When the Premier League fixtures were announced, the fact that West Ham were drawn to face Liverpool, a side who beat them 4-1 on two occasions last season, caused some annoyance from Hammers fans.
Whilst plenty Liverpool fans will be hoping for a repeat of the victory that the Reds had over the West in February Ham, as goals from Emre Can, Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane earned Jurgen Klopp’s side a well-deserved three points, Hammers supporters will be a bit more optimistic as the West Ham from that game are much different than the West Ham of today.
Manuel Pellegrini has taken over as the club’s manager and like Liverpool manager Klopp, he’s been backed by his owners, who’ve allowed him to sign the likes of Felipe Anderson.
Liverpool vs. West Ham betting odds show that the home side are expected to win the game, but West Ham have a decent record at Anfield and it wasn’t too long ago that the Hammers were seen as a bogey side for the Reds.
The worry will be that the players might not be quite up to speed with what Pellegrini wants from them, but optimistic supporters will look back to the opening day of the 2015/16 season when an unfancied West Ham side defeated Arsenal away from home.
Liverpool’s summer business means they are a different proposition than that Arsenal team, who looked to be in some disarray, but there will be no reason for Pellegrini’s men to go into the game thinking that they can’t get anything from it.
There could be a few other additions made to the Hammers squad before the game, so we might see more new faces alongside the likes of Anderson, Issa Diop, Lukasz Fabianski, Jack Wilshere, Andriy Yarmolenko when kick-off time arrives at Anfield on August 12th.
