Arne Slot's Liverpool verdict vindicated as West Ham makes unwanted discovery

Liverpool survived an early scare to advance to the fourth round of the Carabao Cup after beating West Ham United 5-1 at Anfield on Wednesday night.

Diogo Jota scored a brace on his return to the starting lineup after being dropped to face Bournemouth on Saturday, with Federico Chiesa grabbing an assist on his first start as a Liverpool player. Curtis Jones created Jota's second on his own, running the length of the field before threading a perfect pass to the Portuguese forward.

Mohamed Salah got in on the action after coming off the bench, lifting his effort into the roof of the net after fellow substitute Alexis Mac Allister saw his shot blocked. Cody Gakpo managed to grab himself a late brace to complete a brilliant performance with two goals in stoppage time.

Head coach Arne Slot hasn't made too many changes to his squad since naming his first lineup against Ipswich Town back in August, but Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk, Dominik Szoboszlai, Mac Allister, Luis Diaz, Ryan Gravenberch, Andrew Robertson, and Salah were all named on the Liverpool bench. Slot has emphasized the strength of his Liverpool squad all season but was finally able to prove it against West Ham.

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It was expected that Slot would name a weakened team against West Ham, but due to facing Premier League opponents so early into the competition, it was still a big call by the head coach. Ahead of Wednesday's game Slot doubled down on his previous comments about the depth Liverpool has, and it didn't come back to haunt him.

"We made quite a lot of changes but I said many times before that I think we have a really strong squad," Slot told Sky Sports on Wednesday. "These ones haven't played that much, the others have played a lot. I think they are ready to play tonight in a very important game for us.

"So that's why we chose them. There's a big history for this club in this Carabao Cup, and of course last season all the fans, but even I remember what happened in the final with all these youngsters being on the pitch and Virgil (Van Dijk) scoring a header, but it's only the first game.

"They've made a few (changes), we've made a few, it's two Premier League teams against each other. You don't see it that often so early in the tournament. It's a tough tie for both teams. But it's also an interesting one."

Slot has been forced to justify the strength of the squad handed over to him by former head coach Jurgen Klopp, due to the lack of signings Liverpool made over the summer. Chiesa has been the only addition to Slot's current squad after being signed from Juventus, with their only other signing, Giorgi Mamardashvili, remaining on loan with Valencia through 2025 as part of the agreement.

The lack of additions led to early concerns over how Slot would perform in his first season at Liverpool, but the head coach has defended the club at every opportunity. "If you don't strengthen, you become weaker? I don't understand that. It's not always true that if you bring in new players a team becomes stronger," Slot said before Liverpool's opening game of the season.

"Jurgen left the team in a good place," Slot added. "I said many times our squad is really strong and it's not easy to find players who can strengthen us."