Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp dismissed Mark Noble’s suggestion that West Ham “scared” the Premier League leaders on Monday.
Sadio Mane’s opener was cancelled out by Michail Antonio as the Reds drew 1-1 for the second straight game. The result saw Liverpool move three points clear at the top but they will be overtaken by Manchester City if Pep Guardiola’s men win at Everton on Wednesday.
Noble said West Ham’s aggressive approach had frightened Liverpool but Klopp was not convinced.
“I like that really. I would wish for all West Ham fans that Mark Noble and his team would scare more teams and not only us,” Klopp told a news conference.
“They defended well, that’s true. They didn’t scare us. It’s a normal away game. We won away games when we played worse and nobody spoke about it. Last year, we won at Crystal Palace 2-1 with two offensive situations pretty much. We had more [against West Ham].
“They have quality – no doubt about that. Why they don’t have more often results? I don’t know.
“But they had a result, 1-1, but I didn’t see that they scared us.”
Earlier, Hammers captain Noble told Sky Sports: “January was a bad month for us.
“We defended fantastically well and probably deserved to win tonight. You can’t play man to man against Liverpool and out-pass them. You have to keep your shape and stop them.
“We scared them. You have to do that against the top teams. I’m just gutted we didn’t come away with the three points.
“We’re gutted in there because the goal was clearly offside. We scored a fantastic set-play and didn’t manage to get a second goal.”