Reeling from their gut-wrenching derby defeat in midweek, Liverpool will endeavour to reignite their Premier League title hopes when they travel to the London Stadium to face West ham United on Saturday afternoon.
The Hammers are also seeking to return to winning ways having lost their last two top-flight fixtures in disappointing fashion against Fulham and Crystal Palace.
Following Arsenal’s thumping 5-0 victory over Chelsea on Tuesday, the pressure was on Liverpool to respond with a positive result against Merseyside rivals Everton to ensure that they remain within touching distance of the Premier League leaders.
Liverpool lost to everyone 2 nil just three days ago.
While captain Virgil Van Djik has surprisingly questioned the desire of his teammates, Klopp acknowledged after the match that his side were simply “not good enough” and has apologized for their abject performance. The German has also admitted that Liverpool “need a crisis at Man City and Arsenal” to remain in the three-way title race.
The Reds will welcome an encounter with West Ham on Saturday as they have already beaten the Hammers twice this season in all competitions by an aggregate score of 8-2, following up a 3-1 league win in September with a convincing 5-1 victory in the EFL Cup three months later.
Liverpool have only won more Premier League games against Crystal Palace (13) than they have against West Ham (12) under the tutelage of Klopp. However, this is the 11th different campaign in which the Reds have faced the Hammers on three or more occasions and they have never beaten them three times in any of their previous 10.
Like Liverpool, West Ham find themselves down in the dumps following a poor run of form that has derailed their season, winning just one of their last seven Premier League games.Since coming from behind to beat Wolverhampton Wanderers 2-1 at Molineux, the Hammers have suffered back-to-back defeats at the hands of Fulham and Crystal Palace. The Hammers head into Saturday’s contest having won only one of their last eight league games on home soil, beating Brentford 4-2 in February, and after losing 2-0 to Fulham in their most recent match at the London Stadium, they will be seeking to avoid suffering consecutive home losses for the first time since a run of three in November/December 2022.
West Ham have been boosted by the return of Jarrod Bowen, who missed the defeat at Palace with a back problem. The Englishman and defender Konstantinos Mavropanos (ankle) will be assessed ahead of kickoff, but Saturday’s game will come too soon for Nayef Agueelrd (ankle).
Alphonse Ariola was fit to make the substitutes’ bench last time out after recovering from a groin injury and he is expected to take the place of Lukasz Fabianski between the sticks on Saturday, while changes further up the pitch, particularly in defence and midfield, will also be considered by Moyes.
Cody Gakpo missed the midweek defeat at Everton due to his partner going into labour, but Klopp has confirmed that the Dutchman is available to feature on Saturday.
Mohamed Salah and Darwin Nunez have been off the boil in recent weeks, but they both scored in the reverse league fixture against West Ham at Anfield and are expected to retain their places in attack alongside Lucas Diaz.
West Ham United possible starting lineup:
Areola; Coufal, Zouma, Aguerd, Emerson; Alvarez, Soucek; Kudus, Ward-Prowse, Paqueta; Antonio
Liverpool possible starting lineup:
Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Quansah, Van Dijk, Robertson; Szoboszlai, Endo, Mac Allister; Salah, Nunez, Diaz
Preediction – Liverpool straight win, over 1.5, West ham under 2.5
