West Ham’s Unbeaten Run Ends As Liverpool Clinch Home Record

West Ham’s unbeaten run came to an end at Anfield as Diogo Jota’s late goal meant that Liverpool came out narrow 2-1 winners.

Team News

The Hammers went into the game fresh with optimism having come off the back of an impressive 1-1 draw with Manchester City the previous week. David Moyes’ side were unbeaten in four Premier League games and were looking to get their first win at Anfield since 2015. West Ham were without the inform Michail Antonio but had called up record signing Sebastien Haller to the starting eleven.

Liverpool on the other hand went into the game in the midst of a defensive injury crisis, with the Reds having lost star Centre Back Virgil Van Dijk, Fabinho and Joel Matip all to injury. Jurgen Klopp’s men were given a boost by the return of record signing Allison, who took back the number one stop form former West Ham man Adrian.

Match Report

As expected, it was the hosts that started the game on the front foot with Liverpool dominating possession but they failed to do anything memorable with it for the first 10 minutes of the game.

Jurgen Klopp’s men were then swiftly punished for their lack of creativity as Pablo Fornals stroked home the opener for West Ham following a poor clearance from Joe Gomez. The goal was Fornals’ second of the season and meant that the Spaniard has scored on both of his trips to Anfield.

Liverpool seemed to wake up after Fornals’ strike and the Reds nearly levelled the scores in the 24th minute after Jordan Henderson’s curling effort just went wide of the right post.

The hosts kept the pressure on and almost forced Lukas Fabianski into a mistake after the Polish keeper spilled a cross, however, new right-back Vladimir Coufal, was on hand to spare his blushes.

The Hammers looked increasingly dangerous on the counter-attack and were looking the more likely to score the next goal. But all of West Ham’s hard work was soon undone as in the 40th minute Mo Salah theatrically went down in the West Ham box following a challenge from Arthur Masuaku and won his side a penalty.

The Egyptian stepped up and coolly converted from six yards, sending Fabianski the wrong way and bringing his side back into the game five minutes before halftime. It was a very weak penalty and it arguably shouldn’t have been given. Despite its weakness, there was no check from VAR.

The Hammers started the second half as the better team once again and had a great chance to regain the lead through Fornals in the 60th minute but the Spaniard failed to get a good connection on Masuaku’s low cross, and weakly sent the ball straight at Allison. Any stronger connection and it would have been 2-1 to West Ham.

All of West Ham’s chances were falling to Fornals, who again had a glorious chance to give West Ham the lead in the 65th minute as the Spaniard broke through on goal with Bowen wide open to his left, however, Fornals chose to shoot instead of pass and his shot was blocked by a grateful Gomez.

More from Green Street Hammers - West Ham

• Brighton vs West Ham predictions: Can James Ward-Prowse help end the curse?
• West Ham and two Premier League rivals made huge transfer stand
• Lucas Paqueta bet allegations discussed in West Ham and Man City transfer talks
• Bournemouth vs West Ham predictions: Premier League opener amid transfer chaos
• West Ham near Denis Zakaria transfer after final James Ward-Prowse bid

If Fornals had chosen to pass it, it again would have been 2-1 to the Irons.

West Ham were nearly made to pay for failing to take their chances just minutes later as Salah’s scorching shot fizzed just wide of the top left corner.

Despite being given his chance, Haller failed to make an impact on the game and was subsequently taken off for Yarmolenko in the 74th minute.

Despite West Ham having the better chances in the game, it seemed as though Liverpool had found the winner through Diogo Jota after the former Wolves player fired home following a goal-line scramble. However, it was then chalked off after VAR found that Sadio Mane fouled Angelo Ogbonna in the build-up.

West Hams resistance was finally cracked in the 85th minute after substitute Xherdan Shaqiri played a defence-splitting ball through to Jota, and the Portuguese forward made no mistake in putting Liverpool 2-1 up with five minutes to go.

In an attempt to salvage a point from the game, David Moyes finally gave new signing, Said Benrahma, his West Ham debut but it was too little too late for the Hammers with referee Kevin Friend blowing his whistle just minutes later.

The result means West Ham stay in 13th place while Liverpool equal their club record for the number of games unbeaten at Anfield and climb above rivals Everton to sit top of the table.

The Hammers host Premier League new boys Fulham next weekend and will be looking to worsen the Cottagers woes after their poor start to the current campaign.