This weekend we saw three of the best penalty takers in the country in action. Yaya Toure and Rickie Lambert both scored at the Etihad and Steven Gerrard scored another two on Sunday to make it 10 in the league. Toure has now netted six times from the spot in 2013-14 while Lambert has scored 34 out of 34 for Southampton.
Steven Gerrard’s greatest triumphs in a Liverpool shirt have often been achieved via penalties. The shoot-out in the Champions League final in Istanbul; the FA Cup final win in 2006 that bears his name. To collect a league title this way, however, would be a unique accomplishment.
Yet here it is: the 12-yard title charge. Gerrard’s coolness from the spot has come to define Liverpool’s campaign as much as the brilliance of Luis Suarez, his SAS partnership with Daniel Sturridge or the emergence of Raheem Sterling as a young man of serious importance.
Gerrard scored two penalties on Sunday to take his total for the season to 11, including one in the FA Cup against Arsenal. He missed one of three at Manchester United or he would already have equalled the record for Premier League penalties converted in a single season, held by Andy Johnson at Crystal Palace in 2004-05.
VIDEO Scroll down to watch post-match reactions from Rodgers and Allardyce
Crucial: Steven Gerrard celebrates after scoring his second penalty of the afternoon to hand Liverpool three points
Moans: Liverpool had complaints of their own, however, as Andy Carroll fouled Simon Mignolet for Guy Demel to score the equaliser
Deliberations: The assistant referee and Taylor discuss West Ham's equaliser
Complaint: West Ham players were furious at the awarding of the second penalty - replays showed that goalkeeper Adrian clearly touched the ball first
Sam Allardyce, the West Ham United manager, complained bitterly about the winner, but it was no more than Liverpool, and Gerrard, deserved. West Ham ran the latest league leaders close but the best team won, and few will begrudge Liverpool’s captain if his serenity under immense pressure ends in a long overdue title win.
Gerrard has been the heart and soul of this club for more than a decade now. This would be his crowning glory and his contribution to it cannot be underestimated on days like this when Liverpool have to dig deep for victory.
West Ham are on a decent run right now and this was no walkover. Allardyce’s team play to their strengths via Andy Carroll and represent a physical test that might have intimidated a lesser opponent.
Brendan Rodgers, the Liverpool manager — who pulled the Grand National winner from the club sweepstake on Saturday, so is clearly in a bit of form himself — was right to laud the performances of his centre halves, particularly Martin Skrtel. Liverpool’s defence has been identified as the chink in the armour but they stood up to a battering on Sunday, limiting Carroll to one genuine chance, and an assist on a goal that should never have stood.
It was not a good day for referee Anthony Taylor. He not only missed a very obvious foul on Liverpool goalkeeper Simon Mignolet for West Ham’s equaliser, but overruled the man who got the call right.
Match facts
West Ham (4-2-3-1): Adrian 5.5, Demel 6.5, Reid 7, Tomkins 7, Armero 6, Noble 6.5, Taylor 6 (Jarvis 78), Diame 6.5 (Cole 85), Nolan 5 (Nocerino 68, 5), Downing 5, Carroll 6.5.
Subs not used: Jaaskelainen, C Cole, J Cole, Potts, Johnson.
Booked: Tomkins, Adrian, Nocerino, Armero.
Goals: Demel 45.
Manager: Sam Allardyce 6.5
Liverpool: Mignolet 7, Johnson 6, Skrtel 7, Sakho 6, Flanagan 6, Henderson 6.5, Gerrard 8, Coutinho 5 (Lucas 45, 7), Suarez 7, Sterling 6, Sturridge 5.5 (Toure 85).
Subs not used: Jones, Toure, Cissokho, Moses, Allen, Aspas.
Goals: Gerrard (pen) 44, (pen) 71.
Manager: Brendan Rodgers 7
Ref: Anthony Taylor 6
Att: 34,977
Man of the match: Gerrard
*Player ratings by Matt Barlow from Upton Park
Delight: Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers embraces his players on the pitch at full-time
No complaint: West Ham could make no argument when James Tomkins handled from the first penalty
Cool: Gerrard sends Adrian the wrong way to coolly score the opening goal
On target: Gerrard and Liverpool players celebrate the goal
In
many ways, Taylor did the English game few favours. The chaos caused
by Carroll in the area will be pounced upon by those who support his
inclusion in the England squad, but there is no way his challenge on
Mignolet would pass muster at a World Cup in Brazil.
Well not the 2014 edition anyway; in 1950 he might have stood a chance.
West
Ham’s goal completed a whirlwind of activity shortly before half-time. Until then, the game had followed a predictable pattern.
West Ham hustling with good purpose, Liverpool probing, trying to find a way through using the wonderful invention of Suarez. He struck a free-kick just over after three minutes, hit the bar with a lovely chip after 20 and played in Sterling for a disappointing shot minutes later.
West Ham’s back four was standing up well, but in the 43rd minute, Suarez won the breakthrough. He moved dangerously inside James Tomkins, who cut out the ball with a hand.
It is almost the Uruguayan’s party piece now. Suarez turns and flicks the ball up, the defender, beaten, handles and the official points to the spot. From there Gerrard scores, on this occasion low, to the right, calm as anything. His 173rd goal for Liverpool, equalling the record of one Kenneth Mathieson Dalglish.
Celebrations: Liverpool fans let off a smoke grenade after Gerrard made it 1-0
That way: The assistant referee appeared to flag for a free kick on Mignolet for Demel's equaliser
Fortune: Demel (centre) is mobbed by West Ham players after he poked in from a yard out
Argument: Jordan Henderson argues with Anthony Taylor as the half-time whistle blows
‘You’re not fit to referee,’ the locals told Taylor, an apt criticism but slightly premature. They had to wait a further two minutes to receive support for that theory.
Mark Noble whipped in a corner which was being caught by Mignolet right up until the moment Carroll contrived to connect with his cheek, then his arms, effectively knocking the ball from his hands.
Guy Demel put the ball in from a yard out, almost guiltily. Taylor gave the goal, but furious protests directed him to Burt, who had his flag raised. The men consulted but it ended in the most monumental cock-up. Taylor gave the goal.
A quick peek at the screens would have revealed the folly of the decision. Carroll as good as went at the ball one arm raised, like Superman.
For the supposed best target man in the country this seems a bizarre method to say the least, but if referees are going to be as casual as Taylor, maybe it is what every team needs. A midfield schemer, a leader at the back, and someone to punch the keeper in the head at corners.
Contact: There was contact between Flanagan and Adrian but the keeper got to the ball first
Fury: It was now West Ham's turn to row with Anthony Taylor
Delight: Gerrard's second goal sent Liverpool back to the top of the Premier League
All these advocates of Total Football are clearly missing a trick.
And
so, nursing a massive sense of injustice, Liverpool disappeared to
regroup at half-time. They did so with the addition of Lucas for
Philippe Coutinho, matching West Ham’s midfield steel with a grafter of
their own.
It was an intelligent switch, but they were almost chasing the game when, after 61 minutes, a cross from the right by Mohamed Diame was met by Carroll — legitimately this time — thundering the ball against the bar.
Yet as the game wore on, so the advantage began to favour Liverpool, and in the 70th minute they were ahead.
Lucas’s raking diagonal ball found Jon Flanagan on the overlap and Adrian came chasing from the West Ham goal. He got a little of the ball, but a lot of Flanagan, and Taylor’s straight arm teed up Gerrard a second time. This penalty was a thing of beauty: to the left, high, in the corner, emphatic. It could have been a session at the end of training, not a goal that may yet decide the title race.
Frustration: West Ham boss Sam Allardyce argues with the fourth official after the penalty
Effort: West Ham skipper Kevin Nolan takes a shot at Liverpool's goal
Allardyce was furious, but he would be. He claimed Flanagan was already falling before meeting Adrian, which he wasn’t. Few would confuse Liverpool’s left-back with a serial diver. He seems more of a throwback to simpler times. He even wears black boots, for heaven’s sake.
From there, Liverpool saw it out confidently. Suarez hit the bar again with an exquisite chip off the outside of his boot and forced a good stop from Adrian going through one on one. A shot in injury time from Sterling then produced the save of the match.
Next
week is a potential decider, obviously, as Manchester City visit
Anfield. Win that, and the title will be Liverpool’s to lose. The
English season is a marathon, we are often told, and now the finishing
line is in sight. Yet victories like this are equally important, the
days when champions are forged in adversity. Even if the race is just 12
yards.
Feeding off the crowd’s energy, Everton tore forward. Mirallas was twice denied by Szczesny, while Barkley — on for the injured Osman — also forced the Arsenal keeper into action before Lukaku grabbed the decisive second goal.
Tumble: Suarez goes to ground after a robust tackle
Unlucky: Suarez sees his shot cannon back off the crossbar
It was a cracker, too. Mirallas seized on a ball from Naismith and sent Lukaku, deployed on the right by Martinez, skipping clear. With Vermaelen and Per Mertesacker backing off, Lukaku crashed a drive beyond Szczesny. Game over.
Wenger must have feared a repeat of the 5-1 or 6-0 defeats inflicted on Arsenal by Liverpool and Chelsea when Mirallas harassed Arteta into putting through his own goal and there will have been little solace that Everton stopped at three.
In the far corner of the Bullens Road stand, where the Arsenal fans were sitting, there was just a stunned silence. A campaign that offered them the chance to dream at the turn of the year is turning into a nightmare. At the final whistle, Wigan manager Uwe Rosler left with a spring in his step.
His team meet Arsenal in Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final at Wembley and a repeat of this abject display by the Gunners will surely mean they will again finish without silverware for a 10th successive year.
Most worryingly for Wenger, any more days as bad as this and Champions League football — which he regards as a trophy — will disappear, too.
Sliding in: Raheem Sterling tackles Matthew Taylor
Onward: Mohamed Diame drives at the Liverpool defence
Shaping up: Suarez strikes a free-kick in the opening minutes
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