We have a Friday Night Football to open up things in the Premier League this weekend and not for the first time this season it comes from the London Stadium. West Ham play host to Leicester in an interesting battle not least because both are under relatively new management.
This will be the first home match in charge for David Moyes while Claude Puel is still relatively young in his Leicester City stint so it will be intriguing to see how both sides go about their business.
West Ham
I guess it became inevitable that Slaven Bilic was going to be sacked given that it had been speculated so many times over the calendar year but if everyone involved with the Hammers thought the change would bring about an immediate upturn in form then they were very much mistaken.
West Ham lost 2-0 in David Moyes’ first game in charge at Watford last weekend and in truth they looked much the same shambles that they did under Bilic and if the Scot hadn’t previously realised he has a lot of work to do in order to turn the Hammers around he certainly will have now. They are hideous at the back and misfiring going forward.
Leicester City
Claude Puel managed to win his first game in charge at the King Power Stadium but he has failed to pick up a victory in the two matches since then although to be fair to him one of those was against Manchester City and not beating them is not a negative for sure. He would like a win here though just to ease the pressure on his shoulders.
Most people expected Puel to get to grips with the Leicester defence by now but they have conceded two goals in each of their last two matches so that is a concern going forward. They do have goals in them though which is a positive and a platform to build from although I suspect Puel will want a solid rearguard above anything.
Team News
David Moyes remains without Michail Antonio and Javier Hernandez but Andre Ayew has been passed fit after missing the Watford loss with illness. Marko Arnautovic is expected to play after recovering from the injury he picked up at Vicarage Road.
Claude Puel remains without the longer term injury victims Matty James and Robert Huth but he has reported no fresh injury concerns which is a bonus. Leicester could be unchanged despite the defeat last week.
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Betting
This will be an interesting match because both sides are managed by men who rarely adopt an open and attacking style but given what they have at their disposal, and the need to win the game, I fancy both might be a little more expansive than usual.
I would expect both teams to fancy their chances of winning the match and given that both are pretty poor defensively I am expecting to see goals here. Moyes is almost duty bound to have a go in his first home match while Leicester have plenty of firepower. This should ignite into a high scoring game.
Tips
Back Over 2.5 goals for a 4/10 stake at 2.05 with BetVictor
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