Liverpool 1-0 West Ham (Nunez 22′)
ANFIELD — Like seeing a Bentley upended in a ditch, there is something strangely compelling about watching a record signing flounder.
Romelu Lukaku’s return to Chelsea, Nicolas Pépé at Arsenal, the long-ago agonies of Andriy Shevchenko at Stamford Bridge – all beg the question as to who signed off on the deal.
Amid all the debate as to whether Manchester City have an inbuilt financial advantage over Liverpool, it ought to be remembered that Darwin Nunez cost £30m more than the champions spent on Erling Haaland.
The Norwegian’s wages are considerably higher but £85m is a lot for a forward who last completed 90 minutes at Anfield when wearing the shirt of Benfica back in April.
It was that Champions League quarter-final, a 3-3 draw in which the Uruguayan was the dominant force, that made the transfer seem so thrilling. Unlike Jürgen Klopp’s usual front three, Nunez is a tall, powerful man, with a hint of Zlatan Ibrahimovic in his ability to shoot on the turn.
As Liverpool spluttered and stuttered through the season’s early weeks, Nunez, along with Trent Alexander-Arnold, became a fall guy of sorts. He speaks very little English and when he confessed to not understanding a word Klopp speaks, it gave the impression of an utterly lost boy.
He did not complete a full game but Nunez seized the occasion to prove what Liverpool saw in him. It was not just that he scored the night’s decisive goal – his first at Anfield – it was that he showed the full range of his pace and movement.
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West Ham gave the Uruguayan far too much space and time and paid the price in the 22nd minute. Kostas Tsimikas’ cross was headed hard into the ground and looped over Lukasz Fabianski’s gloves and into the corner of the net. A few minutes before, the Polish keeper had tipped a drive from Nunez over his bar. He had been warned.
There should have been a second as Nunez seized on Ben Johnson’s slip on the edge of the area, charged forward and aimed his shot squarely at Fabianski’s body. Then came another run, another turn and another, better shot which clattered against the post. He was replaced by Harvey Elliott before the hour was up as part of a triple substitution that seemed to make Liverpool lose balance.
Nevertheless, wins against Manchester City and now West Ham have pushed Liverpool within striking distance of the Champions League places. This victory could have been more emphatic. Roberto Firmino somehow contrived to miss in front of the Kop from a few yards out while Declan Rice deflected Jordan Henderson’s cross on to his own bar.
Mohamed Salah, who had scored nine times in his previous 10 appearances against West Ham, was sent through one-on-one against the goalkeeper. The statistics demanded he score. Fabianski thought otherwise.
After all the poison that accompanied Sunday’s win over Manchester City, Anfield returned to something like normal. Nobody pretended Klopp was leading a great crusade against a club owned by a dictatorial state.
Coins were not hurled at David Moyes as they had been at Pep Guardiola. There was no offensive singing, just choruses of football’s most bittersweet lament, “I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles”. Those who sang had not travelled in expectation, West Ham had recorded one league win at Anfield since the Beatles released “She Loves You”.
And yet, West Ham might have snatched something, particularly after Klopp brought off Thiago Alcantara which loosened Liverpool’s midfield control. Tomas Soucek was blocked by James Milner in miraculous fashion.
West Ham’s pivotal moment was their missed penalty, awarded just before the interval. Gareth Southgate was at Anfield and after Joe Gomez’s success in shackling Haaland on Sunday, he tangled with Jarrod Bowen inside his own area. Bowen took a poor penalty that Alisson Becker saved comfortably. It had been confirmed after Stuart Atwell had been persuaded to consult the pitch-side monitor.
Given Klopp’s outburst against the officials that had seen him dismissed on Sunday, there was a moment of tension as he passed the Liverpool manager. Klopp did not react at all.
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