Paul Merson predicts close result in West Ham United vs Liverpool match on Wednesday
Paul Merson has predicted West Ham to come off second best in a tight encounter with Liverpool at Anfield on Wednesday night.
The Hammers could only draw 1-1 on a frustrating afternoon in Southampton at the weekend (16 October) despite an excellent first goal of the season from Declan Rice, while Liverpool inflicted a first defeat of the campaign on Manchester City through Mohamed Salah.
Merson expects Trent Alexander-Arnold to be back in the line up against the Irons, while he speculated that struggling striker Darwin Nunez could be deployed to take advantage of the issues in defence for David Moyes, and has gone for a 2-1 home win.
Merson said in his Sportskeeda predictions column on Monday (17 October): “This should be a good Premier League match. West Ham are not playing well at the moment and their season has been a bit stop-start so far.
“They do have the ammunition to hurt Liverpool and could make this a hard game. If Liverpool turn up, however, I’d back them to win this game.”
On Nunez he said: “When Darwin Nunez came on, the worrying thing was that he didn’t pass the ball to Salah. It’s even more worrying that he didn’t even spot Salah’s run.
“With West Ham’s injuries at the back, this might be a good time to help Nunez with his game. With him on the pitch, however, you won’t get the best out of Salah.”
Unwanted
If Moyes could have chosen when to be making the trip to Anfield it is unlikely that he would have chosen this week, with three centre-backs ruled out or struggling.
Jurgen Klopp’s side have been well short of their best this season, but have now beaten Manchester City days after demolishing Rangers 7-1 at Ibrox on 12 October.
Salah scored a six-minute hat-trick that night, before netting the winner against Pep Guardiola’s side, so West Ham really want as much defensive might as they can gather to get in his way.
On the plus side however, the Hammers’ own form has been better in recent weeks, the draw at St Mary’s notwithstanding, where they may still have won if the referee hadn’t blocked Jarrod Bowen from the ball for the home side’s goal.
They had enough chances to win that game as well, and say what you like about Gianluca Scamacca, he was certainly getting himself in the right places to score even when he didn’t manage to continue his scoring run.
So Merson is right that the Irons do have the ammunition to hurt Liverpool, but they will also need some luck similar to the Fulham win a week ago (9 October) and a strong performance from key characters to prove him wrong and get a more positive result.