West Ham vs Liverpool Preview, Team News, Line-Ups, Betting Tips & Prediction

Liverpool will look to close in on the top four when they take on West Ham at Upton Park on Saturday afternoon.

The Reds head into the game sitting level on points with sixth-placed Manchester United following their hard fought 1-0 win over Sunderland at the Stadium on Light on Wednesday night.

Fourth-placed Tottenham are now just five points ahead of the Merseysiders so Jurgen Klopp will be desperate to cut the gap with another victory in the capital tomorrow.

However, West Ham are sure to make it a tough game as they’ve performed well against Liverpool in recent matches having won two of their last three meetings.

Slaven Bilic’s men sit eighth in the table following Monday’s 2-1 win over Southampton so the Londoners will be looking to leapfrog Liverpool with another victory this weekend.

Team news

Liverpool striker Daniel Sturridge hasn’t made the trip to the capital as Klopp continues to be cautious over his return following a hamstring injury.

Divock Origi is also out after suffering a hamstring injury while Jordan Henderson misses out with a heel injury so the duo join James Milner and Martin Skrtel on the sidelines.

West Ham welcome Dimitri Payet back in to the squad after he recovered from an ankle injury that’s kept him out for over two months – although he may only be deemed fit enough for a place in the bench.

Winston Reid and Victor Moses are back in training after recovering from hamstring injuries but Bilic says they aren’t ready to play just yet to they remain on the sidelines along with Diafra Sakho.

Likely Line-Ups

Predicted Score

West Ham 1-2 Liverpool: The Reds have ground-out successive 1-0 wins over the festive period and I can see this being another close game. However, I’m backing Klopp’s men to edge it 2-1 and continue their push for the top four.

Betting Tips

Liverpool are the narrow 21/20 favourites with the bookmakers but Football-Talk can get you enhanced odds of 6/1 on a Reds win if you click here. My prediction of 2-1 is on offer at odds of 8/1 and I also like the look of Benteke opening the score at 9/2. If we combine those two bets in a score-cast, then we get very tempting odds of 22/1.

Back Liverpool to win at crazy odds of 4/1 + money back if you lose

What do you think? What line-up would you like to see start?