A match that referee Anthony Taylor was in the middle of the happenings on all three goals as Liverpool beat West Ham 2-1 to go back to the top of the Premier League, as Steven Gerrard scored twice from the penalty spot to bring his team a step closer towards a historic championship.

Liverpool lead over Chelsea by two points with both teams playing the same amount of matches; they have a four point lead over Manchester City, who have played two matches less. Liverpool get to host both clubs at Anfield en route to the end of the season.

Luis Suarez didn’t score but did hit the crossbar twice in a slightly frustrating match for him and Daniel Sturridge, looking slightly nervous and anxious, with Sturridge struggling to hit the target and subbed off for Kolo Toure in the final minutes.

There was no doubt about the first penalty. Luis Suarez was tricky as always in the box, and James Tomkins tried to stop the ball from getting past him with his hand. Gerrard, calmly, put the first ball in the net a minute before half time. But Anthony Taylor made a huge mistake two minutes later, as Andy Carroll clearly hit Simon Mignolet in the face to help Guy Demel score the equalizer. It looked like the linesman saw the incident and spoke to Taylor about it, but the referee decided to stick to his guns in a very weird decision from him.

Liverpool didn’t look great in the second half, struggling with West Ham making the field small and their physical style of play. Lucas coming on for Philippe Coutinho didn’t really help out, but eventually it was a Lucas pass that created the second goal – a through ball to Jon Flanagan, who was tripped by Adrian, winning another penalty that Gerrard converted once more.

West Ham sent another striker to the pitch while Liverpool added a third centre back, but the visitors were the more dangerous team in the final minutes, forcing Adrian to make one wonderful save off a Sterling shot from outside the box and once again Suarez hitting the crossbar.

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