Liverpool confidently at its peak, Hammers beat snobs in London for Manchester United are still missing a few things to.

Liverpool 3 Crystal Palace 1 : Stunning Sturridge lift up Reds

The Liverpool manager had done much to put a smile on the face of watching England coach Roy Hodgson simply by confirming Sturridge will be fit to report for international duty today after recent absences.

Then the insight Rodgers offered into how a potential partnership with Wayne Rooney might blossom will have had Hodgson nodding expectantly in agreement.

England’s quest to reach the World Cup finals will be stacked largely on the axis of Sturridge-Rooney firing against Montenegro and Poland over the coming eight days and the backing Hodgson received for his masterplan was timely.

“If you look at Daniel and Rooney as a combination, then that would be brilliant for England,” said Rodgers.

“You have got Daniel and his cleverness, Rooney behind him with his movement between the spaces and his exceptional quality.

“Daniel has also got that pace to really hurt teams in behind defenders. At that level, that’s so important. You only have to look at his game – he will really hurt defences.

“It’s great for him that he’s fit and is going in with great form. He’s going to be a real asset for England. He’s 24 and that’s a great age. He’s scoring goals and playing well.”

But they will have to go some, to match the numbers Sturridge and Suarez are churning out, with both again on target as Palace’s weaknesses were ruthlessly exposed, taking their tally to five goals in a week.

Suarez brilliantly improvised the opening goal, wrapping his foot around the ball while on the ground to beat Palace keeper Julian Speroni.

Sturridge turned Damien Delaney inside out before firing into the far corner and Steven Gerrard then pepped his own confidence from the penalty spot after Raheem Sterling had gone down under the slightest of contact from Dean Moxey.

In doing so, Gerrard became the first Liverpool player to score in 15 consecutive seasons for the club.

It was worrying, from the Palace perspective, to hear manager Ian Holloway confess to having been outflanked by Rodgers’ decision to play Sterling as a right wing-back given how few other options Liverpool currently have.

Slightly strange was Holloway’s admission that Spanish substitute Jose Campana might start more games if he spoke better English. Palace ate into Liverpool’s lead when Dwight Gayle flicked in Campana’s set-piece, but with their only points coming from the win over Sunderland it is clear the future contains only a long, fraught struggle against relegation.

“We won the second half 1-0 and must move on and take a lot from our second-half performance,” said Holloway, scratching around for positives. “A lot of clubs would have capitulated, but not us.”

As for Liverpool, they continue to chalk up victories without, as yet, flicking through the gears.

But Rodgers knows the point is approaching where playing down their top-four hopes will prove futile.

“You always get a good indication of where you can be after 10 games and after that you look towards the halfway point,” said Rodgers.

“We have still got a lot of improvement to make, which is good, especially if we continue with this mentality of winning games.”

That 10th game is Arsenal at the Emirates – an accurate barometer if ever there was one.

Liverpool vs Crystal Palace Match Stats

Liverpool (3-4-1-2): Mignolet 6; Toure 6, Skrtel 6, Sakho 6 (Agger 67, 6); Sterling 6, Gerrard 7, Henderson 8, Enrique 6; Moses 6 (Alberto 66, 6); Suarez 8, Sturridge 7 (Aspas 88). Booked: Sterling, Aspas. Goals: Suarez 14, Sturridge 17, Gerrard 38pen.

Crystal Palace (4-3-3): Speroni 6; Ward 6, Mariappa 5, Delaney 5, Moxey 5; O’Keefe 6, Jedinak 6, Puncheon 6; Kebe 5 (Gayle 46, 7), Jerome 5 (Campana 46, 6), Chamakh 6 (Bolasie 68, 6). Booked: O’Keefe. Goal: Gayle 77.

Man Of The Match: Daniel Sturridge

Referee: A Taylor (Cheshire).

Liverpool 3 Crystal 1 Palace Match Video

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Tottenham Hotspur 0 West Ham 3:Hammers Beat London snubs in theys home

The West Ham manager joked that if his surprise policy of playing without strikers had back-fired, at least he could use the excuse that he was only doing what Jose Mourinho did at Manchester United.

When the Chelsea manager flirted with the ‘false nine’ so popular with Barcelona and world champions Spain, everybody assumed that the ploy was a ‘Special One’.

When Allardyce settles on a tactic like that, he has a fair idea how his master-plan will be received.

“It’s my job to sit and think about what I can do to players to give them lift, to try to get a result,” he said.

“The basis of today’s tactic was to take the No9 out of the top and start interchanging the runners from midfield. Hopefully, that would bring us a bit more success in terms of creating chances and converting them.

“I put that forward and the first thing you do is listen to the complaints: ‘Oooh, what is he trying to do this time? Yurrrrgh! Who has dreamed that one up?’

“But having explained it to them and how Tottenham play, I said to them that they will have the licence to play counter-attacking football and expose the spaces they leave for you.

“It was a one of those big risks you take, but we practised if for three good days and the belief grew in the team.”

For the best part of an hour, it was nip and tuck as West Ham managed to stifle Tottenham without too much of the counter-attacking.

So dour was the resulting spectacle that, when at half-time the PA announcer invited fans to “look up at the giant screens and watch the first-half highlights”, two-thirds of the stadium laughed.

The game burst into life in the first few seconds of the second half, though, when Jermain Defoe should have opened the scoring for Tottenham.

Rewarded for his Europa League exploits with his first Premier League start, he went through one-on-one with Jussi Jaaskelainen, only to shoot straight at the West Ham goalkeeper.

A better effort from the edge of the area eight minutes later produced a good save from Jaaskelainen and also pressed the visitors into more forward-thinking mood.

Inevitably – this is Allardyce, after all – the breakthrough came from a set-piece. Stewart Downing floated a corner to the far post and Winston Reid got away from Jan Vertonghen to head firmly downwards. Straight against the heels of team-mate Kevin Nolan on the line, as it happened, but the West Ham defender had the presence of mind to side-foot the rebound over the line.

Before Tottenham could regroup, they found themselves further in arrears, this time through to a large slice of fortune.

Mark Noble picked out Ricardo Vaz Te, making a run from deep that he had been practising all week. His shot should have been better, though, and Tottenham goalkeeper Hugo Lloris was able to block it, only for the ball to ricochet back off Vaz Te’s knees and into the unguarded net. Gaps were going to open up as Tottenham desperately chased the game, but nobody expected them to be exploited quite so spectacularly as they eventually were.

As Spurs pressed, a half-cleared ball landed for Mohamed Diame. As two defenders rushed to meet him, he deftly pulled the ball back to slide between the two of them and immediately set Ravel Morrison on his way.

With 70 yards still to go, Tottenham’s defenders looked favourite, but he held off a couple of challenges and still had the presence of mind to allow Lloris to commit himself before lifting the ball over him and into the goal.

Nothing in any of Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas’s own dossiers could have done anything about that.

Tottenham Hotspur vs West Ham Match Stats

TOTTENHAM (4-2-3-1): Lloris 6; Walker 5, Dawson 6, Vertonghen 7, Naughton 5 (Holtby 81, 5); Dembele 6, Paulinho 5; Townsend 6, Eriksen 5 (Soldado 74, 5), Sigurdsson 5 (Lamela 63, 5); Defoe 5.

WEST HAM (4-6-0): Jaaskelainen 6; Demel 7, Tomkins 7, Reid 8, Rat 6; Downing 6, Morrison 9, Noble 7 (O’Brien 90), Nolan 6, Diame 8 (Collins 80, 5), Vaz Te 6 (Cole 86). Goals: Reid 66, Vaz Te 72, Morrison 79.

Referee: L Probert (Wiltshire).

Tottenham 0 West Ham 3 Match Video

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Sunderland 1 Manchester United 2 :Moyes won Januzaj loose Fellaini

New manager of United David Moyes was in need of a memorable big call, and he found one yesterday when his surprise selection of Adnan Januzaj for a Premier League debut was rewarded with two match-winning goals from the dazzling teenager.

Manchester United were 1-0 down to bottom-of-the-table Sunderland, and for a while it was surely feeling like the Stadium of Gloom for Moyes.

Then two equally superb goals in six minutes from Januzaj in the second-half brought a flood tide of relief for the new manager of United.

Victory took his team back into the top half of the Premier League and avoided a further period of talk of crisis among supporters and media.

Choosing the kid had seemed to many like a major gamble from Moyes with so many experienced internationals on the bench. But the injection of spirited youth was the perfect antidote to recent poor results and lacklustre performances.

Inspiration often comes from unlikely sources when teams are in trouble. It took a little while yesterday, though.

United began this match in horrendous fashion, as Sunderland scored in fifth minute when they hustled the champions into a nervous defensive error. Emanuele Giaccherini crossed low from the right, but without threat until Phil Jones hacked a lame clearance straight at central defensive partner Nemanja Vidic, who saw it bounce off his shins to Craig Gardner for an easy shot into goal.

It was a tentative start by United, with their passing sluggish, and Jones had to rescue another error with a fine saving tackle on Gardner.

United took 20 minutes to fashion a chance, but Nani wasted the moment with a volley that flew wide.

Otherwise they were restricted to shooting from long range, and it was the home team who rued two further missed opportunities.

Giaccherini saw a header kept out by a fabulous flying save by goalkeeper David De Gea, after a period of United sloppiness.

Then the Italian haplessly skied a shot high over the bar after a dynamic burst into the box from Adam Johnson.

Moyes watched with growing frustration from the dug-out as his team wasted a 67 per cent lion’s share of first-half possession.

The lack of confidence in United’s football was palpable, illustrated by predictable passing, wasteful crosses and players trying to dribble through the home defence by themselves and ending up down blind alleys.

It said something that the most elegant danger from United was at the young boots of Januzaj. The 18-year-old was making his first start in the Premier League, and his promise was apparent enough, even though it was laced with unattractive cynicism for a blatant dive early in the second half.

Perhaps that was a measure of the collective desperation of United to conjure a goal from somewhere.

It came a few minutes later, finally, thanks to the positive side of the teenager who joined from Anderlecht a couple of years ago.

He passed to Patrice Evra on the left wing and then ghosted into the box to steer home a first-time shot on the run from 15 yards.

The celebration of Moyes was understated, even though it was vindication of his decision to play the kid in preference to many other star names in his squad.

Just after the hour Januzaj had scored again, this time a memorable left-foot volley from the corner of the penalty area after Sunderland captain John O’Shea’s weak headed clearance.

United’s players tumbled all over Januzaj in delight – and no wonder. It’s a special moment when a young footballer announces his brilliance on the big stage.

Suddenly, there was authority and style in United’s football, and they were beginning to look like reigning champions. Maybe Sunderland were also feeling the physical effects of their endless harrying and hustling in the first half.

The home team barely had a chance in the second half, and by the final whistle the TV cameras were trained on Januzaj as much as manager Moyes.

Sunderland vs Manchester United Match Stats

Sunderland (4-5-1): Westwood 7; Colback 6, O’Shea 6, Celustka 6, Roberge 6; Gardner 7 (Larsson 56, 6), Giaccherini 8, Johnson 5 (Ji 65, 6), Cattermole 7, Ki 5 (Wickham 73, 6); Altidore 5. Booked: Gardner, O’Shea. Goal: Gardner 5.

Manchester United (4-4-2): De Gea 8; Rafael 6 (Smalling 85), Vidic 6, Jones 6, Evra 7; Januzaj 9 (Welbeck 76), Carrick 7, Nani 6 (Valencia 76), Cleverley 5; Rooney 6, Van Persie 6. Booked: Rooney, Januzaj, Vidic, Rafael. Goals: Januzaj 55, 61.

Referee: C Foy (Merseyside).

Sunderland 1 Manchester United 2 Match Video

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English Premier League Game Week 7 Other Results

Man City 3 Everton 1

Fulham 1 Stoke City 0

Hull City 0 Aston Villa 0

Cardiff City 1 Newcastle 2

Sunday, October 6

Norwich City 1 Chelsea 3

Southampton 2 Swansea City 0

West Brom 1 Arsenal 1

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