West Ham United showed that its place in the Premier League's top four was fully warranted as it outmuscled Liverpool for a memorable 3-2 victory at a rocking London Stadium on Sunday.
Victory for high-flying West Ham ended Liverpool's club record 25-match unbeaten run in all competitions and lifted it above Juergen Klopp's side into third place in the table.
What always looked like a tough fixture for Liverpool began badly when keeper Alisson, who endured a difficult afternoon, flapped a cross into his own goal after four minutes.
Liverpool was never allowed to find any fluency but it was level by halftime thanks to a moment of magic from Trent Alexander-Arnold.
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Those expecting Liverpool to find another gear after the break were left disappointed as West Ham took the game by the scruff of the neck.
Craig Dawson hit the bar for West Ham early in the second half as Liverpool wobbled at the back, before Pablo Fornals restored West Ham's lead in the 66th minute and Kurt Zouma rose to head in West Ham's third in the 74th minute.
Substitute Divock Origi gave Liverpool a lifeline with a shot on the turn in the 82nd minute and Sadio Mane should have levelled in stoppage time but the host clung on for a victory that would be celebrated into the night by the home fans.
West Ham's fourth consecutive league win moves it to 23 points from 11 games with Juergen Klopp's side one point behind it and the Hammers head into the international break just three points behind leader Chelsea.
It was a day to forget for Liverpool and especially Alisson.
The game was only four minutes old when he flapped at a Fornals corner under pressure from Angelo Ogbonna and the ball ended up in the net. He hoped for a reprieve via a VAR check but the goal was rightly allowed to stand.
Liverpool was ragged and a little lucky not to be down to 10 men after Diogo Jota caught Ogbonna with his elbow, forcing the West Ham player to be substituted.
But it got back into the game when Alexander-Arnold played a short free kick to Mohamed Salah who then stopped it for the English defender to curl past Lukasz Fabianski and temporarily silence the home fans.
Fabianski made a crucial save from Mane's volley after the break and minutes later West Ham went back ahead as Fornals went clean through and beat Alisson with a low shot that the Brazilian stopper might have saved.
When Zouma headed in shortly after for his first West Ham goal, again with Alisson found wanting, it felt like the roof was coming off the former Olympic Stadium.
On finally beating Liverpool after a long wait of 11 years, West Ham manager David Moyes said, "It's been hard to beat Liverpool over my career, they've been a very good side, so I was very pleased to get it today."
"Even when it went to 3-1 it was never comfortable, Liverpool were very good and we had to work hard to keep them out. What the supporters really want to see is a winning team and they're beginning to see a team that's winning a lot more now. It was a terrific effort from the players and we even could have scored a couple more."
Apart from four successive league victories and best points haul after 11 games since 1981, West Ham has also qualified for the knockout phase of the Europa League and the mood in east London is vibrant.
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"I'm hugely proud (to have turned West Ham around)," Moyes said. "The way the players have gone about it, you talk about me turning it around, these players were close to relegation.
"Now we're pushing for Europe."
However, on the other side, Klopp didn't look too pleased with West Ham's opening goal and insisted that Alisson had been impeded by Angelo Ogbonna while trying to catch the ball.
"What can Alisson do? That is why the goalie is protected," said Klopp. "If a player goes up in the air with his arm, it is an important part of the body for the goalkeeper.
"People will say I am making excuses but I am calm. You need normal decisions from a referee and he did not do that."
Klopp did concede, however, that his side was not its usual clinical self.
"We were not that calm in the decisive moments," he said. "We can be better 100%, you cannot always play your best result, you have to grind out a result but they scored three goals and we didn't."
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