Reds Get Stratford Revenge

West Ham United haven’t actually beaten any of the Premier League’s big clubs this season but they have taken points off a large number of them. Unfortunately, they couldn’t achieve the feat against Liverpool on Wednesday night, as they suffered a 2-1 defeat in Stratford.

David Moyes decided to name an unchanged side from the 4-0 win at Bournemouth four days earlier.

The Hammers were looking to win four consecutive games in all competitions here and they must have thought that they had a chance, given the inconsistent form of their opponents on the road.

Moyes’ men were 2-0 up with twelve minutes gone at the Vitality Stadium and they started this game by putting their visitors under pressure. With just short of ten minutes played, they could have gone ahead had Jarrod Bowen found Michail Antonio but the winger unfortunately got it all wrong.

Shortly after, the Irons did make the breakthrough, thanks to Lucas Paquetá’s third goal in as many games. He moved the ball into space and played a one-two with Antonio before shooting beyond Alisson Becker.

The majority inside the stadium might have thought that it was a little too early to have gone in front against Liverpool, as it gave them plenty of time to come back. Well that proved to be the case as Jürgen Klopp’s side equalised on eighteen minutes as Cody Gakpo beat Łukasz Fabiański.

Both teams had chances to take the advantage into the break but numerous opportunities were wasted so when referee Christopher Kavanagh blew for the break, the Hammers were wondering whether they could hold on to get another precious point.

Just as West Ham were given a reprieve in the first-half when Diogo Jota headed against the bar, VAR came to Liverpool’s rescue when Bowen thought he had regained the advantage for his side just after the hour mark.

After seeing that goal ruled out, the Irons went close again but unfortunately, Nayef Aguerd and Antonio managed to get in each other’s way when trying to connect with the ball.

The Moroccan was on hand again to block, as Mohamed Salah went close but on sixty seven minutes, the visitors had edged ahead once more. Vladimír Coufal had previously blocked a corner on the line but when the Reds quickly earned a second one, they made it count. Andrew Robertson sent the set-piece into the box and Joël Matip rose highest to head the ball past Fabiański, giving the Pole no chance.

Moyes waited to see what would happen from the corner to make a double change. He introduced both Maxwel Cornet and Danny Ings to take the places of Antonio and Saïd Benrahma. The Ivorian was straight into the action however, as he tried his luck but failed to worry Becker.

Aaron Cresswell then sent another corner over which was headed on by Tomáš Souček but he couldn’t get enough power to direct it into the net. Instead, it went narrowly wide.

As the game drew towards its conclusion, the hosts should have been awarded a penalty when Thiago Alcântara clearly handled in the box. However, neither Kavanagh, nor VAR saw anything wrong with the incident.

With that, West Ham face two more away games in the next week and they will try to atone for this result when they make the trip to Selhurst Park to take on Crystal Palace in Saturday’s early kick-off.