David Moyes delivers on brutal Jurgen Klopp promise as West Ham end Liverpool title hopes. West Ham fought back to earn a 2-2 draw against Liverpool at London Stadium and all but end Jurgen Klopp’s side’s pursuit of the Premier League title
As Anthony Taylor blew the full-time whistle, signalling the end of Liverpool’s title hopes, Jurgen Klopp stood passively, his hands behind his back.
Minutes earlier the departing Reds boss had his star player roaring at him in disgust on the touchline – a moment that summed up the mood approaching the conclusion of a season that promised so much but will end in deep uncertainty.
Liverpool were mostly awful here against a West Ham side that were scarcely better, one exhausted team lacking ideas against another.
Beforehand David Moyes, also expected to depart at the end of the season, had described Klopp as “up there with the very best” of Premier League managers, alongside “Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger, Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola.”
Mo Salah and Jurgen Klopp in touchline row with Liverpool star forced to intervene
Yet the Scot’s record has been miserable versus Klopp (winning just one of 14 meetings) – not an easy thing to accept when he has “previously been the manager of two of Liverpool’s biggest rival clubs”.
So when Moyes said “we hope we can ruin one of his final games as Liverpool manager” it felt like hope was doing a lot of heavy lifting.
However hope flirted with expectation when Jarrod Bowen put the Hammers, whose hopes of a fourth straight season in Europe have faded in the past month, in front during a dismal opening 45 minutes.
It would be kind to describe the first half as turgid. They both resembled teams waiting for summer to roll around. Long spells of nothing happening were interspersed with possession carelessly being coughed up.
Bowen looked livelier than anyone, twice trying his luck and embarking on a couple of threatening dribbles that at least snapped dozing fans out of their slumber.
And despite five changes to Liverpool’s starting XI, the visitors still seemed heavy-legged as the reshuffled front three tuned into different frequencies.
Harvey Elliott hit the side netting, Luis Diaz blasted over and Cody Gakpo had a penalty appeal initially awarded before being rescinded because of an offside in the buildup. Not even an interminable VAR delay for Tim Robinson to get his geometry set out could produce a meaningful reaction of fury from the stands.
Diaz did show a flash of quality when cutting in from the left five minutes before the break, sending a low shot off the post.
Yet Bowen, on a one-man drive to stick the final nail in the Reds’ title coffin, was soon putting West Ham in front with his 20th goal, all competitions, of a very impressive season.
He had earned the corner with a deflected shot that Alisson Becker did well to keep out. But the Brazilian goalkeeper was unable to deny the England international’s header from the ensuing set piece.
But it was more so a case of more dawdling from the defence. Emerson had taken the corner short when Liverpool were still sorting out who to mark, allowing Mohammed Kudus to wing the ball in for Bowen to cause the damage.
Jarrod Bowen celebrates scoring the opening goal for West Ham against Liverpool.
Klopp, no doubt after reading the riot act during the interval, was soon witnessing a response from his side and Andy Robertson’s equaliser brought an unsurprising shift in momentum.
Still, their second goal was messy and, from a West Ham point of view, carrying a whiff of misfortune. Gakpo swiped at a shot that was heading off target but it came off Angelo Ogbonna and diverted goalwards. Tomas Soucek tried to clear it off the line but instead sent the ball off Alphonse Areola and into the net.
Diaz, twice, and Mac Allister were then denied by Areola as Liverpool pursued a third to kill the game.
But West Ham, out of nothing, battled back and Michail Antonio – hitherto an anonymous figure – leaped to send a fine header past Alisson having been teed up by Bowen.
Salah was waiting patiently to come on at that point, sparking what TV footage suggested was a furious row with Klopp.
And while a draw did little to boost West Ham’s case for ending up in the top seven at the end of next month, Moyes’ ambition to ruin Klopp’s dream at least came through. Even if it was above all a case of Liverpool shooting themselves in the foot.
