WEST HAM BEAT TOILING LIVERPOOL WEST HAM 3 - 0 LIVERPOOL Liverpool suffered their third defeat in five Premier League games this season as West Ham emerged victorious at Upton Park. Early goals from Winston Reid and Diafra Sakho proved too much for the visitors, who pulled one back through Raheem Sterling before the break. Liverpool pressed hard after half-time. However, Hammers keeper Adrian made a succession of saves and Morgan Amalfitano wrapped up a first home win for West Ham in the 88th minute. Sam Allardyces men had lost both previous home games this season and taken just four points from their last eight games against these opponents. But they could not have started much better against Liverpool. Reids first goal since October 2013 was a close-range effort after James Tomkins had headed Stewart Downings free-kick into the six-yard box. West Hams second was more speculative as Sakho floated the ball over Simon Mignolet from the right, the ball dropping into the corner before Enner Valencia could reach it. A difficult start for the visitors also included a yellow card for Mario Balotelli, who had a head-to-head confrontation with Hammers goalkeeper Adrian, and the exit of the injured Javi Manquillo, who was replaced by Mamadou Sakho. Liverpool were trying to shrug off the exertions of their successful midweek return to the Champions League . Liverpool lost three of their opening five games two seasons ago. Prior to that it was 1959, when they were a Second Division club. The Anfield side had the majority of possession (62%) but West Ham had more shots, 13 in total and seven on target. Mario Balotelli has not scored a Premier League goal since his effort at Wigan on 28 November, 2012. And they did have hope through their remarkable scoring record away from Anfield. When Sterling lashed home the rebound for his third goal of the campaign after Balotellis shot had initially been blocked, it was their 34th goals in the last 12 away games and created a club record of scoring in 17 successive top-flight matches on the road. Valencia forced Mignolet into a good save just after Dejan Lovren had been patched up to play on following a heavy collision with his own team-mate, Sakho. The introduction of Adam Lallana at half-time for Lucas - and the consequent tactical switch - suggested Brendan Rodgers was unhappy with his teams efforts. On his first Liverpool start for almost two years, Fabio Borini made little impact until a low shot at the start of the second half brought a low save from Adrian. The Italian curled a shot narrowly over as Liverpool continued to press forward in search of an equaliser. Then Balotelli, who has now scored just one goal in his last 19 Premier League appearances, was thwarted by Adrian. Rickie Lambert was introduced for the last push forward. However, Liverpool were vulnerable on the counter-attack and as time ticked down, Downings pass released Amalfitano, who applied the clinical finish. It was the first time the visitors had lost successive league games since last December.
Posted on: Sat, 20 Sep 2014 21:32:38 +0000
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