Darwin Nunez scored his first goal at Anfield against West Ham
(Picture: AFP via Getty Images)Darwin Nunez scored his first goal at Anfield as Liverpool beat West Ham to make it two Premier League wins in four days.
Nunez, ironically a player West Ham bid for back in January, may be far from the finished product but it is that rough edge to his game that makes him such an enthralling watch.
The decisive goal saw the Uruguayan bustle into the box, powering between defenders to mee Kostas Tsikimas’s inch-perfect cross and sending it back into the ground, with the resulting bounce proving too much for a scrambling Lukasz Fabianski.
Where that proved a moment of considered quality, Nunez’s ability to create something out of nothing – and indeed nothing out of something as in the final stages of Sunday’s win over Manchester City – is something to behold.
Before his goal, the 23-year-old unleashed a first-time volley following a beautiful pass from Thiago Alcantara, who largely had the freedom of the pitch in the opening 45 minutes. Moments after the goal, Nunez beautifully brought a ball down onto his chest at high speed before smacking the post from just outside the box.
That was the kind of relentless energy West Ham just didn’t show going forward. At times, Liverpool were guilty of sloppy play and leaving the back door open, though David Moyes’ side never looked as if they could believe they could score.
The most jarring example of their apathy in front of goal came on the stroke of half-time. Joe Gomez may have been imperious against City but jumped into a challenge on Jarrod Bowen, forcing the West Ham forward to the ground and a penalty was awarded after VAR intervention.
Bowen, who had look as if he was putting an end to the team’s problems from the spot, duly hit a tame penalty at a nice height for Alisson, albeit after Virgil van Dijk had appeared to tamper with the spot.
West Ham did improve after the interval as a flurry of half chances, the best of which came to Said Benrahma at the far post after he ghosted between Trent Alexander-Arnold and Gomez, made things nervy. Hearts would have been in mouths when Tomas Soucek looked prime for a tap-in in the dying embers before James Milner’s last-ditch clearance kept the clean sheet.
Liverpool, meanwhile, could and should have added a second when Roberto Firmino had a snapshot close to goal after a half-cleared corner, or when Jordan Henderson’s cross across the face of goal, ghosting past Kurt Zouma’s outstretched leg and an inch or so past the top corner.
In the end, Nunez proved the difference as Liverpool further underlined the progress they have made over the last few days.
