“That was an outstanding performance because we outplayed Liverpool, particularly in the first 45 minutes,” Sam told the official site. “This wasn’t Liverpool on an off-day - this was West Ham on a brilliant day which made Liverpool look ordinary, particularly in the first half.
“The first ten minutes were unbelievable. The first half it should have been more because we created so many opportunities in their box, so I was a little worried when Sterling scored. This is Liverpool, so they’d had one shot on target but they had scored one goal. That’s what you’re competing against and that’s what they’ve spent £100m on - that quality gets them back in the game when they really didn’t deserve to.
“From there on, we coped tactically brilliantly. We saw the game out very well defensively when they were throwing everything at us. So, to get the third goal at that time was welcome. Cheikh was hobbling around [with a groin strain] and couldn’t move and Morgan had come on and Stewart Downing - who is having a fantastic spell at the moment - put through another ball that opened up Liverpool’s defence. Then, we produced another fantastic finish, which is what we’ve been looking for since we got back in the Premier League.
“Hopefully there are many more goals like that to come from these players.”