Unbeaten Month Ends With Defeat

Nuno Espírito Santo may have picked up four points against Liverpool during his time at Nottingham Forest last season, but he has also lost to the Reds more times than any other Premier League club in his managerial career and that record unfortunately continued on Saturday afternoon, as West Ham United lost 5-2 at Anfield.

The Hammers’ Head-Coach decided to keep faith with the starting line-up and substitutes that he named ahead of last weekend’s goalless draw at home to AFC Bournemouth.

The Irons hadn’t lost since the 3-2 reverse away at Chelsea on the last day of January and wanted to keep that run going. In November’s fixture against Liverpool, they held their opponents for a long time and they would have hoped to do same here but, it took no time at all for the hosts to open the scoring.

When the former Wolverhampton Wanderers, Tottenham Hotspur and Nottingham Forest boss arrived in East London, he worked hard to help eradicate his team’s inability to defend corners but for some unknown reason, it came back to haunt them. Milos Kerkez won the set-piece and it was left to Dominik Szoboszlai to deliver and although the ball was initially headed clear, it fell to Ryan Gravenberch, who in turn picked out Hugo Ekitike whose shot took a deflection off Konstantinos Mavropanos on its way past visiting goalkeeper Mads Hermansen.

The Irons couldn’t even make their own corners count. Greek defender was involved again and wasted two golden chances when he perhaps should have done better but unfortunately for the packed away end, he headed over twice within a matter of minutes.

Hermansen did well to prevent Gravenberch from getting on the scoresheet by tipping his effort over. That only gave the hosts another corner which, of course they scored from, as Virgil van Dijk rose unchallenged and beat the Dane once again.

When the Reds won the title last season, they were defensively solid. However, this term, they do concede chances and when West Ham had possession in their half, captain Jarrod Bowen nearly benefited from a mistake by home goalkeeper Alisson Becker. The Brazilian tried to get the ball away but made a hash of his clearance and Bowen could have easily finished but Becker quickly made up for his error and pounced back onto the ball.

West Ham could have pulled a goal back when the skipper turned provider and crossed for Tomáš Souček but unfortunately, the midfielder’s attempt took a deflection off Ibrahima Konaté which then meant it was easy for Becker to keep his clean sheet intact.

Arne Slot’s men earned another corner with just two minutes of normal time to go before the break, as Mavropanos blocked Szoboszlai’s shot. The ball found its way to Alexis Mac Allister and it was helped into the net by yet another deflection, this time off Aaron Wan-Bissaka and West Ham would go into the dressing rooms 3-0 down.

Espírito Santo didn’t panic and sent the same team out for the start of the second-half and it was fair to say that he got a reaction from his players. With four minutes of the second-half gone, Souček gave himself a late birthday present when he made the most of an opportunity and beat Becker after a cross from Mateus Fernandes fell into the path of El Hadji Malick Diouf.

Thankfully for the Irons, the home side seemed to have lost their cutting-edge after the break. They wasted some really presentable chances and this was in evidence when Coady Gakpo mishit a shot and saw it go wide.

The Dutchman made amends for his earlier effort shortly after though, as another corner was the undoing of West Ham once again. The striker received possession down the left-wing and made his way into the penalty area, where he squeezed the ball past Hermansen.

Corners certainly played an integral part in this match and the latest one gave the Hammers another goal. Crysencio Summerville forced Becker into a save and Valentín Castellanos was on the end of Bowen’s delivery to head into the net from a tight angle.

Espírito Santo’s men certainly had chances to grab another, especially after Adama Traoré was introduced for Soungoutou Magassa but they unfortunately couldn’t set things up for a grandstand finale and instead, another goal at the other end finished them off. At the same time as Traoré entered the fray, Slot shuffled his pack and sent on Jeremie Frimpong in place of Joe Gomez and the former Bayer Leverkusen player had a hand in the goal that sealed all three points for the Reds inside the last seven minutes. The Dutchman had done all the hard work, however it was unfortunate for both him and all connected with the Hammers that Axel Disasi got the final touch.

There was still time for Ezra Mayers, along with Mohamadou Kanté to be thrown into the action, as Diouf and Souček made way for them.

Seven minutes of stoppage time were added and it could have got worse for the East Londoners, if another Liverpool substitute Trey Nyoni, who had earlier replaced Gravenberch, had beaten Hermansen but thankfully he got his angles all wrong and sent his shot high and wide.

The result here means that the wait to get out of the relegation zone goes on but, if results go their way over the rest of the weekend, then the Hammers could finally move up the table on Wednesday night with a win over Fulham at Craven Cottage.