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.
However, JurgenKlopp‘s men were deservedly beaten 2-0 at Goodison Park on Wednesday, with Jarrad Branthwaite and Dominic Calvert-Lewin netting either side of half time to condemn the Reds to their second league defeat in three matches, denting their title hopes in the process.
While captainVirgil van Dijk has surprisingly questioned the desire of his teammates, Klopp acknowledged after the match that his side were simply “not good enough” and has apologised 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.
With four matches left to play, Liverpool sit second in the Premier League table and three points behind leaders Arsenal, but reigning champions Man City in third crucially have two games in hand, including a trip to Brighton & Hove Albion on Thursday.
Amid reports that Feyenoord boss Arne Slot is in the frame to succeed Klopp at Anfield in the summer, Liverpool 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 latter put them to the sword 5-2 at Selhurst Park last weekend.
West Ham were three goals down inside the opening 20 minutes and then conceded a fourth in the 31st minute against a clinical Eagles outfit, who added a fifth through Jean-Philippe Mateta just after the hour mark to condemn the Hammers to their 12th league defeat of the season.
Credit: sportsmole.co.uk
