Jurgen Klopp saluted Mohamed Salah for the “super smart” strike which ended his barren run and put Liverpool on their way to a 3-1 victory at West Ham.

Salah had gone six Premier League matches without a goal, equalling his longest goal drought for the Reds.

But there was to be no seventh successive blank as Salah returned to form with two exquisite second-half finishes in a valuable win at the London Stadium.

Salah made the breakthrough in the 57th minute after substitute Curtis Jones found him lurking on the right of the area.

A win would have taken West Ham above Liverpool into fourth, but they found out they have a long way to go before they can seriously think about breaking into the top four.

Boss David Moyes said: “I thought we competed as well as we could, but we didn’t play as well as we could. We tried to compete but they were just too strong for us today.

“Liverpool are not one of the teams we are challenging. Their consistency will be much greater. They played better than us so we’ve got no complaints.

“We came into the game confident, feeling we had a chance to get something but Liverpool made it difficult and we didn’t do the things we’ve been doing well.”