander-Arnold fired in Liverpool’s third to end any semblance of a contest just half an hour into the game
Roberto Firmino scores Liverpool’s fourth goal just after the half-hour as he continued to step on the accelerator.
One quickly became two: Firmino was involved again, his attempt to control a pass from Trent Alexander-Arnold setting up Harvey Elliott to hit a left-footed ball that darted past Mark Travers and stayed in the bottom corner.
Elliott’s dad Scott celebrated by throwing his shirt in the air in the grandstand and what a proud moment it was for him. His son is developing at a breakneck pace and if Liverpool are going to buy a midfielder before the window closes, they will have to be good at offloading the 19-year-old.
Even at this point, with just six minutes gone, there was a clear sense that the contest was over, but Liverpool were just getting started, spotting opportunities like a batsman discovering those cartwheels that demanded to be smashed to the limit as they descended to the drift
‘Smash’ was indeed the right word for Liverpool’s third as Alexander-Arnold exchanged passes with Firmino and swept a 30-yard drive that sailed and dipped beyond Travers, gaining speed along the road Alexander-Arnold walked away, smiling with complete satisfaction. He couldn’t be blamed.
Then came the fourth, Firmino slotting in unmarked from six yards after a Mo Salah cross fell into his path. Incredibly, this was Firmino’s first Premier League goal at Anfield since December 2020 and how he enjoyed it.
Even centre-back Virgil van Dijk was involved in scoring Liverpool’s fifth shortly before half-time.
There was no respite after half-time with Chris Mepham netting his own for Liverpool’s sixth goal.
Parker, on the other hand, was squirming. His teeth were chattering as Liverpool continued to cut through their porous defense and there was never any doubt that the scoring would stop there; on the stroke of half-time, Liverpool grabbed their fifth, Virgil van Dijk heading in Andy Robertson’s corner.
Now it was time to consult the history books. The last time Liverpool had scored five before the break was in September 1958, when Phil Taylor was manager, and on that occasion, he failed to add more against Brighton at Anfield.
Here, there was no chance of them declaring, but Parker would have at least hoped Bournemouth would have offered a little more resistance than conceding a sixth in the first minute after the restart, Mepham turning Alexander-Arnold’s cross into his own own network
Roberto Firmino scored his second of the afternoon to make it a seventh in heaven for Liverpool, and it didn’t even look like it!
Fabio Carvalho celebrated in style after scoring his first Liverpool goal to make it 8-0 with 10 minutes to play.
It was onto Diaz to head home his second of the afternoon and Liverpool’s ninth in the closing stages.
They weren’t done yet. Firmino made it seven on the hour, Elliott’s substitute Fabio Carvalho continued the bright start to his Liverpool career with an 80th-minute strike and Diaz equalized history in the 85th minute, reaching the back pole.
From there, the Kop started chanting “we want 10”, but it was to no avail. Really, it should have been and it was quite extraordinary that this flurry of strikes happened without Salah, who missed two wonderful chances, getting in on the act.
Do not care. Klopp was clearly excited at the final whistle, enjoying the celebrations, but Parker looked shaken. He won’t forget this day in a hurry.
Here’s how Sportsmail’s live blog covered every Premier League kick-off at 3pm, including Liverpool’s historic win over Bournemouth.