Chris Sutton makes West Ham admission in Liverpool prediction - 'Slow Burner'

Chris Sutton has predicted defeat for West Ham against Liverpool while claiming their season may be a "slow burner".

West Ham host the league leaders on 29 December in a game that Lucas Paqueta may thrive in given the expected absence of Dominik Szoboszlai for Liverpool.

The Irons are unbeaten in their last four despite not being at their best in their recent win against Southampton although that will need to change if the Hammers are to get anything against Liverpool with Sutton predicting a 2-0 defeat.

Via his predictions on BBC Sport (28 December), Sutton said: "Is anyone going to be able to stop Liverpool? I don't think West Ham will. To be fair to the Hammers, they are level on points with Spurs and above Manchester United in the table, so maybe their season is just a slow burner.

"So far, they have been underwhelming under Julen Lopetegui, but they have now put together a four-game unbeaten run and Jarrod Bowen seems to have become their go-to player in recent weeks."

West Ham need to improve against Liverpool

Given the fact that they secured three points against the Saints, those on the outside will be completely oblivious to the actual performance, which was far from good.

Albeit, given the lack of quality in the Southampton side, they didn't need to be at their best but against Liverpool, even their best may not be enough.

On far too many occasions now, the Irons have been bailed out by a moment of quality from Jarrod Bowen and it simply isn't a sustainable way of playing and with the level of quality in the Liverpool defence, they will know that keeping him out of the game will all but secure victory.

The seasons as a whole has been a strange one. If West Ham can secure a victory, they could be within three points of the top five whereas a defeat could see them drop down to 14th.

Simply put, the Irons will need to put on a significantly better performance on Sunday if they are to have even an ounce of a chance of avoiding defeat.

In other West Ham news, one player could push for an exit from the club.

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