The midweek round of matches concludes in the Premier League on Thursday night when the two teams who are yet to compete do so when West Ham United play host to Leicester City in what is a huge evening for the visitors.
West Ham look like they are going to turn the corner and improve under Graham Potter but Leicester are on a speed slot down to the Championship unless they can pick up some results soon. This would be an ideal chance to get something.
Where to watch
The match will be shown on the TNT Sports 1 channel with the build-up beginning at 7pm ahead of the kick off at the London Stadium at 8pm.
West Ham United
This has clearly not been the season that West Ham United would have wanted when they disposed of the services of David Moyes in the summer but there have been signs that they have finally got the man to move them forward after an experiment with Julen Lopetegui which looked like it was going to fail from start to finish. They conceded far too many goals under the Spaniard and despite the talent they had, couldn’t rectify the leak at one end by scoring at the other.
The Hammers still aren’t scoring the volume of goals that a team with their attacking quality should be, although injuries and suspensions at different times haven’t helped that since Potter arrived, however the former Chelsea boss has made them much tougher to break down and when personnel come back in forward areas you would expect to see the Londoners start to flourish in that area, particularly once they have won a couple more matches to as good as ensure another season in the Premier League next term.
Leicester City
Securing another season in the Premier League remains the aim for Leicester City this term but they really need to find an improvement if that is going to happen. They have watched on as both Wolverhampton Wanderers, one outside the bottom three, and Ipswich Town, third from bottom have been beaten so this offers up the chance for the Foxes to close the gap on the safety zone. That needs to happen soon because they are currently five points behind Wolves but that is really six in reality given the goal difference deficit.
Leicester won the reverse meeting between these two teams earlier in the season, although they were outplayed in the game largely from start to finish, but since then they have picked up just four points from the 36 that have been available to them. The big issue the King Power men have is that they look to be getting weaker at a stage of the season where they really need to be getting stronger. Only rock bottom and out of their depth Southampton have scored fewer goals than Leicester and conceded more which isn’t a recipe for survival.
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Team News
Graham Potter has a bit of an injury crisis to navigate in this match with Vladimir Coufal, Michail Antonion, Crysencio Summerville, Lucas Paqueta and Niclas Fullkrug all sidelined. Evan Ferguson will be hoping to start having come off the bench against Arsenal at the weekend.
Leicester City are expected to give a fitness test to right-back James Justin who was absent from the loss to Brentford last weekend. Ricardo Pereira and Abdul Fatawu remain out while Stephy Mavididi and Facundo Buonanotte will be hoping for starts.
Betting
It is hard to see anything but a West Ham United win here. I do think that they are improving as a side but Leicester City are just a mess right now. They have picked up just a win and a draw in their last 12 matches in the Premier League and when you watch them they look to be getting worse not better, whereas it is the other way around for West Ham who are definitely much harder to beat under Graham Potter and beginning to show what they are all about despite their injuries.
They have only won twice under Potter though and while I expect them to win this one, I would like a little more value than to bet on them at odds on so I’ll add over 1.5 goals to the mix to bring it just over evens. I did consider the -0.75 Asian line but a 2-1 or 3-2 win for West Ham would only collect a half win whereas those scores win in full this way. I like it because every single Leicester defeat in the Premier League this season, and there have been 17 of them, have had two or more goals in them while all four West Ham wins have also had over 1.5 goals in them. We only have a 1-0 West Ham win against us this term but with Leicester having conceded 10 in their last three matches and surely having to have a go here given their perilous position, I don’t see a 1-0 West Ham win as particularly likely here.
Tips
Back West Ham to win and over 1.5 goals for a 3/10 stake at 2.05 with BetVictor
