London, Nov 8
With their excellent display in a 3-2 win, West Ham ended Liverpool’s impressive unbeaten run of 25 matches stretching over the last seven months.
Liverpool manager, Jurgen Klopp, unhappy at the loss was critical, perhaps unfairly, about some of the decisions of the referee. Klopp said: “People will say I’m making excuses but I’m calm. You need normal decisions from a referee and he didn’t do that.”
About the first West Ham goal, Klopp said: “The first they score is a foul on the keeper. The arm goes into Alisson’s (goalkeeper) arm so how can he catch it? That makes no sense. How it cannot be a foul I don’t know. What can Alisson do? That is why the goalie is protected. If a player goes up in the air with his arm, it is an important part of the body for the keeper. This is not man marking, it’s blocking the goalkeeper.”
Klopp was also furious at Aaron Cresswell not being given a red card for his tackle on Jordan Henderson. “It’s a reckless challenge. You cannot go like that into a challenge.” On the game, he said: “We scored the equaliser and fully controlled the game and they only went for the counter. We needed to be more clinical, we did not take our chances.”
The Hammers took an early lead after just four minutes and that brought about the controversy that incensed Klopp. Hammer’s player Angelo Ogbonna went up to meet an in-swinging corner kick from Pablo Fornals and so did Alisson. But the Brazilian’s palm diverted the ball into his own net. VAR check revealed no foul on the keeper.
Liverpool equalised four minutes before halftime from a dubious freekick as Mohammad Salah seemed to dive after a light brush with Declan Rice. However, it was a clever freekick from Trent Alexander-Arnold. He tapped the ball to Salah just a yard away for Salah to stop it dead and Alexander-Arnold then curled it past Liverpool’s wall.
Halfway through the second half Hammers extended their lead after Sadio Mane lost possession and Jarrod Bowen went past three players before slipping the ball to Fornals whose left-foot shot went in from under Alisson who should have done better.
Just seven minutes later Liverpool conceded the third, again from a corner. Kurt Zouma, unmarked at the far post, headed in his first goal for the club.
Liverpool pulled a goal back with seven minutes remaining. Substitute Divock Origi, beat Craig Dawson after controlling the ball deftly from one foot to the other before turning and shooting inside the far post.
With his team third in the Premier League table, Hammers manager, David Moyes said: “We’re there on merit. You can see the quality and attitude of the players. I want us to challenge the teams in the top four, I’ve laid that challenge to the players. Liverpool have been in good form but we have resilience. Counter-attacks and corner kicks are not a bad recipe.”
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