Will Liverpool Get Hammered in London? | OneFootball

Liverpool travel to West Ham’s London Stadium at a time when even the mention of the capital seems to induce anxiety. Five straight league defeats in London have erased any sense of control away from Anfield, and there is little comfort to be found in current form.

Liverpool In Freefall

The club enters this weekend having lost nine of their last twelve matches in all competitions. It’s a crisis that has crept from concern to full-blown structural collapse. Wednesday night’s 4–1 humiliation against PSV Eindhoven was not merely a bad performance; it was the continuation of a pattern that has begun to look irreversible.

Inside the club, the fixtures against West Ham and Sunderland were described as “winnable” moments before judgement is passed. That tone alone reveals how far expectations have fallen.

Manager Arne Slot cuts an increasingly isolated figure. His post-match demeanour in recent weeks has lacked the clarity and conviction of his early months. Observers have spoken privately of a manager “shocked” at the speed of the decline.

On the pitch, Liverpool have become unrecognisable. Their press, once the envy of Europe, now disintegrates after a single pass. The midfield, rebuilt at significant expense, loses duels that used to define games. And the defense, previously a symbol of authority under Virgil Van Dijk, now resembles a unit searching for basic structure.

Damn(ing) Statistics

The statistical evidence is merciless. Liverpool have conceded 20 goals in 12 league games, their joint-worst defensive record at this stage since the inaugural Premier League season. They have lost three successive matches by three goals or more, something not seen in 72 years.

There was a time when Liverpool arrived in London expecting to take control of the occasion. Those days feel distant. This is a team that has not won a top-flight away match since mid-September, a sequence that includes defeats to Crystal Palace, Chelsea, Brentford and Manchester City.

The most concerning element for the coaching staff is the consistency of the performances: passive starts, soft goals conceded, an inability to shift the momentum of a match once it begins to slip.

For a club of Liverpool’s scale, this is a wrecking pattern.

Hammers Finally on the Rise

West Ham, meanwhile, approach this fixture with something that Liverpool cannot currently locate – momentum.

Nuno Espírito Santo has stabilised a side that had slipped into relegation territory, collecting seven points from the last nine. They have rediscovered a structure, resilience, and belief that vanished earlier in the campaign.

Home form has returned as a crucial foundation. Victory would give the Hammers three consecutive Premier League home wins for the first time in more than two years.

Although Liverpool’s recent memories of the London Stadium are a positive 5–0 win, along with a rich history of scoring, that belongs to last season’s squad who played with conviction, presence, and something resembling identity.

Whether Ibrahima Konaté returns or remains on the bench, the Reds’ problems are systemic rather than individual. Liverpool’s defensive line has been repeatedly stretched and exposed, with Van Dijk’s form reflecting an experienced player attempting to solve too many emergencies at once. Where Thiago or Fabinho once dictated rhythm, the current midfield trio (regardless of player composition) often lose second balls and transitions.

West Ham’s ability to counter at pace with Jarrod Bowen and Lucas Paquetá (if fit) poses a significant threat to a Liverpool back line that has conceded at least two goals in each of the last four away league matches.

Salah remains Liverpool’s most reliable outlet, but the (very expensive) supporting cast has struggled. Confidence inside the final third has diminished to the point where chances no longer carry the sense of inevitability they once did.

Public Support; Private Doubt

Publicly, the board continue to back Slot. Privately, there is growing recognition that this run has crossed into territory that almost always triggers change at an elite club. The question is no longer whether the situation is alarming it is whether it has already travelled beyond the point of recovery. Defeats of the magnitude seen against Manchester City, Nottingham Forest and PSV Eindhoven they spotlight flaws that cannot be brushed aside as variance or misfortune.

A poor result on Sunday would force the conversation forward.

For Liverpool, this is not just another league match. It is a test of identity, a test of the manager. A test of whether this season can still be salvaged before the club sleepwalks into something far more damaging.

Liverpool’s recent performances leave little room for optimism. The club are closer to the relegation zone than the top four, and the aura that once made games like this feel inevitable has evaporated.

The London Stadium will reveal whether there is still fight left in this group, or whether the breaking point has already arrived.

Either way, Sunday feels like more than a match it feels a day that will tell Liverpool, with brutal clarity, exactly where they are and where they are going as a club and for Arne Slot.