ALISSON HAS A NIGHTMARE & 4 THINGS WE LEARNED AS WEST HAM HAND LIVERPOOL FIRST LOSS OF THE SEASON

November 7, 2021 Paul Liverpool 0

West Ham 3-2 Liverpool: Reds unbeaten run ends as Hammers move into third

Liverpool and West Ham would go head-to-head at the London Stadium a short time ago.

The Reds headed into the game looking to continue their unbeaten start to the campaign in all competitions.

They were also aware that, after Chelsea dropped points on Saturday, Liverpool could close the gap on the league leaders with a win against the Hammers.

But when all was said and done in London, the Merseysiders actually fell to a shock defeat.

West Ham took the lead after just over three minutes when Alisson failed to clear or catch the ball from a corner.

Liverpool were able to hit back shortly before the break, though, went Trent Alexander-Arnold bent a superb free-kick past Lukasz Fabianski.

West Ham hit back 66 minutes in, though, with a fine counter that was finished of by Pablo Fornals.

The Londoners then killed the game off less than 10 minutes later by scoring from another corner. Divock Origi did come off the bench to pull one back, but it was too little, too late, with West Ham handing Liverpool their very first loss of the campaign.

Here are four things 101 learned from the match.

West Ham’s secret weapon

West Ham may not, on paper, have the most star-studded squad. However, they are a very well-coached side and this allows them to continually challenge for European places under their current boss.

One of the biggest things David Moyes has improved with the Hammers since he returned for his second stint in the dugout has been set-pieces.

The Londoners would once again score from a set-piece on Sunday and, as per Opta, since Moyes’ first game back in charge of West Ham in January 2020, they have scored 31 Premier League goals from set-piece situations (excluding penalties), five more than any other side.

But as that stat was posted after the first goal, it is now 32 as Kurt Zouma would also score from a corner.

Andy Robertson continues to struggle

Andy Robertson has been one of the best left-backs in the world over the last several years and has been instrumental in Liverpool’s success.

However, the Scotsman has been having something of a rough patch of late, which saw some fans question if he should be dropped following their draw with Brighton last weekend.

And Jurgen Klopp would indeed bench Robertson in midweek when the Reds faced off with Atletico Madrid.

However, he was back in the starting line-up on Sunday. But despite being given a rest in midweek, Robertson again looked some way off his best on the day.

The full-back was particularly poor going forward, and would, at one point in the first 45, burst forward before completely miskicking an attempted cross.

Alexander-Arnold is superb

But whilst Robertson had something of subpar showing against West Ham, his full-back counterpart experienced quite the opposite.

As already mentioned, Alexander-Arnold scored a superb goal to level things up in the first 45.

Now, despite only turning 23 last month, Trent now has 45 PL goal involvements for Liverpool, which is the joint-most of any defender in the club’s history.

Alexander-Arnold also had a fairly stellar defensive display against the Hammers, putting in some crucial tackles.

Alisson had a nightmare

It is fair to say that Alisson was nowhere near his best across the 90 minutes on Sunday.

The Brazilian’s attempt to come for the ball for the Hammers’ first goal was very, very weak.

Then, though it was not his fault Liverpool gave the ball away too easily for the second goal, the keeper should have done much better when attempting to block Fornals’ strike.

Alisson also did not cover himself in glory for West Ham’s 3rd of the day either. An evening to forget for Alisson and Liverpool in general.

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