West Ham handed Liverpool their first defeat of the new
Premier League season with a 3-0 win on Saturday that
ended the east London club’s 52-year wait for success at
Anfield.

Goals from Manuel Lanzini and Mark Noble put
Slaven Bilic’s side firmly in control of a fixture in
which they had not tasted victory since a 2-1
triumph in September 1963 before Diafra Sakho’s
late effort completed the rout.

The dismissal of Liverpool’s midfielder Philippe
Coutinho early in the second half left the home
side with a mountain to climb, although Noble’s
own sending off evened the teams up for the
final 11 minutes.

The two first half goals, created inside the
opening half hour, were a consequence of poor
Liverpool defending, a trait which Reds boss
Brendan Rodgers seemed to have corrected with
his team having not conceded in their opening
three league games.

Central defenders Martin Skrtel and Dejan Lovren
shared responsibility for the two goals.

After just three minutes Skrtel’s defensive
clearing header was inaccurate and not
particularly powerful, the centre-half clearing
Dimitri Payet’s centre directly to Aaron
Cresswell, who intelligently picked out Lanzini for
a routine finish on the edge of the six-yard area.

Worse was to follow, on 29 minutes, after Lovren
attempted to shepherd the ball out of play near
the right-hand corner flag but simply turned it
over to Lanzini, who worked his way down the
by-line and crossed for Noble to score after an
attempted block by Nathaniel Clyne.

Liverpool had responded to the opening goal with
confidence but lacked the necessary poise and
cutting edge once inside the Hammers box.
Coutinho flashed a wild shot over, Roberto
Firmino switched feet neatly outside the area to
make room for a 20-yard shot which struck the
Hammers woodwork and Christian Benteke went
down under slight defensive contact and
appealed in vain for a penalty.

But West Ham looked just as capable of adding
to their tally as they played an effective counter-
attacking tactic through the pace and trickery of
Lanzini.

After 15 minutes, the West Ham midfielder
picked up a loose ball in midfield and ran at the
retreating defence before shooting just wide,
while Payet and Cheikhou Kouyate combined in
another attack which ended with Cresswell
finding space for a shot that cleared the far
post.

But the half ended in costly fashion for Liverpool
with Coutinho booked for refusing to retreat at a
free-kick, a decision by referee Kevin Friend
which put the official in an awkward position six
minutes after the restart when he decided the
same Liverpool man was the guilty party in a
collision with Payet, forcing him to reach for a
second yellow and dismiss him.

Coutinho had just cleared the West Ham bar with
a 20-yard shot and, without his creativity, it was
hard to imagine his side regaining a foothold in
the game, a fact acknowledged by Rodgers who
brought on close-season signing Danny Ings after
the hour.

James Milner failed with a low shot from
distance, Ings tried to combine with Benteke but
was crowded off the return pass and the
Hammers responded with Kouyate sending a shot
skidding just off the mark and Cresswell’s near-
post shot being saved by Simon Mignolet.

Winston Reid headed wide from a corner as West
Ham sought an implausible third goal although
the visitors seemed to dampen their ambition
after Noble went into a challenge with Ings with
his studs showing and was shown a straight red.

Nevertheless, they did manage to find that third
goal in stoppage-time as Sakho took a pass
deflected into his path off Alberto Moreno and
shrugged off two challenges before scoring from
16 yards.