West Ham striker Michail Antonio claims that the Hammers will finish above Liverpool in the Premier League this season.

The two sides face each other at Anfield this weekend and, speaking ahead of the match on the Footballer’s Football Podcast, Antonio made a bold prediction about his team:

“I am backing myself over Liverpool. You know what, I think we are going to finish higher than Liverpool this season. I’m putting it out there. I watched the game [Wolves vs Liverpool] because it was before our game and Wolves could have run away with it. They had quite a few opportunities. We’ve got them this weekend and it’s a six-pointer.”

Considering Liverpool are currently above West Ham in the table, level on points with Arsenal and Tottenham, as well as being only 2 behind leaders Manchester City, Antonio may live to regret his remarks.

There is certainly no harm in being confident but making such a comment heading into an away game at a ground, where your club haven’t won in eight years, may not be the wisest of moves.

Both teams have games in the Europa League first

Although both sets of fans will be keenly anticipating the Premier League clash on Sunday, it should be noted that the two clubs have matches to play in Europe before then.

West Ham take on Serbian side Backa Topola at home, while Liverpool fly to Austria for their first group match against LASK Linz. While that may hand the Hammers an advantage ahead of the weekend, as they don’t have to travel, it must be pointed out that Jurgen Klopp is likely to rotate his team significantly.

Liverpool were caught cold against Wolves

Antonio does make a good point that Wolves could have been out of sight against the Reds last weekend, and West Ham may be hoping to catch them cold at Anfield on Sunday as well.

It should be a tightly-contested affair but Irons fans will be hoping that Antonio does not have to eat his words.

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