THE air of optimism that had built up at Anfield during a three-match unbeaten start to the new season was ruthlessly sucked away in a devastating 30-minute display of counter-attacking by West Ham, which ended one of English football’s great feats of futility.
September 14, 1963, at the start of a season which would end with Liverpool champions of England and West Ham FA Cup winners, was the last time the Hammers had won a league fixture on this ground. But against a defence that had yet to be breached in the new campaign, Manuel Lanzini and Mark Noble put West Ham in control early before Diafra Sakho put an exclamation mark on a memorable victory in injury time.
The dismissal of Philippe Coutinho early in the second half, for his second rash yellow card in a matter of minutes, hardly helped Brendan Rodgers’ cause but the roles played by his centre-backs in West Ham’s goals will have been particularly galling for the home manager.
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Noble would join Coutinho in being shown red by Kevin Friend, thus becoming the sixth West Ham player sent off in 10 competitive fixtures this season, twice as many as the club received in the whole of last season. But nothing could detract from the fact that Slaven Bilic has now overseen victories at the Emirates and Anfield in his first two away league fixtures in charge.
“It is three points but it is one of those games that for the club, for the supporters especially, it is more than three points,” said Bilic. “It is the same story as Arsenal - 52 years without winning here.
“I think we did it with style, we didn’t nick it - it was a great performance.”
The tone was set for Liverpool’s afternoon inside three minutes when Dimitri Payet crossed from the right and Martin Skrtel steered his header straight to Aaron Cresswell. The defender appeared likely to shoot but instead intelligently picked out Lanzini, who guided the ball home from six yards.
Bobby Zamora, in 2006, was the last West Ham player to score a league goal at Anfield, but it took just 26 minutes for another to repeat the feat. Dejan Lovren lost the ball to Lanzini as he attempted to shepherd it out of play and the resulting cross reached Noble, who finished superbly.
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“Four of seven teams lost at home in the league today and up until today I think there have been six wins out of 30, so it’s going to be a really difficult league to get your home wins,” said Rodgers.
“But our concentration is on winning here at home, we love playing here and the support has been brilliant here. The first three games we gave them hope again but today we disappointed.”
Arguably the most damning aspect of the display lay in the fact that, save for a Roberto Firmino shot which struck the post after eight minutes, there was little to concern Darren Randolph in the visiting goal.
The concerns were all Rodgers’, especially when Coutinho was booked just before the interval for dissent. Six minutes after the restart, the same man was involved in a challenge on Payet which Friend harshly ruled worthy of a second yellow, and with Coutinho went his team’s main source of creativity.
West Ham continued to look dangerous on the counter, Cheikhou Kouyate shooting wide, Cresswell being denied at the near post and Winston Reid heading over from a corner.
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Ambitions may have been muted after 79 minutes when Noble went in with studs showing on Danny Ings and was shown a straight red. But still the final word belonged to Bilic’s team, deep in injury-time, when Sakho benefitted from a rebound off Lovren and simply shrugged off two challenges, one from Skrtel who stood off and allowed him to finish from 16 yards.
Star man: Dimitri Payet (West Ham)
Liverpool: Mignolet 6, Clyne 6, Skrtel 5, Lovren 4, Gomez 5 (Ibe 77, 6), Lucas 7, Can 5 (Moreno 46, 5), Milner 5, Coutinho 6, Firmino 6 (Ings 60, 6), Benteke 5
West Ham: Randolph 7, Tomkins 7, Reid 7, Ogbonna 7, Cresswell 8, Obiang 7, Lanzini 8 (Oxford 81, 7), Kouyate 8, Noble 6, Payet 9 (Jarvis 88, 5), D Sakho 7 (Cullen 90, 5)