London: Liverpool's English Premier League challenge received another early blow as an impressive West Ham beat last season's runner-up 3-1 on Saturday.
Liverpool was heavily favored to win at West Ham, but suffered successive league defeats for the first time since December. "We made a really slow start and before we knew it we were 2-0 down," Liverpool coach Brendan Rogers said. "We've a lot of work to do, and today was very disappointing."
West Ham manager Sam Allardyce was jubilant. "We deserved to win it, we had to give a more defensive performance in the second half as Liverpool threw caution to the wind," he said. "It was an outstanding performance."
The result took West Ham to eighth on the table, above Liverpool, which sits in 10th after five rounds. Liverpool was sluggish following its midweek Champions League exploits, as West Ham, and in particular Alex Song, on loan from Barcelona and starting his first match, dominated the midfield.
West Ham went ahead less than two minutes in as Stuart Downing's free kick was headed back across the goal by James Tomkins, only for defender Winston Reid to nod in from close range.
West Ham doubled its lead in the seventh minute through striker Diafra Sakho's superb chip that looped over Liverpool goalkeeper Simon Mignolet. It was his third goal in three starts since joining from French side Metz.
Liverpool was reeling, and left back Javier Manquillo was unceremoniously hauled off after 22 minutes. But the visitors rallied in the 26th when Mario Balotelli's shot was blocked and midfielder Raheem Sterling drove the rebound inside the far post.
After midfielder Adam Lallana was introduced at halftime, Liverpool passed with more fluidity and creativity, with West Ham under huge pressure for much of the rest of the match.
But West Ham substitute Morgan Amalfitano made sure of the points after being set up by Downing to score just before fulltime. Balotelli was subdued, his most meaningful contribution was to earn himself a caution for tussling with West Ham goalkeeper Adrian.
