As Jurgen Klopp’s side head to east London on Saturday evening, the memories of the humiliating defeat they inflicted upon Slaven Bilic’s side last May are surely still very raw for Hammers fans.
It was one of the most dispiriting days of all at the unloved and unlovely London Stadium – and there have been many already. A rancid 4-0 capitulation in the final home game of what was a traumatic, messy and uncomfortable first campaign in the club’s new home. And, as it turned out a precursor of much that has continued into this troubled season.
There could not have been a greater contrast with the events of 2015-2016, Bilic’s first in command and the team’s last at the now-demolished Boleyn Ground.
First, the team secured its first win at Anfield since 1963, winning 3-0 in a heady opening spell when they also won at Arsenal and Manchester City.
Naturally enough, they also contrived to lose the first two home matches of that season against Leicester City and Bournemouth in a contrary period more in keeping with the familiar, haphazard traditions of Upton Park than the glorious farewell nights against Spurs and Manchester United which followed.
But then Liverpool were beaten twice more in mid-winter in the league and in a dramatic FA Cup replay fuelled by the tide of emotion which was building inside the old ground as its final months ticked by.
When West Ham surrendered so abjectly against the same opponents last May, the manager, Bilic, had secured his future after months of speculation that he would pay the price for the troubles of the first season in Stratford.
Now Liverpool are back and Bilic’s job security is even more tenuous than it was last season. And the surroundings of the new ground feel as soulless, awkward and spirit-sapping as ever, 17 months after the move took place.
In Pictures | Crystal Palace vs West Ham | 28/10/2017
The difference in the mood this time is that while many supporters kept faith throughout last term, a huge number now seem reluctantly to agree that the coach has run out of time and ideas and that a change is required. I live on the patch. I hear the change and I sense it.
This is not a turn of opinion which has been arrived at lightly. The radio phone-ins may crackle every week with the fatuous demands of supporters of nearly every club for heads to roll and axes to swing.
For West Ham’s fans, it's different just now. They want to back Bilic. They like his connection with the club as a former player. They like his honesty and his slightly maverick style.
They’d like him to survive if there is a genuine prospect of a long-term turn-around offered against Liverpool.
And they’ll back him to the hilt before-hand on Saturday as he faces another do-or-die moment at his lonely post by the London Stadium dug-out yards and yards and yards away from his bench.
They also reserve much of their anger and bile about what has gone wrong for the team - and over the wholesale and dramatic change in the very nature of the club caused by the stadium move – for the co-owners, David Sullivan and David Gold.
So it’s a tangled situation, with many of those supporters – while doubting Bilic - even more furious about what they perceive as constant sniping at him from the boardroom.
The plain fact is, though, that many performances this season have made the fans conclude that the point of no return has really been arrived at and that Bilic has nothing left to give.
The 3-0 defeat by Brighton was an abject low point. Then, after the brief delight of the 3-2 comeback win against Spurs in the Carabao Cup at Wembley, the mood plummeted again after Crystal Palace fought back from two down to claim a 2-2 draw at Selhurst Park last weekend.
It convinced a huge number of fans that the win at Tottenham simply papered over some very deep cracks; which they understood, really, even as that night’s gleeful events were unfolding.
There have been serious doubts about Bilic’s tactical acumen and his motivational powers. The much-heralded summer transfer spree – whoever was in charge of it – which brought in players like Joe Hart, Javier Hernandez and Marko Arnautovic – doesn’t seem to have altered anything.
The manager has even been forced to defend himself against increasing complaints from the stands that the players don’t look fit enough for the rigours of the Premier League.
Before that crushing defeat by Brighton, Bilic’s team had actually lost only once in a run of five league games.
But most West Ham fans now seem to believe that a point of critical mass has been reached as all these varied problems pile up.
Almost three months into the season, the visit of Liverpool will still be only the side’s fourth home league match of the season. Played three, lost two is a hurtful record.
The grapevine whisper is that Bilic would already be gone if there was a replacement available.
He survives to fight again on Saturday evening. But he won’t carry the Hammers’ faithful with him any longer unless his players show real and meaningful signs of change in his latest meeting with destiny on Saturday.
MORE ABOUT