November Respite: Why Liverpool at Home Offers Hope
November looks like a challenging time but there might be some rest bite coming our way from an unlikely source, that being the visit of Liverpool. And no, I’ve not lost my marbles by saying that.
Our trips to Anfield have not been happy ones – they have been downright miserable but that cannot be said for the games back in London. It’s true to say that in the same fixture last season, we were trounced 5-0 and history shows that out of 152 games against the red side of Liverpool, we have lost a huge 85 games and drawn 40.
That just leaves a measly 27 wins for the team in claret and blue. But there have been some memorable results for us Hammers. Having been a Hammer for over 50 years, I thought I would narrow it down to the years during my time as a season ticket holder and that takes me way back to the late nineties.
I have seen West Ham beat Liverpool an amazing seven times in London, that’s a pretty good return considering we’ve played them since 1901 and I have seen 27% of our wins against them.
Boleyn Battles: The 2011 Relegation Rest-Bite
My first game was in 1998 and we won that one 2-1. We immediately followed that with a 1-0 win in 1999, two 1-1 draws in 2000 and 2001 and then waited until 2008 for our next result. It then took us three years for our next win and what a win it was.
Liverpool arrived at the Boleyn on the 27th February 2011 with us bottom of the league. We had the worst home record in the Premier League with just three wins and this game was a brief rest-bite in a season of abject failure.
Watching from my seat in the Centenary lower, I wasn’t the only one surprised by the team I witnessed that day. A rare outing for Thomas Hitzlsperger in tandem with Scotty Parker in midfield seemed to nullify the Liverpool midfield. It was probably Hitzlsperger’s greatest performance as a Hammer.
And then with 22 minutes gone, Parker played a one-two with Hitzlsperger and finished with finesse as he put a strike out of the reach of Reina’s despairing dive. And then on the stroke of half time up popped Dema Ba to head in a second that sent Liverpool to the dressing room crestfallen.
It wouldn’t be West Ham if they didn’t have us on the edge of our seats biting our nails and sure enough former Hammer Glen Johnson tapped in a goal to make it 2-1. But with minutes to go and Liverpool pressing, Joe Cole scored our third to make us all believe we could actually get out of this relegation hell.
Sadly we followed this up with just one further win and ended up bottom of the league. But in a season of abject failure, it was a bright moment. As for Liverpool it was the start of the Kenny Dalglish era, a sixth place league finish, one to forget.
Allardyce’s Respite: The Final Boleyn League Win
This win was followed a few years later by our final Boleyn win against the red half of Liverpool in September 2014. Having lost both previous home games, it was beginning to look worrying. Sam Allardyce was making no friends but again this was a rest bite in a season of disruption that ultimately led to Big Sam leaving the club.
We started brightly is an old saying and in this instance it was right. Two goals, the first from Winston Reid and the second from Diafro Sakho, in just a few minutes immediately gave us a two nil score line and Liverpool on the back foot. Worryingly Sterling pulled one back.
The second half was tense with us being hit hard and at times it looked like an equaliser was on the cards. However, Liverpool were vulnerable on the counter-attack and as time ticked down, Downing’s pass released Amalfitano, who applied the clinical finish, 3-1 up and no time for Liverpool to respond.
The whole Boleyn erupted at that final whistle. Liverpool had 62% possession but our tactics showed that the counter attack was effective with more shots, 13, and a staggering seven on target. As with our win three years earlier, it was a bright moment in a dire football season that despite a 12th place finish, saw Allardyce lose his job. Once more it was a sixth place finish for Liverpool and no cups.
The 2015/16 Golden Spell: League Double and Cup Magic
Then comes, in my eyes, our finest few months against Liverpool. On the 29th August 2015 at Anfield, we beat Liverpool 3-0. That was followed in January 2016 by a 2-1 victory at the Boleyn.
Then in typical West Ham fashion, not only do we get drawn against Liverpool in the FA Cup, but we get drawn away from home. But a 0-0 away draw led to a magical 2-1 victory in February. In our last season at the Boleyn, every game seemed to be special in many ways.
This series of games gave us our first league double over Liverpool in 52 years. The league win put us in contention for not only a European place but a Champions League place. It also gave us our fifth clean sheet in seven and showed why rightly James Collins gained the nickname the Ginger Pele.
It also marked the real introduction of Michail Antonio as a goal scoring sensation. If it wasn’t for a bad decision at Old Trafford, we would have reached the FA Cup semi final. Ultimately we finished 7th in the league in what was one of the greatest seasons I have ever seen in my 50 years of being a supporter.
As for Liverpool, they finished a place below us in 8th, upper mid-table, coincidence to their current plight? Surely not.
The London Stadium Era: Breaking the Unbeaten Run
And so ended the Boleyn years. The London Stadium has not been as giving as the Boleyn years. The win in November 2021 was our first win in the last 11 meetings in the Premier League since January 2016, having lost eight.
That game’s highlight was the fact that we ended Liverpool’s 25 game unbeaten run. Also the fact that Liverpool failed in their attempt to equal the all-time English record of scoring three or more goals in seven consecutive away league games set by Small Heath (now Birmingham City) in League Division Two in September 1893.
As for West Ham, we had won seven of our opening games for only the second time in our top tier history. The game was thrilling in that the result was unclear until the final whistle with both teams being competitive.
Sadly though highlights at the London stadium have not been as forthcoming as those at the Boleyn. But just maybe this November all that will change. Well I live in hope.
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