Boos at the final whistle have hardly been in short supply at the London Stadium this season, but this was different, as West Ham’s revival suffered a dent last night.
The defeat brought an end to a five game unbeaten run since the 5-1 drubbing by Newcastle at the start of the month, but while those who had bothered staying the course on that occasion jeered their team off, here the only fury was directed at referee Chris Kavanagh.
The controversy came late on, when Liverpool’s Thiago Alcantara handled while sliding in to block a Danny Ings pass inside the penalty area. Neil Swarbrick, on VAR, deemed the incident not worthy of a review.
These days it is easy to shrug the shoulders at such occurrences, to accept that the complexities of an evolving handball law have grown beyond the parameters of one’s own pea-sized brain, like those bits in The Big Short where things all get a little too sub-prime mortgagey and you have to rewind to hear Margot Robbie explain it all again.
Seen them given, seen them not — the latter certainly the case of Tomas Soucek’s fine ‘save’ here against Chelsea in February, which prompted then Blues head coach Graham Potter to joke that “sometimes you need your goalkeeper to get you the points”.
The ball having travelled no distance off the boot of Ings, this appeared a less egregious non-decision on first viewing, but beneath his fury David Moyes made a decent case after full-time.
“You’ll probably hear them coming out with some rubbish about he needed to break his fall, but if you lunge, it’s your own fault for lunging and being out of control in the tackle,” said the West Ham manager.
“When you lunge for the ball, for me, that completely nullifies anything they’re talking about breaking your fall.”
Moyes fears the decision could have ramifications come the end of the season — “They might need to apologise to the football club, because we’re trying to get points to be a Premier League team,” he said — but in truth, this was another performance to suggest that survival may be wrapped up more comfortably than looked possible even a few weeks ago.
Despite the defeat, ultimately brought about by Joel Matip’s free header after Cody Gakpo had answered Lucas Paqueta’s long-range effort with one of his own, the Hammers remain five points clear of relegation and can extend that cushion when they travel to Crystal Palace in Saturday’s lunchtime kick-off. Paqueta was the latest player to offer hope that he is ready to put an underwhelming season behind him with a vital contribution in the run-in.
The signals that the club’s record signing is finding his feet in English football have been there for months, but until recently they have been found more in his industry than the creative flair he was bought to deliver, rather like using a sports car to plough a field.
The Brazilian’s opener here, though, was his third goal in as many games in the space of seven days and the highlight of his Hammers career so far, a strike that was simultaneously a wonderful team goal and an individual screamer, as the midfielder picked up from Said Benrahma’s exquisite touch and exchanged a one-two-three-four with Michail Antonio before firing past international team-mate Alisson from 25 yards.
“He scored a really good goal, a well-worked goal,” said Moyes. “We are beginning to see all-round better performances from him — and popping up with the goals helps as well. He is beginning to look like he is settling in much better.”
Gakpo’s reply came only six minutes later, crashed in off the base of the post before, midway through the second half, Matip found himself unmarked to head home from Andy Robertson’s corner.
Minutes earlier, Jarrod Bowen looked to have swung the game the home side’s way, latching on to an incisive Paqueta pass to stand up Vigil van Dijk and drive into the far corner, but VAR, correctly, intervened.
That it chose not to soon after stoked the ire of a stadium and a manager that felt their team deserved more.
