West Ham United beat Liverpool 3-2 on Sunday, ending the Reds’ 25-match unbeaten run in all competitions. Some comical goalkeeping from Alisson from a corner gave West Ham an early lead after a VAR check. The hosts opted to sit back and protect their lead, but it backfired when Trent Alexander-Arnold equalized from a free-kick. In the second half, a break away goal from Pablo Fornals and Kurt Zouma’s header from another corner put the Hammers in a commanding position. But substitute Divock Origi struck with 10 minutes to go to set up a tense finale. Sadio Mané missed a glorious opportunity to nick a point in stoppage time.
For Liverpool, it’s not really the end of the world, even though they slipped to fourth. Thanks to leaders Chelsea dropping points, they’re still well within touching distance. For West Ham, what next? This victory fired them into third, above Liverpool, level with defending champions Man City, and just three points behind the leaders! Every week you think this is the end of the road, but no. They keep on delivering.
Last season, they finished sixth, with 65 points, their highest ever tallies in the Premier League. This season, they weren’t given much chance of repeating that, with Thursday night football added to the calendar. But let alone repeating, they’re perfectly poised to better that.
Not only are West Ham flying high in the league, they’re also into the quarterfinals of EFL Cup. The happy Hammers are taking the Europa League by storm too. West Ham are sitting pretty on top of their group, almost guaranteed to qualify for the next round. And this was the competition that was supposed to derail their season.
David Moyes deserves the credit for West Ham United’s success
The man running the show for the club is David Moyes. He has achieved an amazing transformation of the club in his two years. West Ham are no longer the whipping boys of the league, they are a fearless side who expect to win every week. Last season his West Ham side were criticised for not being able to offer much against the big boys, but he has rectified this season. David Moyes has already engineered wins over Man City, Man United, Liverpool and Spurs. It just doesn’t get any better, does it?
Moyes did well to keep Declan Rice
Holding on to Declan Rice has been crucial for the team’s success. He is growing day by day and is fast becoming the perfect box-to-box midfielder. His stock will only rise if he continues in this fashion and that’ll make it harder to price him away. Rice has formed a formidable partnership with Czech midfielder Tomáš Souček, who is an asset from set pieces too (more on that later).
The Souček-Rice midfield anchor is one which any club would look at with envy, none more so than perhaps Manchester United. They provide a platform for the likes of Pablo Fornals, Jarrod Bowen and Said Benrahma to thrive. That’s not to say those three are not hardworking. In fact, everyone in the team puts a shift in every week. Then there’s Michael Antonio up top.
With the addition of Europa League, many feared the lack of squad depth could pay dividends. But here we are, with David Moyes having the luxury of leaving Antonio completely for some Thursday nights. He’s rotating his players and keeping them happy, thereby getting the best out of everyone.
West Ham carry an inevitable threat from set pieces
Since January 2020, no team has scored more goals from dead-balls (excluding penalties) than West Ham. That has contributed to nearly a third of their goals in that time, which again is a league high. With the likes of Antonio, Souček, Zouma, Ogbonna and Dawson, coupled with fantastic deliveries of Cresswell, Fornals and Bowen, it seems almost inevitable that they’ll score a goal from a corner. Even a team like Liverpool conceded two goals from corners against the Hammers.
The only question is whether they can sustain this for the entirety of the season. Three of the top four spots look sealed already, but there’s no reason to think West Ham can’t make the fourth theirs. If they continue to perform this way, there’s no limit to what they can achieve this season.