The Premier League weekend concludes with a London derby in the Monday Night Football where the London Stadium plays host to West Ham United and Brentford in a match which feels important for both teams.
West Ham have been on a wretched run recently and have slid down to the halfway mark in the table. Brentford haven’t got anything going this season and sit just five points above the relegation zone, which is the last place they want to be.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the Monday Night Football show on the Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Premier League channels with the programme beginning at 6.30pm ahead of an 8pm kick off.
West Ham United
This season was looking pretty good for West Ham United heading into 2024 but then they lost a couple of key men to the Africa Cup of Nations and injuries hit a couple of other big players and here they are in their last game in February still looking for their first win of the calendar year. They have taken a couple of beatings recently and are six without a win in the Premier League and really need to arrest that slump quickly.
It isn’t all doom and gloom for West Ham. They are still in Europe and they’ll go up to eighth spot in the table with a win here but you get the feeling the patience has run out on the terraces with David Moyes. West Ham have got the majority of their players back now so there is no excuses for them not performing from here on in. They must perform so much better up top. One goal in four matches is a terrible return for the talent at their disposal.
Brentford
This season hasn’t really got going for Brentford yet. We all know they had to do without Ivan Toney for the first six months of it but they would still have expected to deliver a much better showing than they have done. They have played 25 matches in the Premier League this term and have only won seven of them with just two of those wins coming in their last 11 games. They have lost the other nine so there is an all or nothing about them.
The big problem for the Bees in recent times is the amount of goals they are conceding. To be fair, they go into this game having conceded just the one goal at the Etihad Stadium last week, but prior to that they had conceded two or more goals in seven of their previous eight matches, which is unlike them. Brentford have Toney back but they still have a number of offensive injuries and the combination has meant they find themselves in the relegation battle.
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Team News
West Ham United will be without Kalvin Phillips as he is suspended after his red card against Nottingham Forest last week. More importantly, there is a suggestion that Lucas Paqueta could return from injury which would be huge.
Brentford boss Thomas Frank has declared no further injury problems with his charges but he remains without key men in the form of Bryan Mbuemo and Ethan Pinnock while Rico Henry is a longer-term injury victim.
Betting
I’m not sure I could trust either of these teams with my money on them given their recent form. My instinct is that if Lucas Paqueta is back for this one West Ham will be value at the prices, at least without the draw in play, but I would need to know he is playing before I put my hard-earned on them. Until then, I think the better bet on this match is for there to be more than 2.5 goals, something that happened easily in the reverse meeting which ended 3-2 to Brentford.
The big problem both of these teams have at present is that neither of them are looking good defensively and given that both are in a bit of a slump I expect them to think this is a game that they can win and rather than sit back and wait to be beaten I expect them to come out and have a bit of a go. Both teams are missing defensive personnel but have their talisman up top back now and that should lead to a few goals going in under the London Stadium lights. I’ll play over 2.5 goals in this one.
Tips
Back Over 2.5 goals for a 3/10 stake at 1.75 with Bet365
