West Ham United remain in the relegation zone following a 3-3 draw with West Bromwich Albion at Upton Park in which the visitors came from behind twice to rescue a point.

West Ham took an early lead through Joe Cole when the midfielder latched onto a flick-on by Carlton Cole and played a neat one-two with Kevin Nolan before rifling a low shot underneath Ben Foster.

However, the hosts were forced into a change as early as the eighth minute when James Tomkins left the field with a groin injury and was replaced by Guy Demel, who joined fellow full-back George McCartney in a makeshift central defensive pairing for the hosts.

West Ham continued to press, and C. Cole and Nolan both saw their shots blocked by Liam Ridgewell before the former nodded narrowly over the bar from Matt Jarvis's corner.

Demel then swivelled and struck the outside of the post from close range in the 30th minute after the visitors had failed to clear crosses by Jarvis and J. Cole before Mark Noble sent a 25-yard free kick just wide of Foster's right hand post.

For all of West Ham's chances, the visitors were level in the 40th minute when Nicolas Anelka latched onto Chris Brunt's through ball and held off the challenge of Joey O'Brien to lift a composed finish over the trailing leg of Jussi Jaaskelainen.

West Brom went into the break ahead as Anelka poked the ball home from close range after C. Cole had blocked Jonas Olsson's header on the line in the 45th minute.

Anelka almost completed his hat-trick two minutes after the restart but Jaaskelainen held onto the Frenchman's flick from the near post.

Modibo Maiga, who was introduced at the break, forced Foster into a sprawling save in the 63rd minute, but the Malian forward didn't have to wait long to level. Three minutes later, Nolan spun and fed the ball to the striker, who sent a curling effort from 20 yards into the bottom corner which Foster should have got a hand to.

The roles were reversed two minutes later as West Ham took the lead for the second time on the afternoon when Nolan swept home Maiga's knock down to send the Upton Park faithful into a frenzy.

They were silenced little more than 60 seconds later, however, when Saido Berahino twisted and turned beyond Demel before rifling a low shot across the face of goal which rebounded off the far post before nestling into the back of the net to make it 3-3.

Mohamed Diame entered the book for a late challenge on Brunt in the 81st minute and from the resulting free kick, Berahino smashed a shot against the frame of the goal from 20 yards.

In injury time, Anelka laid the ball across the face of the six-yard box, where Stephane Sessegnon was lurking, but O'Brien got a toe on the cross to poke it away from the substitute.