This looks a very generous price for a Liverpool win considering West Ham’s poor recent performances. After a solid opening day showing against Aston Villa and a 2-0 win over Crystal Palace, the Hammers were incredibly fortunate to snatch a draw at Fulham, between comfortable wins for Man City and Chelsea at the London Stadium.

Julen Lopetegui’s side have failed to create even 1.0 xG in any of their last three league fixtures, scoring twice and conceding seven goals in these three games.

Arne Slot’s Liverpool, meanwhile, look to have quickly brushed off that surprise 1-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest, turning in a dominant display away to AC Milan in the Champions League before easing past Bournemouth 3-0 at Anfield at the weekend.

They will rotate for this game, but they should still have enough to beat a West Ham side that looked completely lost at times against Chelsea on Saturday. Even with some of the starters on the bench, anything other than a Liverpool win within the 90 minutes would be a big surprise.

The goal lines look incredibly high for this game considering how these two sides have started the season.

Neither side has yet seen five goals or more in a game after six games apiece in 2024/25. West Ham have seen just one game going over 3.5 goals (1-3 v Man City), and Liverpool have matched that, with only one game seeing four or more goals (3-1 v AC Milan), and none of their five Premier League games seeing more than three goals.

Liverpool’s league fixtures have averaged just 2.20 goals per game, with Arne Slot’s men scoring 2.0 per game and having conceded just once. The underlying numbers suggest that goals tally looks about right, with the Reds seeing 2.74 total xG per game.

West Ham meanwhile have seen 2.5 goals per game in all competitions. The Hammers have scored more than once in a game only once all season, away to Crystal Palace back in August, whilst Liverpool have not yet scored more than three goals in a game.

Three or even four goals may well be possible here, but it would be a big shock for this line to be cleared.

With most of Liverpool’s first-choice attackers likely to start this game on the bench, Diogo Jota looks likely to lead the line for the Reds.

The Portugal international has now had a shot on target in three straight starts for club and country, and has hit the target in four of his last six, despite completing the full 90 minutes just once. At the back end of last season, Jota had a shot on target in six of his last seven starts.

Putting up those numbers whilst surrounded by players like Mo Salah and Luis Diaz, who are averaging 3.47 and 3.25 shots per 90 respectively is impressive, so with neither of those two expected to start here, the lion’s share of the chances should fall to Jota. That should allow him plenty of opportunity to get at least one effort on target.

West Ham have cleared this line in all but one of their league games so far this season, that being the incredibly disappointing performance away to Fulham two weeks ago.

They had five corners against Aston Villa and six against Chelsea, also just about clearing this line with three corners against the Premier League champions, Man City.

Averaging 3.80 corners per game in the Premier League so far this season, West Ham will take the game to this rotated Liverpool side and should be able to clear this line comfortably.

The hosts have allowed plenty of corners this season so far too, with their opponents clearing this line in two of their three games at Anfield. Brentford had four corners here in August, whilst Bournemouth had nine corners at the weekend. They have allowed an average of 5.0 corners per game at home this season.

After top scoring for the Hammers last season with 16 goals in all competitions, Jarrod Bowen again looks to be their biggest goal threat, despite the summer move for Dortmund’s Niclas Fullkrug.

The 27-year-old has hit nine shots on target in all competitions this season, those nine coming from just six starts for club and country. In the Premier League, Bowen is averaging 0.85 shots on target per 90, but he had three shots on target and five shots in total in the previous round of this competition as West Ham saw off Bournemouth 1-0 at home.

Bowen has taken more shots lately, notching at least two shots in each of his last three league games, but has been remarkably efficient to get so many efforts on target when averaging just 1.49 shots per 90 in the league. Though Liverpool will not be at full strength, they will still be a tough test for the Hammers, so Bowen’s efficiency could be key in a game where he may well have few chances.

At this price, he looks well worth taking to make it six straight games in which he has tested the keeper.

The Hammers have been card happy to start the 2024/25 season, averaging 2.67 cards per game. Across their last four games in all competitions they have seen at least three cards dished out to players in claret and blue.

They also ran above this line across the whole of last season too, picking up 2.16 cards per game in the Premier League. That suggests that the flurry of cards shown recently is no flash in the pan, and should be expected to continue here.

Liverpool, meanwhile, have seen their opponents pick up at least two cards in all six of their games this season, with four cards dished out three times, and three cards awarded twice.

In all three of their home games so far this season, their opponents have picked up at least three cards, meaning teams are averaging 3.67 cards per game when travelling to Anfield to face Arne Slot’s side.

Liverpool are almost certain to have more corners here, but the handicap line looks extremely high, with Liverpool needing to have at least five more corners than West Ham for this selection to fail.

The Reds have averaged just 6.0 corners per game so far this season, failing to hit six corners across the full 90 on six separate occasions. They are also likely to heavily rotate their side, so this game should be more competitive than the respective league form of the two sides would suggest.

Liverpool’s opponents have averaged 4.0 corners per game this season, whilst West Ham have averaged 3.8 per game in the Premier League, whilst allowing just 5.0 per game on average.

The Hammers would only have failed to cover this corner handicap just once this season, against Man City at home. In each of their other four league games they have either had more corners than their opponents, or been within a single corner of the opposition’s total.

Liverpool have taken at least five more corners than their opponents only once in their six games in all competitions. That came against Ipswich on the opening weekend of the season, where they had 10 corners to the Tractor Boys’ two.

Set to make his first start for the Hammers here, summer signing Carlos Soler has made two substitute appearances for the Hammers, which has allowed him to rack up an incredible average of 8.33 fouls per 90 in the Premier League.

Of course, those numbers are unlikely to remain quite so high when the former PSG man plays the full game, but this price for him to commit a solitary foul looks very appealing.

Soler has been booked in both of his Premier League showings so far, fouling twice in 21 minutes against Fulham and three times in 37 minutes against Chelsea at the weekend.

He averaged 0.91 fouls per 90 for PSG in Ligue 1 last season, and is expected to be up against Curtis Jones, who won at least one foul in 10 of his last 14 starts for Liverpool, and Tyler Morton, who won a foul in four of his last seven starts as a central midfielder out on loan at Hull in the Championship last season.