Five stats to help you bet on West Ham’s latest Anfield loss

Liverpool/West Ham, 8pm, Setanta Sports 1, Best Odds, Free Bets

Rather than wasting time telling you why Liverpool are 99% certain to beat West Ham (the 3/10 odds should make that obvious enough!) here are five stats that might help you make money on this (mis)match:

45 YEAR WAIT
West Ham have gone over 45 years without a win at Anfield and have lost their last seven matches there, managing only two goals in the process. Liverpool are evens with Paddy Power to win to nil.

GERRARD’S ANNIVERSARY PRESENT
Two days after the ten-year anniversary of Steven Gerrard’s first Liverpool appearance, will he celebrate with another late goal against West Ham? He scored the injury-time equaliser in the 2006 FA Cup Final against the East London side and scored the final goal in Liverpool’s 4-0 win in March. Paddy Power and 888sport offer 11/2 on Gerrard being the last goalscorer.

LATE LAPSES
There have been six goals scored in the last fifteen minutes of Liverpool and West Ham’s last seven clashes, four of which have gone the Reds way. Liverpool have scored nine goals in the last fifteen minutes of Premier League games this season (43% of their overall total scored) while West Ham have conceded eight (36% of their overall total conceded). The visitors have the worst second-half record in the Premier League this season, while Liverpool boast the best. Paddy Power have priced the chances of a goal being scored after the 76th minute at 10/11.

MIRACLE RECOVERY
Fernando Torres is almost certain to miss this game after straining his hamstring against Marseille but on the day of last season’s encounter rumours were rife that the Spaniard would be absent after picking up a bug only for him to play and score a hat-trick. Boylesports still offer 14/1 that he will make another miracle recovery and grab another treble.

UNLIKELY TO SCORE
If Torres is ruled out then Liverpool will be relying on Robbie Keane to fill the void but the Irish striker has failed to score in his last eight meetings against West Ham. Liverpool fan Craig Bellamy has never scored against his boyhood team and only scored two league goals at Anfield during his season at the club.

Posted: November 30th, 2008 by Michael Lintorn |