Final Score: West Ham 2-3 Liverpool
West Ham Goals: Mark Noble (PEN 36), Steven Gerrard OG (43)
Liverpool Goals: Glen Johnson (11), Joe Cole (76), James Collins OG (79)
Victory, in perhaps the most bizarre circumstances I can care to remember. At the final whistle my first thought was not something I've often been perplexed by but the fact still remained; just how exactly did we win that one? Having on many different occasions this season in which our performance has deserved more points than we've ended up with, this isn't something I'm going to complain about. Regardless of it's merits, we now have back to back victories in the league for the first time in a long time. There's a real momentum behind us now and with a decent run of fixtures to come, this could be the start of something really good.
Team news prior to kick off was surrounded by the absence of Luis Suarez through suspension and the confirmation of what seemed most likely in that Jonjo Shelvey would be taking up the main strikers position. Behind him it was more straightforward, with Jose Enrique and Stewart Downing rather more conventionally playing in their more natural positions at left back and on the wing respectively. The travelling kop were in marvellous voice as we kicked the game off and it began with some quick passing in the midfield with the aim of getting high up as quickly as possible. This was capped off by an early sighting of Glen Johnson very high up the pitch trying to make things happen, something that would become a feature of the game as it went on.
He may not be the most popular man to ever put on a Liverpool shirt but Stewart Downing has been far more involved than I thought he would at this point. He did his best to get at the West Ham defence early and take on O'Brien at full back and it eventually led to Steven Gerrard having a shot on goal. At the other end their tactics were anything but a surprise with the strength of Nolan and Diame in the middle of the park being used to get the ball and the wide men to deliver it, often and early. This was the kind of attack we had to be very weary about getting too deep for they were keen to play in front of us as long as possible and hope that we would entrap ourselves by moving too far back. As it was we coped relatively well with the high ball but needed to be extra watchful of whatever rebounds dropped in and around the penalty area. Mohamed Diame reminded everyone of this fact when Agger only half cleared a cross from Matt Jarvis and his shot was then deflected horribly and wrong footing Pepe Reina in the process. Fortunately for us it went wide instead of nestling in the far corner of the net.
Recycling the ball high up the pitch was not only important to stop West Ham from pushing us back, it's the way in which we put a large amount of pressure on an opponent. Lucas Leiva helps this process so much, not only was he the outlet for possession if we needed to start over again but he was constantly winning it back in the middle of the park and distributing it very tidily. Someone who does his passing in a much more unreserved style is Steven Gerrard. With Downing occupying and subsequently drifting inside to take his marker with him, there was acres of space for Glen Johnson to work with on the right hand side. This was something they were going to pay for, with immediate effect. Johnson took the long ball from Gerrard and drove inside with it. He shifted it onto his right foot where nothing looked on for him and then thundered the ball with devastating accuracy into the top left corner. I very much doubt he'll score one as good as that for a long time but I'd love to be proven wrong.
For a time after the goal it was West Ham versus Glen Johnson, and the one man was winning. They simply couldn't live with anything he did. First he cut inside and sent a panic through their defence making them swarm around him to block any shot attempt. This led to a shot by Gerrard which scuffed along the ground and in turn could have put Joe Allen or Jonjo Shelvey through on goal but they were blocked off. Even then the clearance came straight back at them as Sterling picked up the ball and fired narrowly wide at the near post. Raheem would have another - much more gilt edged - chance moments later as Johnson again won the battle out wide and then drove inside but his attempt on the turn wasn't timed perfectly and was dragged agonisingly wide. It was one way traffic, and not at all how you'd expect the team with no striker to be playing.
West Ham's efforts to close the space down in our own half were a fine idea. We've not been the best at keeping the ball under intense scrutiny this year and Allardyce would have seen how Spurs managed to exploit that in the early goings last Wednesday. However, even though they tried to rush us we were always able to find an extra pass which helped keep the ball moving. When we did lose possession, the pressure put on by the midfield - Gerrard and Lucas were particularly effective - made it so that it wouldn't be long before we had it back. There was also the matter of the gaping hole on one side of the pitch that they still hadn't been able to close. Once more Stevie found Johnson with a long ball out wide and again he cut inside with ease. This time there were around four or five claret and blue shirts around him, desperate to stop him but Johnson kept on going. Eventually the ball went out to Sterling and then back to Lucas who held the ball in quite an advanced position while we regrouped. The panic that seemed to set in whenever Johnson was on the ball was really quite something. Rarely does a right back upset a team like that. Then again, he is indeed a rare talent.
In an attempt to get back into the game, West Ham did Sam Allardyce proud; they went even more direct. It did lead to their first half chance for some time when Carlton Cole managed to get a head onto a really difficult ball and force Pepe Reina into a save but other than that we were dealing very well as a defensive unit in terms of stopping them from getting any knock downs. What was starting to creep into our play however was a little sloppiness in the middle of the park which allow West Ham some easy possession. Sterling losing the ball to Diame when Johnson had already gone ahead of him could have been a cause for major concern, likewise Downing and Shelvey giving it up softly. All the while Carlton Cole was starting to grow into the game as the Hammers continued to supply long balls for him to try and make something of. So much so was he becoming a nuisance that Martin Skrtel had to resort to a very dangerous shirt pull which the referee could easily have given a penalty for. A game which we had been in control of was about to slip out of our grasp completely.
Maybe Joe Cole's introduction wasn't the direct cause of our play for the rest of the half but it certainly contributed. Jose Enrique's injury meant that he had to come off and the former West Ham man make his return with Stewart Downing now moving over to the left back slot. This disruption to our shape was bad enough but in Joe Cole they saw a man they could target and a way to win the ball back very easily. His first touch very nearly gifted them possession and it was only when Cole was helped out by Lucas and Glen Johnson that we were able to get it up the field. By now the ball seemed to be coming straight back at us on every given opportunity, certainly West Ham would not turn down the chance to put the ball back into the box. We did have one chance on the break with Joe Allen releasing Stewart Downing in his new position down the left hand flank but his shot was blocked and the following attempt by Raheem Sterling was way over.
Getting a sense that they were starting to grow into the game we were faced with two options. Look for a second goal which would deflate them completely or take the sting out of the game by keeping the ball. We showed no signs of slowing and wanting to keep the ball for possessions sake in looking for the gaps to further keep West Ham down. While no real chances came out of our attempts to fashion a second goal they did look increasingly menacing on the counter attack, with Gerrard being forced into taking a yellow card for his challenge on Diame as he strode through the middle. It was a period in the game that we had to ride out and that if we could not give something silly away then the crowd and the tempo with which West Ham were playing would both die down. Unfortunately we couldn't do that however and when a cross was half cleared out to Guy Demel on the edge of the box and Joe Allen tried to close him down, the subsequent shot struck Allen's hand from about two yards. The referee pointed immediately to the spot.
It felt incredibly harsh, even agonising as Pepe Reina was so close to getting to the ball after Nolan stepped up and slotted it into the left hand side of the goal. Another contentious decision followed directly from kick off, with Sterling being kicked in the stomach by Matthew Taylor and the West Ham man only receiving a yellow card for the so called challenge. He may not have meant it but it was a really horrible looking attempt at winning the ball, which he came nowhere near doing. Having gotten back on parity, they sat back a little more and we once again camped out on the edge of their penalty area. The only problem this time was that we weren't able to do it for any real length of time for we'd give the ball away and they'd counter. Diame was taking over in the middle of the park and they really should have done better when he put Matt Jarvis through out wide but the break was so fast there was nobody there to take advantage. Still they managed to regroup and put another dangerous ball in which Taylor came close to heading goal bound with Reina coming out to meet him and not getting there. Though he was clearly in an offside position no flag was raised, fortunately for us however it went over.
Along with the extra muscle that seemed to be pushing us over in the middle of the park, Carlton Cole was really putting himself about in a way that was making the defence very anxious. Skrtel had already dealt with him with a couple of last ditch tackles and was clumsy in coming out and climbing all over the forward, conceding a free kick in the process right before half time. Having put all the big men in the box, West Ham played it out wide to Matt Jarvis whose cross was then met and put away beautifully, by Steven Gerrard of all people. In front and on top for so long we were now facing going into the break a goal down and as they backed off once more and let us play in front of them for the few minutes that remained, we did try to readdress the balance before Brendan Rodgers would have them in for a few words. Agger and Johnson strode forward but were unable to cut through their defence and Downing produced two half chances for Shelvey, both of which he was isolated by West Ham defenders but still managed to poke the ball goal ward - even if they did both go wide. The story of the first half was a strange in many ways but it's also one that we've read far too often recently. We were the better side for the majority but went into half time with nothing to show for it.
When things got back under-way they began with a microcosm of how the two teams had applied themselves thus far. West Ham went for a high hopeful ball into the forward positions, which led to Raheem Sterling winning the ball and running forward with it at pace. Neither side imposed themselves on things early on, mostly because the ball was bouncing around from one end to the other. There was space for us to pick the ball up in front of their back four but they were perfectly happy for us to have it there, knowing that they could funnel men back and stay strong so that we couldn't get through them. This allowed West Ham to put us instantly on the back foot whenever we would give up the ball and with them being so quick to get it out wide and then into the box we were constantly having to go back and forth between trying to attack and rescuing the ball.
As we went forward, our midfield play was naive for the most part in the second half. They wanted to get forward in support of Shelvey as quickly and often as possible and so Gerrard and Allen would stride into the attacking third, usually one of them with the ball and the other simply trying to make up the numbers. The problem with this was that Diame would be laying in wait and there he would be able to pick them off as there was no real attempt to play around him. Whenever he would get the ball back, virtually our entire midfield would be rendered redundant and this would be compounded even further by the play of Carlton Cole who was really getting in the faces of Agger and Skrtel, dragging them out into the wide positions and always managing to hold the ball up for West Ham. The final ball would always be either cut out or not good enough but the approach play and how effective it was is something of a worry.
While they had lots of room to play the ball in for Cole to drift and make a nuisance of himself, Jonjo Shelvey was having to come increasingly deep and move though a lot of traffic in an effort to get anything going. When he played it inside to Gerrard who then found Johnson finally in enough space to cross the ball, there was an illustration of how crowded it was in the penalty area with fourteen players (nine West Ham and five Liverpool) cramped inside there. Johnson continued to try and add some attacking verve just as he had done in the first half and likewise Daniel Agger went up the pitch but there was so much in the way of bodies in there that it would be difficult for anyone to find a way through. The one time we did manage to circumvent this was when they came on to us as Skrtel and Reina tried to play it out from the back. Pepe looked to have given it away completely but Lucas was able to come out with it. As we went ever forward though, instead of the speed of the move picking up it slowed right down and they were able to pull players back into position to which the move very quickly broke down.
Just as it looked as if the imagination had gone out of our play completely, there was a flicker. Stewart Downing had the ball on the left hand side and played it inside for Joe Cole who let it go through his legs. Sterling came on to it and hit the ball with the side of his foot first time to force Jaaskelainen into a save. Downing would have another chance for an assist moments later when he crossed in for Jonjo Shelvey who headed the ball just wide. West Ham may have seemed the more threatening side - especially on the counter - but with there only being one goal in the game it still hung in the balance. The problem was that there was no obvious direction that anyone could point to and say that they were likely to do it for us. Scoring wasn't even our immediate problem for that we needed to stop the stranglehold that they had in the middle of the park. A substitution for either side in the space of a few minutes changed all that.
The first change was made by Brendan Rodgers, with Lucas being replaced by Jordan Henderson. Adding his tenacity to the midfield was one thing but what happened next would help us win the battle in that area even more. Diame was running with the ball down the right hand side when he pulled up and reached for his hamstring immediately. Unfortunately for both he and West Ham his game was over. Injecting Henderson into the middle of the park was like adding a hyperactive person to a room full of insomniacs. There was a moment where Skrtel lost the ball with a pass forward and in the blink of an eye Jordan had tracked the man twenty yards to close him down. It was so much of a difference to the pedestrian way in which we'd approached the second half so far but we needed to make it count. Enter Joe Cole of all people.
When Stewart Downing had the ball at the back, nothing really looked on. His ball forward to Henderson then found it's way to Raheem Sterling on the left hand side. He drifted in and played a one two with Jonjo Shelvey and two things made the goal. The first was Sterling's pass which was first time and played to perfection while the second was Joe Cole's run in beyond to get onto the ball. Cole was at an angle and it wasn't the most straightforward of finishes but he managed to put it into the far corner to level the game up out of seemingly nowhere. Having found a goal we very quickly found our passing once more as West Ham were suddenly knocked by the idea of having to score again in a game they were so comfortable in. Sterling and Shelvey very nearly linked up immediately after the goal and behind them Henderson was having an affect on Joe Allen who looked like he'd woken up and was now rushing in to win the ball also. Even Martin Skrtel was winning his battle with Carlton Cole for a change. The game had all but turned around completely. It wouldn't take long for us to finish the job.
I'm not too concerned who go the final touch - although I would like to give credit to Jonjo Shelvey - it was a real sight to see us turning around a game which for so long had appeared completely lost. Once again the move that led to it was one of real quality also. First Gerrard came out with it on the left hand side and passed it off to Sterling and then Downing who cut inside. From one side to the other it eventually came to Glen Johnson on the right wing who slid a ball through to Jordan Henderson unmarked on the edge of the penalty area. The cross was good and even if Jonjo didn't get a touch, it was a marvellous flick over the head of Jaaskelainen that saw the ball bounce into the net and reclaim the lead for us once more.
After the third, West Ham looked down and out - more so than we had at any other point in the half. Joe Allen was bursting forward and looking dangerous on the break and nearly played in Raheem Sterling before moments later Downing was allowed the same space to approach their penalty area before he laid it off to Joe Cole who gave himself half a yard before shooting well over. When we weren't creating chances the ball was being passed around at the back with a great deal of ease. They were now leaving gaps and if a team was likely to score it would be ourselves rather than our hosts. Gerrard had two chances to cross, the first blocked before holding it up a second time and giving it to Glen Johnson. He then jinked inside and looked to be creating a chance for himself before eventually the ball came to Downing whose shot was blocked. If Downing had scored, that would have summed up just how much of a strange game this was.
Sebastian Coates came on for Joe Allen with just under five minutes to go as Brendan Rodgers looked to tighten things up at the back and prepare for the aerial bombardment that was coming. If anything, so much so had we taken them by surprise that they appeared to forget all the things they'd done well in the game prior to our second and we were able to clear with relative ease. Coates head, Reina's fists and Downing's boot. At the other end Jonjo Shelvey looked to put Raheem Sterling in one on one with the goalkeeper but appeared to have put too much on the pass as Jaaskelainen just about got there ahead of him. Then came a soft free kick won by Carlton Cole on the edge oft the penalty area which Modibo Maiga wildly put into the stand, wasting what was West Ham's last real chance of the game.
Into injury time and there was still time for the referee to make a questionable decision against us. Shelvey controlled a free kick with his chest and then turned into the penalty area. He was probably being fouled as he turned but when he was through on goal and taken out there would surely be no other recourse than a Liverpool penalty to wrap the game up completely. Apparently not. Raheem Sterling did manage to get the referee to blow in his favour shortly afterwards and then had a talking to Winston Reid which helped in our attempts to let the seconds tick by and for time to run out. There were a couple of high hopeful balls launched in the direction of Pepe Reina but nothing at all to make him worry. For the most part we had the ball in the final third and were keeping it in and around their penalty area. When Jonjo Shelvey went down with cramp we ended up playing another minute of stoppage time than was required but there was nothing left of this game and full time was called. The period after Jose Enrique went off up until our second goal was probably as bad as we've been all season but a win is still a win. The run we're on now is a good one and with some winnable games coming up we really could be marching up the table.
.bmp)
