There is bitter fight to avoid relegation in England Premier League. While Norwich looks like already in Championship two other current tickets holders Watford and West Ham are dreaming to give their ticket to Aston Villa. This week brings us interesting game at London Stadium between West Ham and Southampton.
West Ham
This club had very bad season so far and stick for to long with Pelegrini. After removing him, they appointed Moyes as new coach. I don't value him much because of what he did in Manchester and later in Spain. Hammers are on 18th place and have 6 wins 6 draws and 15 defeats with 32 goals scored and 48 conceded. They share this spot with Watford and Aston Villa is just one point above them in safe zone. With schedule which will bring them Arsenal, Wolves, Tottenham and Chelsea in next few games they have no choice, but to try to get 3 points here. I watched their game against Liverpool last week and they showed they can score goals. Hammers are dangerous from set pieces which even Van Dijk could not handle. However pathetic error of goalkeeper who let clearly his ball into net on bizarre way made result 2:2 and soon after they conceded 3rd and that was the end. But look that was Liverpool, champion of Europe and World, unbeaten club in Premier League which is winning in England everyone everywhere. Southampton is not on that level.
Southampton
Saints are 12th on the table with 34 points. They have 10 wins, 4 draws and 13 loses with 34 goals scored and 48 conceded. Those numbers are almost same like West Ham, but they are 10 points above. They need just 6 more to ensure staying in league. They looked like solid team, but all picture I had about them like good fall in water after 4:0 defeat against Liverpool and 1:2 lose at home against pathetic side like Burnley. They will face Newcalstle, Norwich, Arsenal and Watford in few next games and this one is not of that importance like it is for West Ham. If they fail here they can try to grab points against Newcastle and Norwich.
Form
Hammers are hammered to 20th place on form table with 0-2-4 and 7:15. They had tough opponents in that period. Liverpool twice, City, Everton, Leicester ... Only 3:3 against Brighton can be considered like big blow. Here are their last 6 results in League:
18.01.20. West Ham United - Everton 1:1 (1:1)
22.01.20. Leicester City - West Ham United 4:1 (2:0)
29.01.20. West Ham - Liverpool 0:2 (0:1)
01.02.20. West Ham - Brighton 3:3 (2:0)
24.02.20. Manchester City - West Ham 2:0 (1:0)
24.02.20. Liverpool - West Ham 3:2 (1:1)
Southampton is on 10th place of form table with 3-0-3 and 9:10. They had some surprising wins away against Leicester and for me against Crystal Palace, but they had also surprising defeat against Burnley and were trashed 4:0 by Liverpool.
11.01.20. Leicester - Southampton 1:2 (1:1) (!!)
18.01.20. Southampton - Wolverhampton 2:3 (2:0) (!!)
21.01.20. Crystal Palace - Southampton 0:2 (0:1)
01.02.20. Liverpool - Southampton 4:0 (0:0)
15.02.20. Southampton - Burnley 1:2 (1:1)
22.02.20. Southampton - Aston Villa 2:0 (1:0)
Sidelined players
West Ham will probably be without Ryan Fredericks, Xande Silva, Andriy Yarmolenko , Jack Wilshere and Tomáš Souček.
Southampton has problems with Moussa Djenepo and Yan Valery who are doubtful for this game, while Nathan Redmond and Cedric Soares are seriously injured.
Head to head statistics
West Ham has 7 win, 1 draw and 3 loses with 22 goals scored and 11 conceded against Southampton recently at home. They also won them away this season:
14.12.2019 Southampton - West Ham 0:1
04.05.2019 West Ham - Southampton 3:0
27.12.2018 Southampton - West Ham 1:2
31.03.2018 West Ham - Southampton 3:0
19.08.2017 Southampton - West Ham 3:2
04.02.2017 Southampton - West Ham 1:3
25.09.2016 West Ham - Southampton 0:3
06.02.2016 Southampton - West Ham 1:1
I like to think about this game in terms of previous 2 when West Ham was host.
Conclusion
As I already mentioned people from England love tradition and head 2 head tradition is clearly on West Ham side. Recent form does not telling much, because West Ham had to serious opponents in last 6 games. Motivation is also on West Ham side, just like crowd on London stadium. Southampton is not bad, they can be dangerous particularity Ings. This game is must win for West Ham and my opinion is they have what it takes to calm down Southampton. Diop and Haller should secure 3 points here and odd of 2.80 looks like justified risk. I'll put 50 SCR on West Ham for this match on betscorum here: https://betscorum.com/en-us/game/19199
This article has been written by me on scorum sport blog platform here: https://scorum.com/en-us/football/@svarogbg/england-premier-league-west-ham-vs-southampton-preview
"Believe me I know what I am doing" said Sledge Hammer in TV serial. It's going to be Sledge Hammer situation for Southampton. I don't know how West Ham is going to win this, but what I know is that they MUST win. They will put ball in back of the net somehow.
That's why I'm saying West Ham - Southampton 2:1, Haller scores first.
Thanks for reading.