Liverpool 0 West Ham 0:  Liverpool missed the chance to move three points clear at the top of the Barclays Premier League after being held to a scoreless draw at Anfield by West Ham. The point does move Rafael Benitez's side one clear of Chelsea but the Merseysiders yet again failed to convince or capitalise on their dominance.

Liverpool lead the league with 34 points from 15 games after Luis Felipe Scolari's side were beaten 2-1 by Arsenal at Stamford Bridge, but for the second consecutive league game at home, they have failed to break down resolute opponents.

Unlike Fulham last week, however, West Ham had chances to steal an unlikely victory.

Defender Sami Hyypia went close three times with headers for Liverpool while Dirk Kuyt nearly won it late on after being picked out by Steven Gerrard.

Former Liverpool player Craig Bellamy almost broke the deadlock for West Ham, thumping a shot against the inside of a post in the first half, while Carlton Cole was wrongly flagged offside when bearing down on goal in the second half.

It was West Ham's first point at Anfield in nine years and defender Matthew Upson said the result proves manager Gianfranco Zola is on the right track.

He told Setanta Sports 1: "It's a massive result: it's another clean sheet and perhaps at the end we could have nicked something.

"He (Zola) stuck to his beliefs: he had had a bit of pressure to change things.

"He has got us more organised and drilled and started to change things/

"I'm very happy here at the moment, the team are doing well, I've just got to take each game as it comes."

Bellamy also rued the side's inability to convert their chances.

"I'd love to see Liverpool win every game for the rest of the season apart from when we play them. I'm West Ham now," he said. "We tried to make it frustrating for them and also had decent opportunities.

"It's very difficult to get a result here because they have great players.

"But maybe we could have got a goal at the end."