Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers bemoaned sloppy goals for their first defeat of the season after three successive clean sheets as West Ham United ended their 52-year wait for a league win at Anfield.
On-loan Al Jazira midfielder Manuel Lanzini, Mark Noble and Diafra Sakho scored the goals to bring a halt to Liverpool’s fine start to the 2015/16 season.
“We were disappointing today,” Rodgers said. “We went in with confidence high, but when you give away a goal so early it gave West Ham a boost.
“I think it was the overall performance with and without the ball. We disappointed right from the off.
“Once we conceded that early goal, we just couldn’t get back into the game.
“The morale and confidence has been really high and they have been developing and improving. A lot of it today was self-inflicted. We gave poor goals away and that was the biggest disappointment.”
Rodgers also said Philippe Coutinho was unlucky with his red card for two bookable offences, which means he will miss the trip to Old Trafford when the Premier League resumes after the international break.
“I thought both sending-offs were very harsh,” he said, referring to West Ham’s Mark Noble, who followed Coutinho off the pitch shortly after the Brazilian’s dismissal.
“He (the referee) must have real good ears if he could hear (dissent for Coutinho’s first caution) because there was some distance.
“If he has been booked for that I’ll be surprised, but it looked like that when I saw the replay.”
Even the harsh red card for Noble could not take the shine off the day for West Ham’s Slaven Bilic.
“It is three points, but it is one of those games which, for the fans especially, it is more than three points,” the Croatian said.
“Fifty-two years without winning here at a special stadium and we did it in style, we didn’t nick it.
“It was a great performance in 90 per cent aspects of the modern game, so it is more than three points.
“It is great for everyone. It is one of those games that will be written in the history books of our club – you can’t ask for more than winning 3-0 away at Liverpool.”
Manchester City 2 Watford 0
Raheem Sterling struck his first Manchester City goal as Manuel Pellegrini’s men maintained their flying Barclays Premier League start with a 2-0 win over Watford.
Fernandinho was also on target as City chalked up a club record 10th successive league victory with another empahtic performance at the Etihad Stadium.
The result completed a perfect start to the season for City, who will head into the international break with a record boasting 12 points from four games, 10 goals scored and none conceded.
Chelsea 1 Crystal Palace 2
Jose Mourinho’s 100th Premier League home match as Chelsea boss saw a second loss as Crystal Palace claimed their first win at Stamford Bridge in 33 years.
Chelsea secured the title with a 1-0 defeat of Palace on May 3 but the Eagles were triumphant on this occasion, stunning the hosts just when they thought Radamel Falcao had got them back into the game with his first goal for the Blues.
Joel Ward popped up to restore the lead, after Bakary Sako’s opener, as Palace earned a 2-1 win - their first at Stamford Bridge since 1982.
Palace have now won eight of their 10 away matches in the league under Pardew, who has three victories against Mourinho in the last two seasons.
Liverpool 0 West Ham United 3
West Ham ended one of the longest winless runs in top-flight history with their first victory at Anfield in almost 52 years as Liverpool’s defensive problems returned to haunt them in spectacularly bad style.
The curse of the manager’s press conference came to the fore as after praising the new defensive stability which brought three clean sheets, Brendan Rodgers saw his side concede the fastest goal of the season so far to Manuel Lanzini inside three minutes.
Rodgers had also championed Dejan Lovren for overcoming his problems in his maiden season and showing he could be a “top-class” centre-back but the £20milion Croatian repaid his manager’s praise with a disastrous piece of defending to allow Mark Noble to score.
The West Ham captain was harshly sent off late on, after Liverpool’s Philippe Coutinho had already been shown a second yellow card, but Diafra Sakho made it 3-0 in added time and 18,978 days after Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters - before they were World Cup winners with England - scored at Anfield, the Hammers had their long-awaited victory.
Bournemouth 1 Leicester 1
Jamie Vardy scored from the penalty spot with just four minutes remaining to maintain Leicester’s unbeaten start to the season at Bournemouth.
Bournemouth appeared to be on course for their first home victory in the Premier League after Callum Wilson’s acrobatic strike in the first half.
But Steve Cook hauled down Vardy in the penalty area and the Foxes striker then stepped up to score his side’s equaliser and ensure a 1-1 draw.
Newcastle 0 Arsenal 1
Arsenal laboured to their second win of the season with a highly-charged 1-0 victory against 10-man Newcastle United at St James’ Park on Saturday.
Having defended manfully following the 16th-minute dismissal of Aleksandar Mitrovic, Newcastle captain Fabricio Coloccini deflected Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s goal-bound shot into his own net in the 52nd minute.
In a match that also featured six yellow cards Arsenal dominated possession but were far from their dazzling attacking best and have only scored three goals, including two own-goals, in four games this season.
Stoke City 0 West Brom 1
Stoke sunk to a 1-0 defeat to West Brom after having two men sent off in the space of six first-half minutes on ex-Potters boss Tony Pulis’ maiden return to the Britannia Stadium.
Ibrahim Afellay and Charlie Adam both appeared to only have themselves to blame as they were shown straight red cards in the 25th and 31st minutes respectively, the former having put his hand in the face of Craig Gardner and the latter seeming to stamp on Craig Dawson.
West Brom - again with Tottenham target Saido Berahino not part of their squad - subsequently grabbed the lead in first-half stoppage time as Salomon Rondon headed in his first goal since joining for a club-record £12million over the summer.
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