David Moyes praised the effort and commitment of his West Ham United players, despite losing 3-2 away at Premier League leaders Liverpool last night.

The Hammers were in the unlikely position of leading 2-1 after goals Issa Diop’s header cancelled out Georginio Wijnaldum’s opener and Pablo Fornals scored his second league goal of the season.

However, a horror moment from goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski allowed Mohamed Salah to equalize before a freak deflection saw the ball squirm to Trent Alexander-Arnold, who crossed for Sadio Mane to tap home the winner.

West Ham might have had another equaliser late in the game, but substitute Jarrod Bowen saw his one-v-one effort blocked by Allison.

Defeat does Moyes’ side no favours in their fight to avoid the drop, but they will be able to take a lot of heart from pushing the champions elect all the way.

The Scot said: “For a period we were winning 2-1 and I didn’t think we were desperately under pressure. We had to deal with Liverpool, but I thought we’d done a really good job. It’s really disappointing to come here and say individual mistakes have cost us because Liverpool, with the quality and the players they’ve got and what they’ve done this year, they have the ability to score from everywhere and in all different ways.

“I have to praise the players for their effort and commitment and even at the end, we looked like we were going to get a third. We have to take something positive from it, but taking no points means there is no real positive.”

Liverpool were handed a route back into the game when an effort from Salah slipped through the palms of Fabianski and rolled through his legs into the net.

In what was a mixed night for the Polish stopper, Moyes also felt as though he should have done better with the Reds’ opener, having got a big touch to Wijnaldum’s header.

He said: “He has done great for us but, when you’re in our position, when you make individual mistakes, you need to quickly get over them and get on with it and not let it happen again. That’s the important thing.

“He had a couple of really good saves. He had a couple of worldies when Liverpool hit a couple of good shots, but if I’m being honest, I think he should stop the first one as well.

“When you come to Anfield, I think you’re always going to need your goalie to play well, whatever team you are, you’re goalie’s going to need to play well because of their ability to get chances and shots.”

West Ham remain in the relegation zone courtesy of their defeat, and their run-in does not get any easier from here with Southampton, Arsenal and Wolverhampton Wanderers next to come.

On his side’s schedule, Moyes said: “Our really big games start now, and we’ve got big games coming over the next eight to 10 weeks, so I need everybody in the best form they can be in.

“Three of our last four games have been Liverpool twice and Manchester City away, so I’ve got to day that the players have done really well, but we’re not getting any points and it’s points we want/ I’d rather be standing here saying it was rubbish tonight but we’d picked up a point, if I could have done, but a lot of teams have said that after coming here.”