Atalanta vs Liverpool result: Diogo Jota and fellow Reds make mockery of hosts and claims of crisis

How do you fit into a world-class frontline? Diogo Jota has all the answers. And he keeps producing them: another game, another decisive performance doused in confidence – his first Liverpool hat-trick coated by sheer determination, speed, quality and composure.

The Portugal international is showcasing the air of a player who has every ambition of being spoken about in the same gushing tones as Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah, not merely being an accompaniment to them.

And so welcome to Atalanta, where Liverpool’s expected toughest game in their Champions League group saw them absolutely dismantle the hosts with an attacking display of the highest quality, powered by their new signing.

The opponents were billed as unwelcome as a dentist appointment, but the discomfort and displeasure was all theirs.

Having scored 98 goals in Serie A last season, the highest figure in Italy’s top tier for more than six decades, Atalanta were meant to puncture Liverpool’s young partnership in the heart of defence. Joe Gomez, 23, was alongside teenager Rhys Williams, who was making his first European start. It was the home rearguard that were overwhelmed, though, with markers in every position no match for the Premier League champions.

Jota’s first saw him collect a super Trent Alexander-Arnold pass down the inside-right channel, using his pace to get ahead of Jose Luis Palomino and his strength to hold him off before flicking elegantly over goalkeeper Marco Sportiello, into the bottom left.

That was on 16 minutes, and just after the half-hour mark Joe Gomez’s long diagonal pass was directed towards the 23-year-old. Jota took it down, touched it inside – taking out Hans Hateboer – and thundered a strike into the same part of the net as his first.

Liverpool were making light work of Atalanta, who would have had designs on causing their visitors much more of a problem in the second period.

Open up against this team, in this mood though, and bang, bang, bang. Before the Italians could catch a breath after the break, their attacking corner morphed into a Mohamed Salah golazo.

Andy Robertson and Curtis Jones cleared the set-piece, with the Egyptian left one-on-one with Hateboer. He sped up, cut inside, and curled an absolute stunner into the top left. A counter par excellence.

Liverpool were scoring all kinds of goals, illustrating all kinds of techniques and that would continue. Their skill of maximising throw-ins was evident for the fourth, leading to Salah feeding Mane, who chipped over the keeper and into the net.

The man who started the offensive party also iced the cake. Mane curled a low pass down the left, with Jota racing clear of Palomino before rounding the onrushing Sportiello and rolling into the back of the net.

A hat-trick, the match ball and the confirmation that Liverpool’s recruitment team have knocked it out of the park again.

This is some crisis the club are having: top of their Champions League group with maximum points and no goals conceded as well as being at the summit domestically.