Football – England – Premier League
Saturday 21st March 2015 – Kickoff: 1730hrs
Both teams head into tonight’s Premier league clash on the back of some ordinary form, not least West Ham who have lost their last three league matches on the trot with defeats to Crystal Palace, Chelsea and Arsenal.
I guess the one thing you can say though is that The Hammers were up against London rivals in all three of these losses, and the fact they have home advantage at their Boleyn Ground today could work in their favour given their opponents couldn’t be further away from the nations capital!
At home, West Ham hold a record of 7-3-5 21/15 and they currently sit in what is considered their ‘true’ position of mid-table in the English top flight. The hosts have won just once in their last six on home turf which was a 3-0 win over Hull City, but surely they stand a decent chance of returning to their early season winning form here today?
Sunderland’s poor run of just one win from their last twelve matches overall has resulted in the Black Cats’ decline down the league table and they currently sit just one league place and one point above Burnley who are in the bottom three.
Three defeats to QPR, Manchester United and Aston Villa along with three draws against Swansea City, West Brom and Hull City mean that they make the long trip down to London in shaky form themselves, particularly with an away record of 2-7-5 11/21 which is almost identical to their home record by the way.
Former manager Gus Poyet was sacked just a few days ago as a result of Sunderland’s poor run of results and has been replaced by former Netherlands’ national coach Dick Advocaat who possesses a wealth of managerial experience.
West Ham need to bounce back, and as good as Advocaat is, it’ll take time for his new charges to get used to his tactical approach – I’ll therefore back West Ham for the points here, perhaps 1-0.
Pick: West Ham straight win @ 1.85 bet365
