Coral’s Heroes and Villains: Mitrovic red mist, dynamic duos

Dangerous debutante Manuel Lanzini, scorer of the Londoners’ first and opportunistic creator of the second, looks to have the making of a perfect playmaking partnership with Dimitri Payet.

Yet it was boss Bilic, magnanimous in defeat, refusing to criticise former Croatia charge Dejan Lovren, who cost Liverpool with his error, that most impressed.

Villains

It was the same at Anfield, where Philippe Coutinho fell foul of Payet’s skill and harshly saw red for two cautions.

Meanwhile, Mark Noble’s elation after netting was quickly cooled by a red card, as an over exuberant challenge on Danny Ings resulted in a marked fall from grace. Luckily for the midfielder, the unlucky and rather rash dismissal came too late to halt the Hammers, who are 20/1 to finish in the top six.

Liverpool’s defence continues to be their Achilles heel. Young-gun Joe Gomez’s naivety was exposed by Lanzini, but Lovren’s complacency and subsequent panic when having his pocket picked by the Argentine is less excusable.

Martin Skrtel was also left red-faced after Diafra Sakho danced through the box unchallenged, his shot nutmegging the defender before finding the net.

Yet, it is clearly a case of questionable anger management when a player collects two yellows and a red in his first four league outings.

The hot-headed hitman’s stamp on Francis Coquelin cost his side dearly, as a needless early bath left the team toiling with 10 men against Arsenal from the 16th minute onward.