Liverpool head to West Ham in this week’s Monday Night Football looking to restore their five point lead over Manchester City at top of Premier League.
Team news
Embed from Getty ImagesWest Ham could have Marko Arnautovic available despite suffering the Austrian international suffering a worrying foot injury in midweek.
Lukasz Fabianski (arm) and Aaron Cresswell (hamstring) are also set to feature but Samir Nasri remains sidelined with a calf issue
Fabian Balbuena, Manuel Lanzini and Winston Reid are a month away from returning from knee injuries.
Carlos Sanchez (knee), Jack Wilshire (ankle) and Andriy Yarmolenko (Achilles) are all long-term absentees.
James Milner is back from suspension for Liverpool and will go straight in at right-back as Trent Alexander-Arnold continues to recover from a knee injury.
Joe Gomez is still sidelined with an ankle injury for a few more weeks, whilst Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (knee) is slowly regaining fitness but remains out until April.
Form
Following a run of five wins in six, West Ham have taken just four points from their last five league games.
At home, the Hammers have avoided defeat in four of their last five with three wins and one draw.
Liverpool are unbeaten in their last three league games but have kept just one clean sheet in their last five.
On their travels, Liverpool have lost just one of their last six away games with clean sheets in four of those matches.
Stat Attack
- West Ham are without a win in five over Liverpool and have lost last four league meetings on the bounce (D1, L4).
- During that four game losing run, Liverpool have taken a pair of 4-0 and 4-1 wins over West Ham.
- Sadio Mane has scored three goals in his last two Liverpool appearances against West Ham.
- Roberto Firmino, Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane have all started for Liverpool in last three meetings with West Ham.
- Alisson has kept 13 clean sheets so far this season, more than any other Premier League goalkeeper.
Prediction
With Man City just two points behind and in form, Liverpool need to keep focused and recent victories over West Ham should provide extra confidence.
West Ham however are quite difficult to beat at home so am expecting a tight game but Liverpool have enough quality to get the win here.
Prediction: West Ham United 1-2 Liverpool
Jake predicts: West Ham United 0-2 Liverpool
Result: West Ham United 1-1 Liverpool