It’s Crisis Club vs Crisis Club at The London Stadium on Sunday afternoon, as West Ham United and Liverpool seek to re-energise their Premier League campaigns.

By Ian King

The meeting of two ’embattled’ managers 

Neither West Ham United nor Liverpool are particularly happy clubs at the moment, as the two teams meet on Sunday afternoon at The London Stadium. West Ham have, in a sense, undergone something of a revival in recent weeks, with two wins and a draw from their last three Premier League matches, though this hasn’t prevented a proliferation of absurd rumours that the Irons are already considering jettisoning Nuno Espírito Santo, despite the fact that they only appointed him at the end of September.

But if we’re talking about the last couple of months, even West Ham’s recent trough doesn’t compare to Liverpool, whose season has been giving every impression of completely unravelling. A 4-1 home defeat to PSV in the Champions League was a third heavy loss in a row, and the nature of those defeats have turned the heat up under Arne Slot, despite the fact that his team lifted the Premier League trophy just six months ago.

If history counts for anything, then Liverpool have a huge advantage over West Ham

If previous meetings were the only metric we’re taking into account to determine what happens in this match, then this would be a comfortable win for Liverpool. They’ve only lost one and drawn two of their last twenty meetings with West Ham, a record that stretches back pretty much a full decade. Out of those 17 wins, they’ve scored five goals on three occasions and four goals four times. 

Attack could be the key in a match between two teams with porous defences

Given the two sides’ defensive leakiness this season – they’ve conceded 45 Premier League goals between them so far – attacking players could be the key to deciding the result of this match.

In that respect, West Ham do have one potential advantage; an in-form striker. Callum Wilson has scored three goals in his last two games, having scored just one in his previous eight.

If Liverpool’s defence is anything like as porous as it has been over their last three games, there could be space for him to exploit.

West Ham have scored more goals in their last two games than Liverpool have scored in their last four. With questions over who will be starting up front for them in this match, attention turns to Dominik Szoboszlai. The Hungarian midfielder scored their goal against PSV in midweek and was one the few players to emerge from this match with much credit, and they’ll be needing him to recreate that performance.

Liverpool are sweating on the availability of three very big names

West Ham will definitely be missing Ollie Scarles and Lukasz Fabianksi, who are both injured but are also relatively peripheral players this season. They could also be missing Crysencio Summerville and Konstantinos Mavropanos. Lucas Paquetá will return after missing their 2-2 draw at Bournemouth after picking up a suspension for accumulating five yellow cards. 

Liverpool are sweating on the condition of Hugo Ekitike, Alisson and Florian Wirtz. Ekitike was withdrawn against PSV with a back problem, while Alisson was ill and Wirtz has missed both games since the international break with a muscle problem. All three face fitness tests before Sunday. Giovanni Leoni. Jeremie Frimpong and Conor Bradley all have longer-term injuries.

West Ham United and Liverpool are ideal opponents for each other, considering the way their seasons are going

West Ham’s form may have improved of late, but it remains the case that they’re in deep trouble near the foot of the Premier League. The issues surrounding them are far deeper than just bad results on the pitch. A deeper cultural tear has been ripped through the club by their move to The London Stadium, and it’s difficult to see how that gets easily repaired. 

But that said, and despite the wild rumours that have circulated concerning his ongoing employment by the club, Nuno Espírito Santo has got seven points out of them from their last three games, and although losing a two-goal lead in their last match at Bournemouth will have been disappointing state of affairs for them, a point from a trip to The Vitality Stadium this season is surely a result they’d have taken before kick-off. 

Interviewed by TNT Sports after the PSV debacle, Liverpool’s Curtis Jones seemed lost for words over his team’s performance. It was a reaction which seemed to mirror the whole of the football world with regard to his team’s dramatic and drastic recent tail-off in form over the last few weeks. There’s a whole conversation to be had over the wisdom of their summer transfer policy, but that doesn’t help them in the here and now, and they need to turn this around quickly if Arne Slot is to keep his job into the new year. 

Liverpool are still capable. Even in the midst of this dip, they demonstrated that with their wins against Aston Villa in the Premier League and Real Madrid in the Champions League. But the pressure release valves that were employed by those two wins have tightened again, and neither their last three performances nor results have met the standards that a club of their scale should be expecting.

The irony of this fixture is that both teams represent ideal opponents for each other at the moment. West Ham’s recent upturn in form doesn’t appear to have been greeted with much of an upturn in happiness around the club, while Liverpool’s attempts to reignite their season have, if the last three games are anything to go by, come to nothing. I’ll go for a 2-2 draw, and for little of substance to change around the mood of these two clubs, for now. 

(Cover image from IMAGO)

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