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Not content with winning at Anfield for the first time since 1963 earlier in the season, West Ham completed the double over Liverpool at the Boleyn on Saturday with a thoroughly satisfying team performance.

The 2-0 win - courtesy of goals from Michail Antonio and Liverpool's record signing, Andy Carroll - means that the Hammers have put five goals past the once-mighty Merseysiders this season without reply and also ensured Slaven Bilic's team completed the double over Liverpool from the first time in 51 years.

Although Jurgen Klopp's arrival hints at a promising future for the Reds, the current squad is one of the weakest to have visited east London in the last half century and West Ham's win was no fluke, nor surprise. Despite seeing less of the ball the Irons were by far the better team on the day, created more goalscoring opportunities and could have won by an even greater margin.




All in all it was an overwhelmingly positive day for West Ham, who also welcomed the creative genius of Dimitri Payet back into the side. The French international wasted no time in showing the Boleyn faithful what they had missed in recent weeks as a sublime exhibition of trickery left three opponents looking foolish within seconds of his introduction as a second half substitute.

But West Ham being West Ham, something had to go wrong - and the sight of Manuel Lanzini limping off whilst clutching his thigh after just 39 minutes - in only his second game since returning from injury - was an all-too depressingly familiar sight in a season in which most of the club's key players have suffered from a serious injury at some stage.

The Argentine midfielder joins key men Winston Reid and Diafra Sakho on the sidelines - whilst Alex Song, Angelo Ogbonna, Enner Valencia, Andy Carroll and the aforementioned Payet have also experienced major injuries this season.

Yet West Ham continue to confound their critics and ended the day sixth in the Premier League - and remain unbeaten since losing at Tottenham back in November, some eight matches previously. Seven of the team's 32 points arrived over Christmas too - hopefully putting to bed the myth that West Ham come down with the Christmas decorations!




Next weekend the FA Cup takes centre stage as West Ham welcome Wolverhampton Wanderers to the Boleyn Ground for the final time before we up sticks and move to Stratford this summer.

There have been some memorable meetings between the two teams over the years, although few will come close to matching the Barclays Division 1 clash in March 1993 when the current Championship side were the first visitors to an emotional Boleyn Ground awash with wreaths and flowers following the untimely death of Bobby Moore.

* An abridged version of this article also appears in The Echo.

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