It’s not been a good season or West Ham so far. They moved out of their previous stadium as the 2015/16 season ended and into the Olympic Stadium with the hope that it’s higher capacity (and low costs) would help catapult the Hammers into the upper end of the table. It’s just not worked out that way. The atmosphere at home games can be hard to take, the performances from the team have been even worse and the new players brought in have made no real difference.
By contrast Liverpool have made a fantastic start to the season and were it not for a couple of mystifying losses against Burnley and Bournemouth, they would be at the top of the table right now instead of sitting in third (which is still a very good achievement). Their fans are loving life under Jurgen Klopp and the feel-good factor is back.
I track a range of different stats and according to them, this game should be something of a walkover. Liverpool are higher up the league, in better form, have a better attack, midfield, and defence score more goals, make more chances, allow less shots at their own goal and foul less than the Hammers.
Ominous reading for any West Ham fans.
It’s not all sunshine and roses though. Liverpool shot into an early lead against Bournemouth but then threw it all away and ended up losing 4-3. They’ve lost Phillipe Coutinho until sometime in January and don’t look as dangerous without him (having said that they did score 3 against Bournemouth).
So which way is this one going to go? Liverpool are strong favourites and rightly so in my opinion. They have the players to do real damage to that West Ham backline and I can see a few goals being scored in this one. West Ham always have the dangerous combination of Lanzini and Payet to hit Liverpool on the break and the home defence has looked weak at times against pacy, nimble attackers so there is a chance that West Ham could get a goal through that route.
I like the Both Teams To Score market in this one. The odds aren’t huge but at 1.75 with Bet365 for “Yes” I think there’s just about enough value there to warrant a bet.
If you’re looking for a bet at higher odds then something in the Asian Handicap market might interest you. Liverpool -1.5 is at 1.92 with Pinnacle and that’s a pretty good bet in my eyes. This West Ham side did just concede 5 against an Arsenal attack which is less potent that the Liverpool one.
There are a couple of ways to go with this one but that’s about as much risk as I’d want to take here. I don’t really want to go too far on the over/under’s as I don’t think the odds warrant it, the odds are also too low for a straight Liverpool win so that’s also out.
Best to stick with my two selections and then watch and enjoy the match.
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