LIVERPOOL 3 WEST HAM 2
THIS will be a title of many colours just as they always were in the days when Liverpool won them as a matter of routine. Power, collectivism, technical genius. They have always played their part. And, just like last night, so has luck.
It can’t be said that West Ham took a battering ram to Jurgen Klopp’s side. Three shots on target and two goals tell the story. But it took a goalkeeping calamity and a very providential deflection to see the team home after they entered the hour mark a goal behind.
Goals from Mo Salah and Sadio Mane have put Liverpool four wins away from the title today with a tally of 106 points from their last possible 108 in this competition. ‘We shall not be moved’, the Kop sang at the end. Indeed.
The 1-6 odds-on favourites led inside nine minutes — an exocet Trent Alexander-Arnold cross finding the head of Georginio Wijnaldum, who had delivered the ball beyond Lukasz Fabianski before Issa Diop had even calculated the threat, let alone leaped into a challenge.
But what ensued was a journey far deeper into the realms of dramatic tension than any had imagined might involve West Ham. The team who had only five touches in Manchester City’s area last week were level within three minutes in a fashion which was also marked by defensive failings. Joe Gomez did not leap to challenge Diop’s header from a Robert Snodgrass corner on the West Ham right and Alisson would have wanted to keep the finish out.
There was more to the visiting challenge than a rare opposition goal. Mark Noble is old enough to remember the afternoon a few years back when the West Ham team managed by Slaven Bilic earned their first Anfield win in half a century after he pepped them by having Thin Lizzy’s Whiskey in the Jar play in the dressing room before the match.
Moyes seemed to have something similar. There was an intensity about the team which prevented Liverpool from commanding midfield. Declan Rice nipped possession from Sadio Mane, Snodgrass ripped it from Andrew Robertson. Noble might have no pace but he displayed vision. When he sent Michail Antonio away down the right, Gomez could not cope with his pace and it took Alisson to emerge and clear up the threat. Jordan Henderson was missed.
Some perspective, though. Liverpool still manufactured 11 efforts before the break, including Virgil van Dijk’s magisterial run to send an Alexander-Arnold corner crashing against the top of the bar.
The metronomic accuracy with which the 21-year-old Englishman and Robertson deliver from the wide areas still doesn’t fail to astonish, even with Klopp’s side on the threshold of history. Robertson’s 40-yard diagonal, delivered with a hint of bend from his right outside, arrived in the space Salah was running into. It took the best of Fabianski to palm the ensuing shot over the bar.
When Roberto Firmino sent another opportunity crafted by Alexander-Arnold over the bar when supremely well positioned to score, five minutes into the second half, the faintest hint of danger emerged. But the goal which sent Moyes’ side ahead was certainly beyond any expectation and deeply unsatisfactory from Klopp’s point of view.
Rice’s cross from the right found substitute Pablo Fornals, left in two yards of space by a defence sitting curiously deep. There was no challenged by Van Dijk as the Spaniard struck a clean half-volley beyond Alisson. Moyes had not celebrated his side’s first goal, conscious perhaps that the odds on it carrying a lasting significance were slim. He punched the air this time.
Klopp tried to bring some bite and pace to a Liverpool midfield which lacked either. Alex OxladeChamberlain arrived for Naby Keita and promptly struck a 30-yard shot a yard wide.
But it was the strike force on whom the course of the night depended and Klopp, watching implacably and stationary, hands stuffed in pockets, could see that something exceptional might be required.
But it took a gift to bring Liverpool level. Robertson’s cool and measured lay-back for Salah after racing into the box should not have posed a problem with the forest of West Ham players obstructing the goal. The most generous interpretation of Fabianski’s error is that they unsighted him as the shot trickled through his legs to put Liverpool level.
The beginnings of the winner came from a deflected Gomez cross which rebounded out to Alexander-Arnold. Firmino could not reach his cross but Mane was at the back post to scramble in the goal which sent Anfield into delirium.
No one was complaining when a further Mane goal was rightly chalked off for offside. Liverpool, imperious, whatever the weather.
LIVERPOOL (4-3-3): Alisson 6; ALEXANDER-ARNOLD 8, Gomez 5.5, Van Dijk 6.5, Robertson 7.5; Fabinho 6, Wijnaldum 6.5, Keita 5.5 (Oxlade-Chamberlain 57min, 6); Salah 6.5, Firmino 6, Mane 6 (Matip 90). Subs not used: Adrian, Lovren, Minamino, Lallana, Origi. Scorers: Wijnaldum 9, Salah 69, Mane 81. Booked: None. Manager: Jurgen Klopp 6. WEST HAM (4-4-2): Fabianski 5.5; Ngakia 6, Diop 5.5, Ogbonna 6, Cresswell 6; Snodgrass 6.5 (Bowen 84), Rice 6, Noble 7, Soucek 5.5 (Fornals 47, 6.5); Anderson 6.5 (Haller 65, 6), Antonio 6. Subs not used: Randolph, Balbuena, Zabaleta, Lanzini. Scorers: Diop 12, Fornals 54. Booked: Rice, Diop, Noble. Manager: David Moyes 6.5. Referee: Jonathan Moss 7.5. Attendance: 53,313.