Rejoice, Liverpool fans! Daniel Sturridge is back. The England striker pops his bottom on the bench as West Ham arrive in Merseyside. We get cracking in 45 minutes.

A bit of a change of tactics from Big Sam, who has pushed Downing out wide on the left. The former Liverpool man had been playing at the tip of the diamond in the West Ham midfield, but Nolan is preferred in that position today.

So, will West Ham win at Anfield for the first time in 18,763 days? We'll find out over these next 90 minutes.

The match is under way at Anfield. Liverpool kick-off.

We're now just five minutes away from kick-off. The two sides are making their way out onto the pitch; Liverpool led by Jordan Henderson and West Ham by Kevin Nolan.

West Ham are perched a point above Liverpool in the table (36 points face 35). The visitors are on a three-match unbeaten run in the league, while the Reds are undefeated since mid-December.

Sam Allardyce: "Liverpool are a lot better now than when we beat them 3-1 at our place back in September. Brendan Rodgers has changed the system a few times and seems to have dropped on a 4-2-3-1 or 3-5-2, very similar to Terry Venables and the Christmas tree of some years back. They have two holding and two attacking midfielders. The encouraging thing for us, though, is that they have not been scoring lots of goals."

Brendan Rodgers on Stewart Downing: "Stewart was one I did not want to let go. It was a difficult start for him but when we worked together at the beginning in the second part of the season he was one of the regular players so he wasn't someone who I wanted to move on. He has done very well at West Ham. He is a really gifted player technically, he has a wonderful technique, he plays games and trains every day and is a good guy, so it's not surprising to me how well he has done."

Three changes for West Ham from their last Premier League outing. Joey O'Brien, Winston Reid and Morgan Amalfitano get the nod in Big Sam's starting XI.

Brendan Rodgers recalls Sturridge to the squad after his horrific spell out with injury. Raheem Sterling will lead the Liverpool line until his team-mate's inevitable introduction to a standing ovation.

LIVERPOOL: Mignolet, Can, Skrtel, Sakho, Henderson, Lucas, Moreno, Markovic, Lallana, Coutinho, Sterling... Subs: Ward, Johnson, Lambert, Sturridge, Allen, Borini, Ibe /// WEST HAM: Adrian, O'Brien, Collins, Reid, Cresswell, Song, Amalfitano, Nolan, Downing, Carroll, Valencia... Subs: Jaaskelainen, Demel, Oxford, Poyet, Noble, Jarvis, Cole.