The Premier League action comes thick and fast this time of the year and after a nine-game weekend, there’s a huge game in the Monday Night Football. Liverpool will be looking to maintain their lead at the top in their trip to the London Stadium where they face West Ham.

STATS

• West Ham have had a rollercoaster of a season so far with some very mixed results and they will be disappointed with the fact that they sit 12^th in the table. They’ve won just one of their last five matches and that came in arguably the toughest of those, against Arsenal at home. They have also been dumped out of the FA Cup by Wimbledon in that time.
• Liverpool have their best chance to win their first Premier League title this season as they are top of the table with a game-in-hand over 2^nd-placed Manchester City. Although, they might be showing signs of slowing down as they have dropped points in two of their last four in the league. Last time out, Leicester came from behind to draw with the Reds at Anfield.
• Felipe Anderson has been West Ham’s best player this term as rumours of Marko Arnautovic leaving are gathering pace. The Brazilian wideman has eight league goals.
• Mohamed Salah is once again the Premier League’s leading goalscorer and with 16 goals, he is ahead of the likes of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Sergio Aguero and Eden Hazard.

HEAD TO HEAD

Liverpool have dominated the recent meeting between the two teams as they have won four and drawn one of the last five of their fixtures against West Ham. Two of those victories came away in East London where they scored four goals on both occasions with an aggregate score of 8-1. There have been over 2.5 goals in each of those five matches while both teams have scored in three of them.

WEST HAM NEWS

The hosts can break into the top half with an unlikely three points and would overtake Everton in 9^th. Lukasz Fabianski is expected to start despite picking up a knock whilst Arnautovic, Lucas Perez and Aaron Cresswell all face late fitness tests.

Latest matches: West Ham United

29.01.2019	Prem	Wolverhampton Wanderers	West Ham United	3:0	L
26.01.2019	FA C	AFC Wimbledon	West Ham United	4:2	L
19.01.2019	Prem	Bournemouth AFC	West Ham United	2:0	L
12.01.2019	Prem	West Ham United	Arsenal FC	1:0	W
05.01.2019	FA C	West Ham United	Birmingham City	2:0	W

LIVERPOOL NEWS

Because of Man City’s win against Arsenal on Sunday afternoon, the visitors’ lead at the top has been cut to two points so they need to restore it back to five with a win on Monday. They have defensive injury worries as Dejan Lovren, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Joe Gomez will all miss out.

Latest matches: Liverpool FC

30.01.2019	Prem	Liverpool FC	Leicester City	1:1	D
19.01.2019	Prem	Liverpool FC	Crystal Palace	4:3	W
12.01.2019	Prem	Brighton & Hove Albion FC	Liverpool FC	0:1	W
07.01.2019	FA C	Wolverhampton Wanderers	Liverpool FC	2:1	L
03.01.2019	Prem	Manchester City	Liverpool FC	2:1	L

SUMMARY

With Liverpool’s great campaign so far, it’s hard to see anything but a win for them. However, West Ham’s form against the big teams has been very good at times so they can never be written off in these games. Both of the league leaders’ last two away wins have seen under 2.5 goals and I expect the trend to continue against Manuel Pellegrini’s side.