Source: Liverpool_Echo
Liverpool FC 3, West Ham Utd 0: Dominic King sees the Hammers' dismal Anfield record continue
WHAT a refreshing change. During a season that has seen complications and conundrums reign supreme, Anfield took great delight in welcoming the simple and straightforward home again last night.[LNB]Placing all talk about refinancing, debts, takeovers, upheaval in the Boot Room and unrest in the boardroom on the back burner, a smaller crowd than usual was able to sit back, relax and watch Liverpool canter to a routine victory.[LNB]There was no panic or angst, no simmering frustrations or nervous impatience but, perhaps, it was always destined to be this way; West Ham United never win at Anfield and they never once threatened to end a wretched sequence that spans almost 50 years.[LNB]Three goals separated these two teams at the final whistle but, had the Reds chosen to engage overdrive, it would not have been beyond the realms of possibility that they would have scored 13, so big was the gulf between the sides. [LNB]Easy pickings such as this do not come along all that often and though this result might not be enough to hoist them back into the top four come May 9, it at least gave them a fillip before they embarked today on their own version of planes, trains and automobiles.[LNB]A muted atmosphere early on suggested that it might have been another one of those nights to be endured rather than enjoyed and David Ngog's fluffing of a great chance inside three minutes did little to placate the anxieties of an anxious few.[LNB]They need not have worried. West Ham might have a likeable and decent manager but results have shown them to be a desperate side in a mediocre division and it is no surprise the relegation trapdoor is creaking heavily underneath them.[LNB]Should they fall out of the top flight, Gianfranco Zola - who has conducted himself with immense dignity in hugely testing circumstances - will be missed but the same cannot be said of their unctuous new owners, David Sullivan and David Gold.
