Liverpool Match Preview

Anfield always has been a tough place to go for West Ham United!!! I know that Liverpool can have off days but this has been a truly exceptional season for them and the Hammers go there this afternoon looking to do what very few teams have done this season and take some sort of result away from the red side of Merseyside.

Having said all of that though, the Hammers performed brilliantly to take maximum points from The Emirates Stadium in February and also picked up a home win against Manchester United back on 27 October, so you never know. On the other hand, I’m probably being too optimistic, as the East Londoners have only won once here since 1963.

The large contingent of travelling fans will be all too aware that the Reds have handed out two heavy defeats to them already this season. They knocked them out of the Carabao Cup back in September with a 5-1 defeat, despite scoring first. Then it got even worse for the hosts back on 29 December, as Arne Slot’s team scored five again in an encounter that turned out to be Julen Lopetegui’s last home match as Head-Coach.

Graham Potter might have sorted the problem of conceding high numbers of goals in recent matches but it just depends if Liverpool are on form here as to how painful the experience will be.

The trouble for West Ham is that their opponents will be looking to bounce back from that shock defeat to Fulham at Craven Cottage a week ago but they haven’t yet had lift off in April themselves, although they go into this game off the back of a 2-2 draw at home to AFC Bournemouth. On the plus side for the Irons, they have had one extra day’s preparation.

Jean-Clair Todibo and Konstantinos Mavropanos are likely to remain in defence, as Aaron Cresswell continues to recover from the muscle injury that kept him out of last weekend’s game against the Cherries. Emerson Palmieri has probably not featured in as many games as he’d like recently. Well, this could change today as he is available for selection.

Niclas Füllkrug is also in contention after making a great impact off the bench eight days ago.

The match is a 2pm kick-off and live coverage is being screened by Sky Sports from 1pm. The referee is Andrew Madley.