Liverpool Match Preview
It would be fair to say that West Ham United have had rather mixed results in the last six days. Having felt elated after the victory at home to Wolverhampton Wanderers on Sunday, they then suffered the disappointment of being dumped out of the Emirates FA Cup at Southampton on Wednesday night.
The Irons will now be hoping to get back on track and end the week on a high note by claiming a rare double over Liverpool when they visit Anfield in Saturday’s late kick-off.
Hammers’ fans no longer have to go back to 1963 for the last time that they tasted victory here, as they took maximum points home with them to East London as recently as 2015.
In fact, Jürgen Klopp has lost three games against West Ham including the reverse fixture back in November. If they do achieve consecutive wins over the Reds, then David Moyes will not only have picked up his first ever career win at the ground, his side will have also become the first team to have taken three points from there this season.
Neither team will have an advantage going into the game, as both have had the same amount of time to prepare ahead of the encounter, given that they were in action three days ago.
After winning the Carabao Cup last Sunday, as well as progressing to the FA Cup quarter-finals in midweek, Liverpool will be hoping to build on their last Premier League win over newly-promoted Norwich City on 19 February.
Tomáš Souček should be fit enough to retain his place in the side, despite having to be substituted against the Saints on Wednesday night, due to a facial injury. If he doesn’t feature in the starting line-up, then Saïd Benrahma is an option to replace the Czech in midfield.
Łukasz Fabiański and Aaron Cresswell are set to retain their places after being rested for the FA Cup tie at St Mary’s, while Issa Diop is expected to drop back amongst the substitutes. Manuel Lanzini is also in line to make a third straight start.
Ben Johnson has been involved in both of this week’s encounters and is in contention to keep his place.
Saturday’s match is a 5:30pm kick-off with live coverage being screened by Sky Sports from 5pm. The referee is Jonathan Moss.