West Ham United vs Liverpool – English Premier League – Preview

Posted on January 1, 2016 by Sreya

Liverpool will feature in the first English Premier League fixture of the new year when they travel to Boleyn Ground to face West Ham United on 2nd January, Saturday. With their 1-0 win over Sunderland in their previous game, Liverpool moved up to the seventh position in the league standings with thirty points, one greater than their opponents tomorrow who are in the eighth place.

Team News

Dmitri Payet is expected to feature in the matchday squad, but Slaven Bilic will be without Diafra Sakho, Victor Moses and Winston Reid. Nikica Jelavic is back in contention, but James Collins, Aaron Creswell and Enner Valencia have been listed as doubts.

Jürgen Klopp has confirmed Divock Origi is set to miss Liverpool’s trip to Sunderland on Wednesday night, but Jordon Ibe could return from illness. Liverpool are also without Joseph Gomez, Danny Ings, James Milner and Martin Skrtl. While Jon Flanagan is still regaining match fitness, Daniel Sturridge could be back in contention.

West Ham United Possible Starting Lineup: Adrian, James Tomkins, James Collins, Angelo Ogbonna, Carl Jenkinson, Cheikhou Kouyate, Alex Song, Manuel Lanzini, Mark Noble, Mikhail Antonio, Andy Carroll.

Liverpool Possible Starting Lineup: Simon Mignolet, Nathaniel Clyne, Dejan Lovren, Mamadou Sakho, Alberto Moreno, Emre Can, Lucas Leiva, Jordon Ibe, Roberto Firmino, Philippe Coutinho, Christian Benteke.

Thoughts From Both Camps

“Well, they are Liverpool, they’re a huge team. They’ve won their last two games and kept clean sheets so they’ll be confident. They’ve shown some really good performances, but they are also vulnerable. We are expecting a very tough game, they are full of energy, a way that they like to play. It’ll be a very tough game for us.”

– Slaven Bilic, West Ham United.

“The team is full of confidence with back-to-back wins. We go into the New Year with confidence and [we’ll] go into every game trying to win and push up the league and see where it takes us. There are still plenty of points to play for and if we keep performing as we did today I’m sure we won’t be too far off [the top four].”

– Nathaniel Clyne, Liverpool.

Contributor’s Pick

According to Head-2-Head statistics, the previous six encounters between these two clubs have resulted in three wins for Liverpool and one draw. Not only are West Ham undefeated in their last seven home matches in the Premier League, they won 2-1 against Southampton this past Monday after five consecutive draws.

On current form, Liverpool are expected to win by a probable scoreline of 2-1.