Football – England – Premier League
Saturday 2nd May 2015 – Kickoff: 1500hrs
It’s the battle of the Claret and Blue on Saturday when West Ham take on Burnley at the Boleyn Ground with an important three points still to play for here.
West Ham will be keen to build upon the recent win over Sunderland following two difficult back-to-back away matches which saw them lose 2-0 at Manchester City which was followed up with a point away at Loftus Road in a 0-0 draw against QPR.
On a more positive note, West Ham have been reasonably solid on home turf with an overall record of 8-4-5 23/16 and they hold a good record at home against bottom half opposition which is reflected by stats of 5-3-1 12/5. An attacking triumvirate of Downing, Valencia and Jarvis could cause Burnley’s defence some headaches this afternoon.
Onto the visitors Burnley then, and it’s quickly becoming a ‘do-or-die’ situation for Sean Dyche’s men as they find themselves bottom of the pile some five points behind 17th placed Leicester City who themselves looked dead and buried just a couple of months ago.
Four defeats from their last five is not the kind of form you need to be in if you’re looking to avoid the drop into the Championship, but this is exactly what The Clarets have suffered with defeats against Southampton, Arsenal, Everton and a ‘six-pointer’ against the aforementioned Leicester City.
To make matters worse, Burnley have failed to score in each of their last five matches since their 1-0 win over Manchester United at Turf Moor. Their talismanic striker and leading goalscorer Danny Ings’ goals have dried up as he hasn’t notched in his last nine Premier League matches.
Hammers manager Sam Allardyce would love to add a seventh clean sheet to their tally at Upton Park here, and as they’re also not playing London opposition (they’ve won once and lost four to teams from the ‘big smoke’ at home so far), I’ll give the quarter ball on the hosts here who could nick the points with a 1-0 win.
Pick: West Ham AH-0.25 @ 1.95 bet365
