Michail Antonio made to look silly after mediocre Anfield showing

Liverpool's 3-1 win over West Ham on Sunday will give fans plenty of reasons to be happy. Goals from Mohamed Salah, Darwin Núñez and Diogo Jota aside, the performance of one opposition player won't have gone under the radar.

Michail Antonio, who led the line for David Moyes' team at Anfield, had a torrid day on the pitch, passing up an excellent early chance and then being completed marshalled out of the game by Joël Matip before being substituted after 74 minutes.

This performance came against the backdrop of some rather bullish pre-match comments made by the Jamaica international which he may well now be regretting.

In his most recent episode of the Footballer's Football podcast, the 33-year-old, who co-hosts the show with Newcastle striker Callum Wilson, didn't hold back. Antonio boldly declared: "You know what? I believe we'll finish higher than Liverpool this season," despite the significant 27-point gap between the two teams last season.

He added: "I'm putting it out there. I watched the [Wolves] game because it was before our game, and Wolves had numerous chances. We're facing them this weekend, and it's a crucial match. We've got this!"

No shots on target

Despite his confidence, Antonio had a bad day at the office. With zero shots on target, zero crosses completed, zero aerial duels won, one big chance missed, and losing possession on 10 occasions, he was promptly replaced by Mohammed Kudus.

And utimately, Antonio's early miss came back to haunt him and West Ham as Salah converted a penalty to give Liverpool a 1-0 lead. West Ham did manage to level the scores just before half-time, courtesy of Jarrod Bowen. However, in the second half, Nunez scored with a delicate volley lob, and Diogo Jota secured the victory late in the game, enabling Jürgen Klopp's team to collect 16 out of 18 possible points this season.

This result leaves Liverpool six points ahead of the London club, meaning there's already a substantial amount of work to do if Antonio's predictions are to come true.