West Ham United v Liverpool
Premier League, London Stadium, Wednesday 26 April 2023, 7.45pm BST
The big matches keep coming for West Ham United as Liverpool visit London Stadium for a mouth-watering Premier League fixture on Wednesday evening.
The Hammers welcome the Reds to E20 with confidence rising in the Claret and Blue ranks after a run of six wins and just one defeat in the last ten matches in all competitions.
David Moyes, who turned 60 on Tuesday, has led the Irons to eleven points from their previous six Premier League games - a run which saw his team rise to 13th in the table ahead of the midweek slate of fixtures.
The UEFA Europa Conference League semi-finalists will face a stern examination from Jürgen Klopp's Liverpool, however. The visitors have taken seven points from their last three top-flight games, scoring eleven goals in the process.
Tickets...
Tickets for this sold out game are available on the Ticket Exchange, with Season Ticket Holders who cannot attend this fixture relisting their seats for other supporters to buy. Click here to check availability or relist.
Travel...
The London Underground Central and Jubilee lines are set to serve Stratford station as normal on Wednesday, as are the Elizabeth line and London Overground services.
The only alteration to Overground services will see no service between Surrey Quays and Clapham Junction after 11.15pm. Please use local London Buses services instead.
On c2c, late-night engineering work will take place between Fenchurch Street and East Ham, and Between Barking and Upminster from 11.30pm.. c2c services are to be diverted into Liverpool Street via Rainham. Shuttle services will operate between Upminster and Grays via Ockendon and between Upminster and Pitsea via Laindon. Ticket acceptance will be in place for holders of valid tickets between Barking and Upminster.
Greater Anglia services will be running from London Liverpool Street into Essex as normal. However, due to maintenance work, the 11.28pm London Liverpool Street to Cambridge train service will be replaced by a bus service between Bishops Stortford and Cambridge .
Southeastern services will also be affected by late-night work on some routes. From 11pm until the end of service, buses replace trains between Dartford and Gravesend, and from 11.55pm until the end of service, buses replace trains between Ashford International and Dover Priory. Trains from London St Pancras International and London Charing Cross to Dover Priory will be diverted between Ashford International and Dover Priory, and will call additionally at Canterbury West.
How to Follow...
Wednesday's game will be broadcast live by BT Sport in the UK, and will be shown across the world by the Premier League's international broadcast partners.
You can listen to commentary in the UK on talkSPORT and BBC Radio London 94.9FM and worldwide on whufc.com and our official app.
You can also follow the action via our live blog on whufc.com and our app and across our social media channels. We will also have highlights and exclusive reaction for you after the final whistle.
Official Programme…
West Ham United's 116-page Official Programme for Wednesday's Premier League fixture is available to order online now for just £4, plus £1.49 postage and packaging*.
Copies will be sent via first-class post. Full-season subscriptions are also available, including all Premier League, FA Cup and EFL Cup home issues, from just £119, from the Club's official West Ham Programmes shop.
Team News...
West Ham United boss David Moyes was taking a check on his squad after another busy three-game week last week.
One player who will definitely miss out, however, is striker Gianluca Scamacca, who has undergone surgery on his knee issue.
Jürgen Klopp is likely to be without Brazil forward Roberto Firmino and Guinea midfielder Naby Keïta, who have both been recovering from muscle injuries.
Young Spainish midfielder Stefan Bajcetic has been ruled out for the remainder of the season with an adductor problem.
Opposition...
Without Liverpool, the past five seasons of Premier League football would have become very uncompetitive. With Manchester City setting higher and higher standards under Pep Guardiola, it is only Jürgen Klopp’s Reds who have managed to stay in touch with the high-performing Citizens and keep Guardiola’s side from lifting every trophy in sight.
In that period, Liverpool missed out on Premier League title by one point twice, in 2017/18 and 2021/22. However, a 29-year wait for a league title finally ended in between, in 2019/20. It stands as the only time across the last five Premier League seasons the winners have not come from the blue side of Manchester.
Alongside that memorable triumph, Liverpool lifted all three other domestic trophies with Klopp at the helm. They have also triumphed in the UEFA Champions League in 2018/19, before winning the FIFA Club World Cup six months later.
Following all that success, 2022/23 has proved a bit of a stumbling block. Slow out the gates, Klopp and Liverpool have found it tough to keep up with a growing pack of clubs chasing European qualification.
With Arsenal taking the reins as City’s challengers-elect in 2022/23, Liverpool have found themselves with work to do should they want to play any form of European football next season. The Reds have qualified for the UEFA Champions League in each of the last five campaigns, but that record is firmly on the line as they head to east London.
Arguably with the hangover of pushing for a quadruple deep into 2021/22 playing a part, Liverpool, who in the end settled for an FA and EFL Cup double last year, started the current campaign slowly and have only belatedly started to close the gap on the top six. In short, the pack is getting larger. The competitors are more competitive. And the margins for error even smaller than they have ever been.
As it stands, then, with Arsenal and Manchester City out ahead, two final spots look up for grabs. Manchester United and Newcastle United, both rejuvenated under new coaches in Erik Ten Haag and Eddie Howe, are right in the mix for a top-four finish.
Then there is the chasing pack, of which Liverpool find themselves part of. The Reds, alongside the likes of Brighton & Hove Albion, Aston Villa and Tottenham Hotspur still hope for a spot in Europe come May.
And so, Liverpool have picked a good time to have found some form. Manchester United were met with a 7-0 thrashing. Arsenal were also stunned as Anfield roared the Reds back from two-nil down. Leeds United then found Liverpool unstoppable in a 6-1 win at Elland Road.
As such, Klopp will hope 2022/23 is a mere blip in waging battle with Manchester City. And while Liverpool sit nine points from the top four as it stands, they still harbour feint hopes of a sixth straight UEFA Champions League campaign under Klopp.
Previous Meetings...
West Ham United meet Liverpool in the Premier League for the 54th time on Wednesday.
Unsurprisingly, perhaps, the Reds have had much the better of the previous 53 top-flight meetings, winning 33 to West Ham's ten victories, with ten draws.
The reverse fixture played at Anfield in mid-October ended 1-0 in Liverpool's favour, with Jarrod Bowen seeing his first-half penalty saved by Alisson following Darwin Núñez's opener for the home side.
However, West Ham did win 3-2 at London Stadium in November 2021, when an early Alisson own-goal and second-half strikes from Pablo Fornals and Kurt Zouma secured a superb three points for David Moyes' side.
Match Officials...
Referee: Chris Kavanagh
Assistant Referees: Simon Bennett & James Mainwaring
Fourth Official: Andy Davies
VAR: Neil Swarbrick
Assistant VAR: Darren Cann
Chris Kavanagh takes charge of a West Ham United fixture for the 20th time on Sunday.
A member of the Manchester Football Association, Kavanagh is in his sixth season as a Select Group referee.
Born in Manchester in 1985, Kavanagh was 13 when he began his refereeing career, moving up through the non-league pyramid to the National League in 2012, aged 27.
Kavanagh was promoted to the Football League in 2014 before refereeing his first Premier League fixture in April 2017.
In all, Kavanagh has refereed over 300 senior matches, including 115 Premier League games, the 2021 EFL Championship Play-Off final, European club matches and internationals.
Kavanagh’s first West Ham appointment was the FA Cup fourth-round defeat at Wigan Athletic in January 2018. Most recently, he refereed the Irons' home draw with Aston Villa in March.
