Premier League - Keane brace fires Liverpool to win

Eurosport - Sun, 09 Nov 09:33:00 2008

Liverpool went back to the top of the Premier League with a Robbie Keane-inspired 3-0 win over West Bromwich at Anfield.

FOOTBALL 2008-2009 Premier League Liverpool Robbie Keane - 0

Keane registered his first two league goals in a Liverpool shirt while Alvaro Arbeloa added a third in injury time to down the Baggies and send the Merseysiders three points clear of Chelsea, who play at Blackburn on Sunday.

Despite some encouraging early signs from West Brom, in the end it was a comfortable victory for Liverpool, whose manager Rafa Benitez was able to enjoy a double dose of good news.

Having seen his expensive summer signing break his duck in front of goal, Benitez was also able to welcome back striker Fernando Torres from injury as a second half substitute.

The Spaniard was deemed fit enough after a six-game absence with a hamstring problem to make a place on the bench, but it was his strike partner Keane who caught the eye and fired Liverpool to victory.

Prior to kick-off, the Irishman had failed to find the back of the net in a league game since his summer move from Tottenham but he soon drew a definite line under that statistic as he swooped twice in the first half to put Liverpool firmly in the driving seat.

His first came on 34 minutes, from a neat Steven Gerrard pass after the Liverpool skipper had spotted Keane's clever run in behind the Baggies defence. The £19 million man did the rest, running onto the ball and applying the finishing touch past Scott Carson.

Just nine minutes later Keane had doubled both his personal tally and his side's lead with another impeccable finish. This time it was Fabio Aurelio with the decisive pass as Liverpool countered quickly; played through on goal, Keane rounded Carson before slotting home into an empty net.

Arbeloa popped up in injury time to seal the points with a third, finding the top corner with a well-measured shot from just inside the penalty area.

The scoreline was probably a fair reflection of the 90 minutes but nevertheless West Brom had started brightly and Tony Mowbray's side were able to emerge from the encouter with credit.

The Baggies displayed no outward signs of nerves, as is often the case when teams visit Anfield, and played their usual attractive passing game during the opening exchanges.

But it was Liverpool who were able to carve open the better chances, Keane seeing a shot on the turn saved by Carson on 13 minutes before the former Liverpool goalkeeper denied Yossi Benayoun on the half hour mark.

After the break, Robert Koren did his best to get West Brom back into the game, the Slovenian midfielder bringing the otherwise underused Jose Reina into action with a crisp strike on 51 minutes.

Soon after Koren fired wide of the mark but a Chris Brunt free-kick into the side netting apart, the visitors rarely looked like getting a goal back.

Torres replaced Keane in the 72nd minute, with both players receiving healthy rounds of applause, and the fit-again striker nearly found the back of the net seven minutes later; only Carson denied him a goal on his comeback to action.

Arbeloa's late strike merely served to confirm Liverpool's authority on the game as the gauntlet was passed to Chelsea ahead of their trip at Lancashire.

Mike Hytner / Eurosport

Comment 131 - 150 of 150

Sort comments by: Most recent

  1. Liverpool are clearly going to win the Premiership . It's just a question of whether they can take the Champions League as well

    From K W, on Sun 9 Nov 7:26PM

  2. obviously some of the chavski pages are boring some of their fans again! :)

    From Suzy, on Sun 9 Nov 6:21PM

  3. same old @#$% liverpool have no hope of winning the league,spurs have a better chance
    25 years following them but still not going to win it. 5 players short of a great team chelsea will win it this year again because they score goals all over the park.

    From bryan.duggan27, on Sun 9 Nov 5:59PM

  4. congrats keane!!!!!! i was so glad!!! and congrats torres you're okay now, right? i wonder if MArtin skrtel is fine already. hmm... go Liverpool FC! YAY!!

    From rockergirl, on Sun 9 Nov 4:15PM

  5. Continuing from comment 149: let's hope Benitez doesn't use his rotating system too much otherwise just like last season he may end up with winning nothing. Yep that was the season that Liverpool fans thought they would win something. benitez finally decided it was time to give up on the Champions League because he had no chance. They gave all they could to win the Premier League and paid the price!!! Will the same thing hapen this season?

    From badrulislam@..., on Sun 9 Nov 1:23PM

  6. Come on Robbie Keane. Well terrible that F.Torres has a hamstring injury but still doing good so does`nt matter chelsea live on the moon !

    From Nathan, on Sun 9 Nov 1:11PM

  7. Same old Liverpudlian fans getting carried away when they're top of the table. Keane has finally scored some Premier League goals, a third of the way through the season. When was the last time he scored a Premier League goal? Will he ever score any more goals? I personally don't think they can win it. They don't have the experience to remain at the top. Look at the last time when they were top of the league. How long did they last at the top? About 6 days. And once they get a few lengthy injuries on their main players, will they be able to cope?

    From badrulislam@..., on Sun 9 Nov 1:10PM

  8. ALL ENGLISH FOOTBALL
    PREMIER LEAGUE – FA CUP – CARLING CUP
    CHAMPIONS LEAGUE – UEFA CUP
    ALL MATCHES ON WEB: PREMIER LEAGUE, LIGA, SERIE A, BUNDESLIGA AND CHAMPIONS LEAGUE - UEFA CUP
    ALL THE HIGHLIGHTS OF PREMIER LEAGUE MATCHES

    From go to www.premiership.altervista.org, on Sun 9 Nov 12:25PM

  9. congrats Liverpool. Its been a long time guys...18 years of waiting. I hope LFC will continue their form until the end season 2008/09. Bravo..Liverpool is no.1.

    From Christopher O, on Sun 9 Nov 12:07PM

  10. @122 (brainless): A typical goal from Keane is a goal from the style of which he scored at Leeds and Spurs and for his country. He scores them often enough, most goals ever for his country and over 100 in the prem. And he scored them then like he did yesterday. It's about 10 years before you discover typical, not 2 weeks. THAT'S WHAT A TYPICAL KEANE GOAL IS.

    Well done Keane, back to your best, hope it continues. Congratulations on a speedy recovery for Torres. The future Prem top scorer 2008/09. And now I wish one of our former Anfield legend, Paul Ince all the best for his club Blackburn against Chelsea. I hope they proove a real challenge for the Blues. And even manage to nick a few points off them after Chelseas dissapointing 3-1 loss to Roma.

    YNWA

    From clivewilliamson@..., on Sun 9 Nov 11:41AM

  11. well done liverpool and keane at last he scored well doen to him we all know his quality and with torres back we should of beaten stoke and spurs can u think of what it would of been like if we had 11 wins and 1 draw get in there 14 points clear of united but hopefully chelsea lose to blackburn come on blackburn win , ince ex liverpool i bet he wants to beat them for us..if not he better do cos if not blackburn will suffer a defeat to us!

    From John S, on Sun 9 Nov 11:17AM

  12. liverpool roule the school come on you reds you'll never walk alone

    From shaun c, on Sun 9 Nov 11:13AM

  13. This is our year... This is the year... We'll challenge to the end this year... Blah blah blah...

    This will be our CENTURY guys, because this is OUR game... Just waking from an 18 yr slumber in time to take back our position as the Premier team in the country, not to mention Europe. A painful 18 yrs of Man Utd chipping away at OUR undisputed position as England's most successful club.

    Rafa had built a squad with true depth right through to our powerful youth teams, and with and average age in the senior side that will have that team alone peaking for the next 3-5 years.

    Argentina's new captain Mascherano(24), anchoring our midfield, and in time, the 2 time South American player of the year, and Brazil youth team South American Champion's captain (thought by many to be the future captain of the senior side) LUCAS Leiva(21)... Holland's best striker aparently since Marco Van Basten in Ryan Babel(21)... Daniel Agger(23), Skrtel(21), Alonso(25), Torres(24)... And tese are just some of the first team regulars...

    Benitez is building his dynasty... And with just a little luck (more with the owners than the results!) he could even rival some of the great past reds managers when it comes time to rank them all against each other.

    From Robert T, on Sun 9 Nov 10:49AM

  14. Getting to the top is easy..what liverpool seem to have trouble with is staying there!!

    From ourhome08@..., on Sun 9 Nov 10:44AM

  15. to post 137 at last a man u fan that admits lfc are performing the best they have in pl for a long time.to brainless are you a man u fan if you are 30million for boobatov-how many premier league goals has he scored,robbie kean will fire them in now.

    From jolfc, on Sun 9 Nov 10:42AM

  16. well at least fergie didnt blame the corner flag for putting shrek and his ladeeeeboy off[ronaldeeee hehehe come on you reds

    From JOHN K, on Sun 9 Nov 10:35AM

  17. omg

    From tiarnal@..., on Sun 9 Nov 10:15AM

  18. With Keane and El nino up front and Stevie supplying were .taking the cup.

    From Marge Simpson., on Sun 9 Nov 9:56AM

  19. Just watched the Liverpool match, now Keano is on your score sheet i dont think there will be no stoppin him, so quick never stops running even if the ball is going out still makes the effort to chase, deserve to be where you are in the table !!!! from a worried united fan !!!

    From sooty, on Sun 9 Nov 9:08AM

  20. WELL DONE GUYS AT THE TOP WHERE YOU BELONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    From Charleyd, on Sun 9 Nov 8:53AM
Sort comments by: Most recent

Not already a Yahoo! user ? to get a free Yahoo! Account