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A reader, whose name I can’t discern from their email address so must remain anonymous, reckons they’ve worked out why Liverpool’s players were all out in the corridor: “Robertson let one go in the dressing room; he’s famous for it, and it’s one aspect of his game that hasn’t slipped this year.”
Graham Potter has a chat about what kind of impact he’s had on West Ham:
We’ve stabilised the team. Defensively we were conceding a lost so we’ve made improvements there. We’ve been competitive in all the games, I would say. A couple of bad halves but generally, without being fantastic, we’ve been in games. We need to be better today, because we’re playing against the best team.
In my naivety I really don’t understand how the home team, who have a lovely, private dressing-room to chill out in right there, ends up hanging around in a semi-glorified corridor before they go out and warm up. Nice photo, though.
Mohamed Salah of Liverpool looks on, while waiting for the warm-up prior to he Premier League match against West Ham United. Photograph: Liverpool FC/Getty Images
Team news is in, and here are the names in the frame this afternoon:
Liverpool: Alisson, Bradley, Konate, van Dijk, Tsimikas, Gravenberch, Mac Allister, Salah, Jones, Diaz, Jota. Subs: Jaros, Kelleher, Endo, Szoboszlai, Chiesa, Gakpo, Elliott,
Robertson, Quansah.
West Ham: Areola, Todibo, Mavropanos, Kilman, Wan-Bissaka, Soler, Ward-Prowse, Scarles, Kudus, Lucas Paqueta, Bowen. Subs: Fabianski, Coufal, Fullkrug, Luis Guilherme, Alvarez, Rodriguez, Soucek, Emerson Palmieri, Ferguson.
Referee: Andrew Madley.
Three more wins. That is, at most, what Liverpool need to win the league. There are no other games, no cups, no European trips, no internationals, no distractions and no congestion – nine of their last 10 games in all competitions are being played on Sundays, including all of the remaining seven. West Ham’s away record is (very, very marginally) better than their home record (1.125 points per game at home, 1.133 away) but neither is very good and they haven’t been able to sustain an average of more than a point a game for a while: they’ve got two points in their last four, eight in their last eight, 12 in their last 12. In short, they look very unlikely to do anything to derail Liverpool’s title bid. In fact, they haven’t looked as unlikely to win a game since they traipsed miserably to Arsenal in February having won one point in their last four games. Inevitably, football being football, they won.
Here’s Andy Hunter’s mini preview:
It is not a question of who will win the Premier League title but how it will be won: at a canter or with Liverpool testing the anxiety levels of their supporters once again? The answer should become clearer after West Ham’s visit. A catalogue of individual errors resulted in the end of Liverpool’s 26-game unbeaten league run at Fulham last weekend and left Arne Slot’s team still needing 11 points to secure the club’s 20th league championship, although the total will be fewer should Arsenal drop any more points. West Ham, Leicester and Tottenham, Liverpool’s next three opponents, present the more straightforward route to victory than trying to get over the line against Chelsea, Arsenal, Brighton and Crystal Palace in the final four games of the season. Anfield could be an apprehensive place on Sunday and will be looking to the team’s experienced leaders to get the job almost done.
