West Ham’s draw with Liverpool all but kills both club’s ambitions for the season.
Due to their failure to win over the past few weeks, West Ham’s chances of getting European football seem low. They are now relying fully on other clubs to drop points and, even then, the Hammers have to maximise points in three difficult fixtures. In some way, the game was there for the taking today and it could be seen as a massive opportunity.
However, drawing with Liverpool is never a bad result and West Ham can take bragging rights in contributing to ending Klopp’s title hopes.
In the opening stages, both teams lacked enough quality to find an opener. The Reds had more of the ball and more chances, but the majority of them were not clear cut. Thankfully, it was the Hammers who took the lead just before the break. A quick corner from Emerson, and a lovely cross over from Kudus, allowed Bowen to head home to become West Ham’s joint top Premier League scorer in a single season. On top of this, he also now has the most headed goals in the league this season – he’s only 5’9.
Unfortunately, just after the break Liverpool pulled themselves level as Robertson squeezed the ball past Areola. The visitors piled on the pressure in the second-half, with Areola having to make some sensational saves. This resulted in them taking the lead in the 65th minute with a shot that deflected off of 3 different West Ham players.
Eventually, the Hammers did start coming back into the game and forced Alisson to pull some saves out of the top drawer. Even his impressive display wasn’t enough though as Bowen whipped in a cross on to the head of Antonio, who flicked it into the right hand side of the net wonderfully.
Both teams had their chances to win it, and West Ham were left bewildered by the fact they weren’t given a corner right at the end of the game. For both sides a draw was not really good enough but, from a West Ham perspective, you can’t be upset with a point.
European football is now well outside of our Irons control, unless fixtures go our way we will have to say our goodbyes to those special nights. Let’s just hope we don’t go out without a fight.