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West Ham Attempt To Overcome PL Leaders Liverpool

Following on from a hectic weekend of Premier League action, it can often be difficult to settle yourself into a position whereby you need to motivate yourself to play a game on Monday Night Football. Of course, this isn’t always the case, and sometimes, it can just be a fun case of getting to see everyone else play before you step out onto the pitch. Whichever side of the coin you fall on there’s no denying that it’s great for fans to be able to see more football beyond the weekend, which is what we’re going to be treated to once again tomorrow night.

West Ham United will play host to Premier League leaders Liverpool at London Stadium, in what should be an interesting clash of styles. These sides are stepped in English football history and have been throughout their entire existence, but not many fans are all too interested when talking about the past. They want to discuss the present and the future – both of which, in the case of this game, are incredibly bright for the two teams involved. Neither is perfect and both have a lot of work left to do in order to get to where they want to be, but they’ve begun putting the pieces in place.

The Hammers have been up and down more times than we can count throughout the course of the season, and even that may be an understatement. Manuel Pellegrini has taken his time to put together a team that he’s happy with, and while alterations still need to be made, we’d say that the club has set themselves up well for the next few years. They’ve got the infrastructure, but when it comes to what they want to achieve between now and May, it’s not all too clear what they’re shooting for.

Liverpool, on the other hand, know exactly what their end goal is: their first ever Premier League title. They’ve still got to do everything within their power to hold off reigning champions Manchester City, but it just feels like this is their time. They’ve got an unbelievable squad to go alongside one of the best managers in the world in the form of Jurgen Klopp. In theory, those two things may be all that they need. Of course, we all know that a lot of things have to go their way before then, which is an all too familiar feeling for Reds fans.

West Ham’s last six games kind of indicate what kind of journey they’ve been on throughout the course of their campaign. They kicked things off with an entertaining 2-2 draw against Brighton & Hove Albion, before seeing off the challenge of Birmingham City in the third round of the FA Cup. An impressive win against London rivals Arsenal soon followed, but then, they just seemed to let their guard down. They were beaten 2-0 by Bournemouth before suffering an embarrassing loss to Wimbledon in the FA Cup. Then, in their last outing, they put in one of the worst performances in the Premier League this season when they were dismantled 3-0 by Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Liverpool’s recent journey in all competitions has been a bit rocky, too, although they did start off their last six game run with a 5-1 demolition of Arsenal. They followed that up with 2-1 loss against Manchester City, which really did open the door for Guardiola’s team to rejoin the title race. They were then knocked out of the FA Cup by Wolverhampton Wanderers, before bouncing back with a 1-0 win over Brighton. They edged out a 4-3 classic against Crystal Palace, before missing the chance to extend their lead at the top of the table in a 1-1 draw against Leicester.

The overall head to head standings are fairly one sided between these two teams, as you might expect, with Liverpool leading 74-28 (with 36 draws thrown in there for good measure). Their first meeting took place back in 1901, with their last encounter going down back in August – when both teams looked very different. On that day the Reds tore through the Hammers with an efficient 4-0 performance, and if we’re going back even further, West Ham haven’t actually beaten Liverpool in their last five meetings with their last win being a narrow 2-1 FA Cup triumph in February 2016.

Recent scans revealed that Marko Arnautovic did not suffer a broken foot, which will serve as music to the ears of many fans. However, the game against Liverpool probably comes too soon for him to return, with Fabianski also being a doubt. Andy Carroll is being lined up to start the game against his former side, in what would be one hell of a story if he could score. Aside from that Pellegrini won’t want to make all too many changes, given that many of his biggest stars are still out on the shelf.

Wijnaldum and van Dijk both returned to the first team in the game against Leicester, and they’ll be expected to feature in this one too. James Milner’s one match ban is over and he will likely come into the squad at right back, with Alexander-Arnold still being sidelined. Lovren and Fabinho made the bench against the Foxes, but there are still question marks surrounding their overall fitness in comparison to other first teamers. One thing is for sure, though, and that is that dropping more points here could lead to a huge momentum shift.

West Ham vs Liverpool Betting Prediction

The potential is there for a lot of goals in this one, but we’re going to try and be a little bit more reserved. There’s always the possibility of this being the type of game that descends into utter chaos, but there’s a lot to play for here. We can see Liverpool taking a measured approach to the first 45 minutes, being very cautious of the counter attack from the Hammers. They’ve got the potential to either be the best team in the league or the worst on any given day, and Klopp will be well aware of that fact.

We think they’ll end up scoring half way through the second half, before riding out a narrow victory right up until full time. It certainly isn’t the kind of performance that is going to be shown in highlights packages at the end of the season if they win the title, but it’s the kind of performance they need. Grinding out wins isn’t a popular thing to do amongst many fans and we can understand that, but just consider how much these Liverpool fans have been through to get to this point. They’re so close they can reach out and touch it.