West Ham colects first league win at Anfield in 52 years

West Ham manager Slaven Bilic hailed a long-awaited victory at Anfield as one for the club’s history books.

The Hammers ended a 52-year wait for a league win at Liverpool with a stylish 3-0 success after goals from Manuel Lanzini, Mark Noble and Diafra Sakho.

Even a harshly-awarded red card for Noble, after the hosts had seen Philippe Coutinho dismissed for two bookable offences, could not take the shine off the day.

“It is three points but it is one of those games which, for the fans especially, it is more than three points,” said the Croatian.

“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.

SEE MORE: Liverpool’s 2015/16 season preview.

“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.”

Bilic did not agree with referee Kevin Friend’s decision to dismiss Noble and said the club will appeal.

“I watched it after and for me the very simple answer is not a red card, nowhere near a red card,” he added,

“I am very hopeful and I think we should win it (the appeal). For the Adrian (his goalkeeper was sent off second game of the season) one I said ‘unlucky’ but this one, with the greatest respect to the officials, it is not a red card.”

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers bemoaned sloppy goals for their first defeat of the season after three successive clean sheets.

“We were disappointing today. We went in with confidence high but when you give away a goal so early it gave West Ham a boost,” he said.

“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 moral 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 felt Coutinho was unlucky with his red card, 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 added.

“He must have real good ears Kevin 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.”