West Ham and Brighton are tied on eight points towards the bottom of the league table, with almost identical records. A win for either team would move them up the table this weekend, while a loss could see them drop into the relegation zone. It is an important game for both clubs, especially West Ham who are expected to be doing better than this after spending money during the summer.
Brighton will see this as an opportunity to pick up a valuable away point, or perhaps all three because West Ham are not playing too well right now. With this game being on Friday night, a win for either club would take them to 10th position in the league, making their start look a lot better. That is highly likely to change on Saturday, but will give one of these clubs some relief until then, while keeping the other in a lot of trouble near the bottom.
Premier League – Olympiastadion London, Londo – Saturday 20th October 2017 – 18:00 UK Time
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Draw Best Odd of: 10 at Ladbrokes |
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Manchester City
BurnleyWest Ham Form
The positive for West Ham is that they are becoming hard to beat, with two wins, two draws and one loss from their last five games. That ability to keep picking up points is something that will keep them in this division, but they are aiming a lot higher than that. To match their expectations of a top half finish, West Ham need to find a way to turn the draws they are having into wins.
With just eight goals in their opening eight games, West Ham will be looking for ways to improve their goal scoring. They need to create more chances, and more importantly finish them off. They have the ability in the team, and after Andy Carroll’s red card last weekend the goal scoring is going to have to come from Javier Hernandez and Marko Arnautovic. Those two are more than capable, and West Ham should be doing better than they are doing right now.
Brighton Form
For Brighton this year is all about survival, and while they haven’t been hugely impressive so far, they look to have a chance. They have been better recently and seven of their eight points have come in their last five games. It seems to me like they took a few games to adjust to the Premier League, but now we are seeing the true, fully adjusted Brighton.
If West Ham are struggling for goals with eight from eight games, then Brighton are really struggling because they only have six goals so far. Clearly those numbers are not good enough and Brighton need to find a way to be better. They signed a few new attacking options during the summer and so far it seems those players have yet to click with each other. The talent is there on paper, but it doesn’t appear to be coming together on the field for them just yet.
Team News
Andy Carroll will serve the first game from his ban due to a red card last weekend so Javier Hernandez is likely to play in attack on his own for West Ham. He has a good supporting cast though, with Arnautovic, Manuel Lanzini and Michail Antonio all capable of contributing to the teams attacking play.
Brighton have many attacking options, although they still don’t know which players work best together and it still seems like they are going through the trial and error period. Anthony Knockaert played very well last weekend, creating problems for the Everton defence and the club will want to see more of that form him in this one.
Top Betting Tips
West Ham are the much better team on paper and should be doing better this season. I am going to back them to win this game, being at home they have the advantage and I think they will find a way past the Brighton defence. They are priced at 10/11 with Ladbrokes to win the game, and after a decent performance last weekend I think that is what they will do.
I don’t expect to see many goals in this one, with both teams struggling to score so it may also be worth looking at the goals market in this game. The under 2.5 goals market is priced up at 4/6 with Ladbrokes, Paddy Power and Coral, and while this may not be a huge price, it looks a very good bet based on what we have seen so far from both teams. In what is expected to be a low scoring game, I am going to back West Ham to win.