West Ham vs Liverpool19:45, Wednesday 26th AprilLondon StadiumPremier LeagueReferee: Chris KavanaghLiverpool travel to east London this week for a meeting with West Ham United, as the 2022-23 season heads towards its final month. Both sides have endured difficult campaigns but have hopes of ending the season on a positive note, with recent weeks seeming to have brought an upturn in form and mood for the hosts & their visitors. David Moyes’ Hammers have taken ten points from their last five matches, climbing to 13th in the table. The hosts are six points clear of the relegation zone, with a better goals difference and a game in hand over all those below them in the table. Jurgen Klopp’s side sit a disappointing 7th, though there’s a feeling that things have clicked into place during the last two and a half league matches. The visiting Reds have taken just eight of fifteen points since beating Manchester United 7-0, but the seven points taken from the last three matches have felt representative of a step in the right direction – Newcastle’s dominant victory over Spurs on Sunday may just have rendered this too late in the day, however.West Ham last hosted Liverpool in November 2021, with both sides occupying top four positions after strong starts to the 2021-22 campaign. The Hammers sat 4th, having taken twenty points from their opening ten matches, whilst their visitors were unbeaten in 2nd and with an extra two points. The home side opened the scoring in the early minutes of the match, with a Pablo Fornals corner beating Alisson, before Trent Alexander-Arnold levelled matters with a free-kick shortly before half-time. Fornals again beat Allison – this time with a breakaway goal – midway through the second half, before Kurt Zouma extended his side’s lead by nodding home a corner with fifteen minutes remaining. Divock Origi hit a beautiful shot on the turn to peg West Ham back on 83’, but the Klopp’s side were unable to find an equaliser before the end of the match. Despite their positive start to the season, West Ham’s form faltered over the coming weeks – though inconsistent, they remained in the top third of the table for most of the season and claimed a place in the Europa Conference for this season. Liverpool responded emphatically, winning their next six matches and only dropping even points in the remainder of the season – Klopp's side ultimately finishing an agonising 2nd place. Liverpool have won the two Anfield meetings since then by a goal to nil, courtesy of first-half goals by Sadio Mane and Darwin Nunez.Despite a couple of relegations in the last two decades (in 2002-03 and 2010-11), West Ham are now in their longest top-flight stay since the 1960s & ‘70s. From the outside, it would seem fair to judge the last decade or so as reasonable good – they’ve finished in the top half of ten Premier League campaigns, and were only really troubled by the threat of relegation in 2017-18 and 2019-20. In both of those campaigns, David Moyes was hired to steer the Hammers from safety: in November 2017, he replaced Slaven Bilic and proceeded to take West Ham from 17th to 13th (with a margin to the drop zone of 9 points); in December 2019, he replaced Manuel Pellegrini and guided West Ham to survival by 5 points (from 17th to 16th). Having kept struggling West Ham sides up twice in three seasons, Moyes would have felt like he deserved the longer-term stay that has followed. He’ll have felt vindicated more recently too, having taken West Ham to 6th and 7th place finishes in the last two seasons – comfortably their best spell since at least the talented sides that Harry Redknapp managed in the late 1990s. Behind the scenes, of course, West Ham United is more complicated club: the last decade has seen ongoing ownership issues and a move from the Boleyn Ground to the London (Olympic) Stadium, and what looks like a decent decade from the outside will to supporters represent a failure to secure their status as a regular top-half presence and frequent English representative in European competition.And it’s seasons like this 11th consecutive Premier League campaign that emphasise supporters’ frustrations. Off the back of two excellent seasons under David Moyes, West Ham started the 2022-23 Premier League with a trio of defeats (to Manchester City, Nottingham Forest, and Brighton & Hove Albion). By the midway point, they sat in the relegation zone (having taken just fifteen points) and had dropped out of the League Cup at the first hurdle (on penalties at home to Blackburn Rovers). The FA Cup was more positive, with victories on the road to Brentford and Derby County before Manchester United beat them 3-1 at Old Trafford. Their results in Europe have been almost perfect: the Hammers won both legs of their qualifier, all six group games, both legs of their round of sixteen tie, beat Gent 5-2 in the quarter final, and are set to face AZ in the semis next month. Premier League form has picked up in the second half of the season too (they’d sit 9th in a form table since their 20th January midway point). On closer inspection, April has been a huge month for Moyes’ side – they’ve taken ten points from five matches, claiming crucial victories over Southampton and Bournemouth, and have put four clubs and 6 points between themselves and the relegation zone. Most will now expect the Hammers to secure a Premier League stay, but the damage (and the undoing of two or three years’ progress) already seems to have been done: a season that could have seen West Ham enjoying Chelsea’s collapse and a late-season battle with Spurs & Liverpool instead looks likely to end with a merciful drift to safety and a managerial change in the summer.Liverpool have of course had their own frustrations this season, which has effectively represented a significant collapse following an agonisingly close brush with an unprecedented quadruple last season. Fresh starts (at the end of the summer, either side of the World Cup, and February into March) have repeatedly revealed themselves to be false dawns, and the Reds have rarely troubled the top six - never mind the top four or the sides battling for the title. Something does feel a little different since midway through the recent draw with Arsenal, however – Klopp’s side were swashbuckling during that second half at Anfield, and recent games have seen positive contributions from Ibrahim Konate, Curtis Jones, & Diogo Jota, alongside the return of Thiago & Luis Diaz and an evolution of Trent Alexander-Arnold’s role. Tottenham’s abysmal showing at St James’ Park on Sunday looks to have all but decided Champions League qualification from the Premier League, but Liverpool’s history is one of remarkable moments: building and maintaining a head of steam will be crucial if the Reds are to have any chance at all of upsetting the odds.West Ham United’s recent form has moved them into a position where supporters can sense a comfortable end to the season is almost in reach. With plenty of matches between teams below them in the table remaining, David Moyes’ side are unlikely to need many more points to secure survival. There might usually be very little expectation on a fixture like this one, but Liverpool have performed woefully against bottom-half sides this season and West Ham will have seen the likes of Brentford and Forest (and themselves last season) cause problems for the Reds defence from set pieces. They’ll sense opportunity. Their visitors can win very little game-by-game, but can’t afford any slip-ups in the next couple of weeks if the remainder of the season is to hold any real interest. It’s vitally important for Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool to build momentum off the back of the last couple of matches – both to have any chance of tackling challenges even greater than those faced in the spring of 2021, and to be able to regroup effectively in the summer.
However if something serious happens to them I will eat my own cock.
If anyone is going to put a few fingers deep into my arse it's going to be me.
Not one person put in a tackle, not one midfielder picked up the run, not one defender got in the way. What an utter cluster fuck.
That's a great strike by Gakpo! Good on him!
It was a really awkward height that…
94 Corner to us. Last kick. Ali in the box and he’s scored
He’s always seems to be in the best parts of our play, Gakpo.
Is it just me or do we look a bit clueless as how to break down this west ham side? Passing it around like we just hope something good is going to happen? It seems to be give it to Trent and hope he creates something.
