West Ham United saw their advantage on the Premier League’s relegation zone cut to five points after losing 2-1 to Liverpool at the London Stadium on Wednesday.
Lucas Paqueta had given the Hammers the lead early in the first half with a stunning goal at the end of a brilliant team move, only for Cody Gakpo to cancel it out with a long-range effort six minutes later. Joel Matip’s second half header sealed three points for Jurgen Klopp’s men.
Here are the talking points as West Ham suffered just their second defeat in their last 11 matches in all competitions.
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A game of fine margins
West Ham could feel confident going into their meeting with Liverpool after scoring four goals in each of their previous two games, booking them a European semi-final and moving them six points clear of the Premier League’s relegation zone against Gent and Bournemouth, respectively.
Against a Liverpool side searching for a third straight Premier League win for the first time this season, West Ham showed the confidence they have gained in recent weeks with one of their goals of the season.
Having waited 11 months for a league goal inside the opening 15 minutes of a game, they had three inside three days, after Michail Antonio and Lucas Paqueta had notched early on against the Cherries.
Paqueta, on Sunday, made it 2-0 with a thumping header, but this time, it was goal that oozed in quality, good football and some of the South American flair West Ham had hoped to see from him when signing him from Olympique Lyonnais in August.
As an Aaron Cresswell clearance was bough down by an excellently deft touch from Said Benrahma, Paqueta charged down the left, exchanged passes with Antonio, got towards the penalty area, cut inside, gave another one-two with Antonio before being teed up for a right-foot strike from 20 yards out. On his weaker foot, Paqueta showed no signs of a struggle, thundering one past Selecao colleague Alisson, netting in the 12th minute for a second straight match.
Just six minutes after Paqueta scored a contender for West Ham’s goal of the season award, the third time they have netted one in as many games, Liverpool hit back out of nowhere. Right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold, in his new hybrid-midfield role, fed the ball to Gakpo, who spun and with little momentum on the ball, hit a driven bullet that stayed low across the net, cushioning off the far post to level the game.
Liverpool went on to dominate most of the first half, but West Ham’s goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski had very little to do when it came to saves, helped largely by some poor Liverpool finishing and some solid defending at the back from the centre-back pairing of Kurt Zouma and Nayef Aguerd.
West Ham did pose threats with two decent chances late in the first half, with Antonio involved in both as he, like Paqueta, looked to score for a third straight match.
At the end of a brilliant team move, Benrahma flashed a low cross through Liverpool’s penalty area, where Antonio was at the back post waiting to tap into an empty net. However, some heroic defending from Virgil van Dijk saw him get an important toe to the ball, taking it out of Antonio’s path.
From the resulting corner, Jarrod Bowen’s delivery was flicked on by Declan Rice, teeing up Antonio, who did well to reaction quickly to head it, but steered it well wide, giving Alisson a reprieve when he would have had a decent job to do to deny the Jamaican international, had the effort been on target.
In the second half, West Ham started with momentum and thought they had taken the lead when a Liverpool attack was stopped and quickly turned into a West Ham break.
Paqueta’s fizzing pass down the right sent Bowen away and clear on goal. He cut inside, got the better of some rather poor Van Dijk defending to smash a thunderous low effort past Alisson and in.
His muted celebrations should have been a sign of what to come, as the goal was later disallowed for a fractional offside, unlucky for West Ham, but perhaps very fortunate for Klopp’s men, who were handed a fortunate reprieve.
West Ham’s defence however were not given all that much of a reprieve as Liverpool took the lead midway through the second half from an Andy Robertson corner.
The hosts should have been warned seconds earlier when Matip’s header was blocked by Aaron Cresswell’s groin before getting a shot on the rebound on target and forcing Fabianski into a top stop, leading to another corner. The second, however, was way too easy for West Ham, as Matip shuffled to his left to leave Antonio, who was marking him, stranded before rising highest and unchallenged to thunder in at the set-piece.
From there, it remained open, West Ham created some flashes of hope for a leveller, while West Ham’s centre-back were also needed to stop Liverpool putting the game out of sight.
Through balls for Danny Ings and Maxwel Cornet from Bowen and Rice respectively provided optimism, but Alisson was too quick to rush out for Ings’ liking on the first and on the second,Cornet rushed and fired over with his left as he rushed into his shot.
West Ham will have left the goal however feeling as if they should have had a penalty when a Thiago lunge to block a Ings run saw the Spaniard block the ball with his arm three times. Not only did referee Chris Kavanagh not give a penalty, but VAR official Neil Swarbrick did not even refer Kavangh to his pitchside monitor to even give it a look. Something that Moyes and his staff and players were left bewildered at.
That was that as West Ham’s five-match unbeaten run came to an end, a game where had fine margins gone their way, they had been more clinical and had tightened up at a set-piece, they would have come out with one, or maybe even three points.
Handball drama
The nature of the late penalty decision made that the talking point that almost feel more important than the match itself as Ings thought he had won his side a late spot-kick against one of his former clubs.
Instead, that was not the case and all connected with West Ham were left reeling that they were not given a stoppage time spot-kick to make it 2-2.
The Professional Game Match Officials Board’s (PGMOL) feeling was that because Thiago was going to ground, the arm that blocked the ball was the once he was using to break his fall and that because Ings had possession in such close proximity to Thiago when his arm blocked it, there was not enough grounds to give a penalty.
Moyes argued that because Thiago had made such an acrobatic leap to blocks Ings, he takes the risk of having his hand in an unnatural position and therefore, should have to face the consequences of potentially blocking it with his arm.
Moyes felt that VAR official Neil Swarbrick had disrespected him and West Ham for not even advising Chris Kavanagh to have a look back at the incident on his pitchside monitor, a debate that is likely to rumble on for the next 24/48 hours.
Chelsea defeat repeat
Almost eight months ago, West Ham were robbed of a late point against Chelsea when Maxwel Cornet came off the bench to score, only for VAR to overturn it following what was one of the softest fouls ever given against Bowen on Edouard Mendy, with West Ham’s forward attempting to leap over Mendy and out of the way in the build-up to Cornet’s leveller.
Against Liverpool, there was plenty of repeats between the manner of the two games and the drama of the conclusion.
Back in September, West Ham took the lead before Chelsea levelled and then went in front, with Cornet’s last-gasp goal wrongly denied.
Although there is more scope for debate on the decision, West Ham went ahead against a ‘big-six’ side, conceded, then conceded again before seeing their hopes of a late lifeline dashed, much to their own despair.
In one sense, there was a further Chelsea Deja vu as Neil Swarbrick was also the VAR when the two sides met in a 1-1 draw against each other at the London Stadium in February. Furthermore, there was a major handball drama in that when Conor Gallagher’s late shot was blocked by Tomas Soucek’s hand and was not only not given, but not even looked at by the referee that day.
Perhaps, those two Swarbrick-watched handball decisions cancelled each other out, but the manner of the Liverpool loss, a game where West Ham played well enough to get a draw at least, will have bought back unwanted Chelsea memories for some.
Lucas Paqueta shows class
West Ham took a big gamble financially in the closing days of the summer transfer window this season when completing the signing of Paqueta from Olympique Lyonnais.
In a move costing £36.7million up front, but potentially rising up to a club-record fee of £52.6million in add-ons, what West Ham bought him to the club to do was to largely add goals and assists from the heart of midfield.
Paqueta has done exactly that in West Ham’s last three games, scoring in each in three very different manners, matching his longest streak of consecutive matches scored in since April 2021.
Against Gent, he stepped up to take a penalty before adding a thumping header against Bournemouth, but has saved his best yet in a West Ham shirt against comfortably the highest-profile opponent he has scored against yet in Newcastle, a stunning strike with his weaker foot from a good 20 yards out at the end of a move he started himself.
Had Bowen’s front foot not been fractionally too far forward, he would have also had an assist against Liverpool, with his excellent carving through ball starting the move for Bowen’s goal that was quickly ruled out.
On five goals for the season in all competitions, four of those for Paqueta have come in the Premier League, putting him one behind league top scorers Bowen and Benrahma, although Bowen has played over 1,000 more minutes than him this season.
Overall, Paqueta sits joint-fifth for goals and joint-third for assists this season in all competitions, a solid number considering he is still below what Moyes had hoped from him in terms of direct goal contributions (five goals, four assists).
Of those nine direct goal contributions, over half have come this calendar year, including all of his West Ham goals. That, combined with averaging more completed tackles than any other West Ham player shows that he is really starting to come good.
According to WhoScored.com’s match player ratings, of his six best Premier League matches so far, three of them have been this month, with eight of his 12-highest rated being this year. It may have taken some time for him to get to his best, but now he is there, he is such an asset and a joy to watch with what is capable of.
Pablo Fornals debate
Spanish midfielder Pablo Fornals could be left wondering what else he has to do to get a start after not featuring against Liverpool.
In what has been a disappointing season for Fornals in terms of minutes, he took his chance perfectly at Bournemouth last weekend when scoring a stunning scorpion kick to get his first goal since November.
Despite Benrahma being in a dip of form, Fornals’ goal and the emotions that followed it, Moyes opted to stick with Benrahma over Fornals against Liverpool, the team Fornals has scored the joint-highest career number of goals versus a single opponent against.
While Benrahma did have a hand in Paqueta’s goal and had some flashes, it was another hit and miss display as one of a few players not at form towards their best levels at present, but still doing enough to keep their place in the team.
Many fans will have been frustrated, but could take hints that the last time West Ham played three games in six days in a week period, the third one, this month’s 1-0 win at Fulham, Fornals started in. He, and many supporters, will be hoping a repeat of that is on the way this weekend against Crystal Palace.
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