West Ham United 2 - Liverpool 2
Bowen 43'
Robertson 48'
Areola 65' (og)
Antonio 77'
Usually when I write one of these pieces it is because Liverpool has had a rubbish season and has fallen more than 10 points behind the leader. In the history of English football, the only time that any team has fallen to more than 10 points behind the leader of the league was a Manchester United side in the late 1990s. This time around, Liverpool's season has ended in part to a piece of absolutely horrendous officiating.
In this match at the London Stadium, Liverpool started as they had done when they went down to Everton midweek - flat. I do not know if the team is tired, but losing a Merseyside derby should have been at least a spark a fire in their belly. It did not. The opening 45 minutes was a turgid morass of sludge and Liverpool had exactly zero shots on goal; which wasn't even due to stout defending by West Ham.
Deep into the first half, Mohammed Kudus' cross to seemingly nowhere in particular, was met with the head of Jarrod Bowen who seemed to be stunned that he was not only in space but that he was given free reign to turn the ball goalward. At half time, the Hammers were indeed blowing bubbles and Liverpool were blowing chunks. The curious stat at the end of the first half was that West Ham United was up 1-nil; with no shots having been made by either side.
Not long after play resumed, we actually did get the opening shot of the match, which was also turned into a goal, when Luis Diaz's worm burner through the penalty area found the feet of Andy Robertson who took one step to centre himself and then drove the ball home as though the season depended on it (because at this stage of the match, it still did).
What followed was a period of pressure in which Liverpool appeared to come back to life and not long after the hour mark, Cody Gakpo blasted in a shot on the end of a corner kick, which pinballed around the six yard box. Gakpo's shot bounced off Angelo Ogbonna, Tomas Soucek and finally Alphonse Areola, before coming to rest on the inside of the West Ham goal.
This should have been the end of proceedings with Liverpool pressing deep into West Ham's half, before a break away and a massive cross which saw Antonio thump in a solid header, to put the Hammers back on equal terms. Meanwhile on the sidelines, Mohamed Salah was livid as he and Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp exchanged decidedly Saxon words. For all of Salah's vitriol though, he played 20 minutes of limp and aimless football. If he did manage to get a shot on goal, then I didn't see it.
The thing is that this match should not have ended 2-2. What happened was this howler:
West Ham goalkeeper Łukasz Fabiański rolled the ball away and Gakpo was about to cheekily steal it away and score what should have been an obvious goal; then for whatever reason unknowable to the realms of logic, science, common sense, and common decency, referee Michael Oliver stopped play and waved on the medical staff despite and in spite of the fact that Fabiański was in no need of medical attention whatsoever. This purely looks like Michael Oliver knows that he messed up badly and has tried to cover it up in full view of the watching world.
If Liverpool hadn't been so ineffectual at Everton and here then their title race would still be alive but now their title hopes appear to be all but over. Liverpool now must rely on both Arsenal and Manchester City to slip up as badly as they have, to even have a hope of being back in the title race. Logically, if all of Arsenal and Manchester City win their remaining games then the final table at the end of the last day looks like this.
Man City - 33 - 76 -> 38 - 91
Arsenal - 34 - 77 -> 38 - 89
Liverpool - 35 - 75 -> 38 - 84
Aston V - 35 - 67 -> 38 - 76
It must be said that I am usually on the side of referees. Sometimes they will make mistakes and sometimes they will get a ruling wrong. That's fine. Referees are only human. However, something needs to be said about Michael Oliver's competence. I have serious questions about various referee's ability and integrity to officiate games.
Consider this offering involving Arsenal's Declan Rice:
Referee Michael Oliver actually waved this away as no penalty. The passage of play which followed this, saw Arsenal score. As for Michael Oliver, he can not claimed to have not seen this incident because he is literally five yards away and looking directly at it. How can anyone miss this? The only conclusion that makes sense to me is that either Michael Oliver has failed upwards as a referee and just happens to have friends in high place because very clearly, he is not fit for purpose. Or, and this scares me, is that being a referee in the Premier League where millions of pounds exchange hands in betting pools, that he is on the take.
Now given that there are billions if not trillions of petropounds which now fund the Premier League as playthings for businessmen in the Middle East, it would not surprise me if directives have been issued by upstairs and that incidents like this are the result of wanting to put the thumb on the scales in favour of those petropounds. It would also not surprise me if Michael Oliver was in cahoots which some gambling company, when you consider that half the Premier League now has gambling companies as kit sponsors.
As for this... free kick at Liverpool? Drop ball? What is it? There is no infringement. There is no reason why the game needs to be stopped. There is no offside. There is only a player in a clear and present scoring opportunity, who has been denied because the referee has decided to stop play. Yes, he is entitled to. Yes, the referee is the sole arbiter of space and time and here and now. Yes, even if the referee is blind, deaf, not looking at the game, has no idea what the rules are, has no concept of what football is, or even dead, their word is law and will be respected. It just happens that when "mistakes" like this happen, which change the tilt of a match and even the championship, I have questions.
I have had to write off Liverpool's season late in April, which of itself isn't too bad, but the nature of why I have had to do it, which is more than just doddery badness, will stay with me for a very very long time. Dare I say that this is as bad a refereeing decision as the Hand Of God in 1986, which should have been and handball and a sendoff for Maradona and not a goal. Had this game not been stopped for no reason, then this would have been three points instead of one and Liverpool would still be in trouble but hope would still exist. Not now.
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