POOLS OF LIVER
Liverpool 1 West Ham 0
If you’re feeling a little offal, this is a fixture you need like a hole in the haemorrhage. As it’s a 5.30 kick off Liverpool have a little more preparation time, and with a Manchester derby tomorrow the points at stake look valuable.
Vlasic, an unexpected start for Hammers, is caught offside early on, and the quickly taken free kick sees Salah break away from the West Ham defence only to be denied by a great save from Fabianski. At the other end Antonio finds himself in space and hits a powerful shot that Allison palms away with relief to safety.
Halfway through the first half Trent Alexander-Arnold pushes through a speculative through ball into the area and Mané slides it past Fabianski. To the naked eye he looks off, but the referee allows the goal. Thankfully VAR raises a speculative query which looks justified on the replay. Bizarrely, the move is judged onside and Liverpool have the lead. Great.
Minutes later and Cresswell clears off the line to keep the lead to just one. It looks like a great moment of rescue as Fornals finds himself one on one against Allison, the last defender some distance off. Seems impossible, but I’m the end it’s too much time for the Spanish wizard who chips the keeper gently enough for Alexander-Arnold to sprint across and clear the ball, but only to Vlasic, who is then disappointlngly unable to convert the second chance.
In the second half Lanzini is gifted time and space to equalise following a brilliant pass from the right by Soucek, but somehow hits it over the bar with Allison prone like a batonless conductor. Minutes later Mark Noble finds Antonio in more space, and though he sidesteps his marking defender, his finish is weak, Naby Keita blocks and another golden chance goes begging.
At least normality has shown its ugly face again, and West Ham leave Anfield pointless after a game in which they have created three of the best chances for goals they will have all season, beaten by a highly suspect offside ‘goal’ that restores Liverpool’s point difference over Manchester City. Creating your own luck somehow has converting your chances in the front window throughout any given season. A truly miserable late journey home awaits the few thousand travelling West Ham fans.
1 Lucasz Fabianski, 3 Aaron Cresswell (c), 4 Kurt Zouma, 31 Ben Johnson, 15 Craig Dawson, 8 Pablo Fornals, 10 Manuel Lanzini, 28 Tomas Souček, 9 Michail Antonio, 11 Nikola Vlašić, 20 Jarrod Bowen
Substitutes:, 16 Mark Noble, 22 Saïd Benrahma, 51 Daniel Chesters
