Saturday, August 29, 2015

West Ham Stun Liverpool

West Ham United ended their 52-year wait for success at Anfield with a 3-0 Barclays Premier League victory over Liverpool that saw both sides reduced to 10 men.

Liverpool's improved defending this term has been a welcome boost to Brendan Rodgers but West Ham capitalised on indecisive play at the back to register a clinical victory in an action-packed affair that saw Hammers goalscorer Mark Noble and Philippe Coutinho sent off.

On his Barclays Premier League debut, Argentinian playmaker Manuel Lanzini set the visitors on their way to a first league win at Anfield in 42 attempts, opening the scoring from inside the six-yard box.

It was the first time Rodgers' defence had been breached this term but Liverpool fell further behind shortly before the half-hour mark.

Former Southampton man Dejan Lovren relinquished possession on his own byline and allowed Lanzini to play in Noble, who beat Simon Mignolet from 18 yards.

Coutinho's two bookings either side of half-time added to Liverpool's frustrations and, even when Noble saw red for a foul on substitute Danny Ings, West Ham remained in control.

Diafra Sakho coolly finished late on to add further gloss to a worrying scoreline for Rodgers.

Liverpool began with the confidence of a side that had shut out AFC Bournemouth and Arsenal but fell behind to Lanzini's close-range finish.

After Martin Skrtel's clearance dropped for Aaron Cresswell, Lanzini stole ahead of Joe Gomez to prod the opener past Mignolet.

Liverpool played with greater urgency after falling behind and saw Roberto Firmino hit a post prior to a second West Ham goal.

Having given the ball away while looking to run through midfield, Lovren twice failed to clear his lines under pressure from Lanzini, whose attempted cut-back fell to Noble on the edge of the box and the away captain swept home a calm finish.

Things got worse for the hosts after the break when Coutinho was dismissed for a second booking.

Having been cautioned late in the first half following a foul on Dimitri Payet, Coutinho was shown a second yellow card for another mistimed tackle on the Frenchman.

The dismissal rules Coutinho out of a trip to Manchester United after the international break.

Rodgers introduced Ings for the largely subdued Firmino but West Ham's defending showed a marked improvement from the horror show in the 4-3 defeat to AFC Bournemouth a week ago.

Bilic's midfield three of Cheikhou Kouyate, Pedro Obiang and Noble helped deal with Liverpool's direct threat late on, although the latter's straight red for a challenge on Ings will have dampened West Ham spirits somewhat.

Sakho was able to pounce on a loose ball in added time to compound a difficult afternoon for Rodgers and his team.

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