West Ham dropped a couple of vital points in their race for a Champions League place when drawing 2-2 at home to Crystal Palace last weekend. This draw left the Hammers in 6th place on 51 points and they are now 3 points behind 4th place Manchester City. West Ham’s recent home record reads W7, D6, L2, and they are now unbeaten in 13 home matches.
When hosting teams placed in the Top 6, West Ham’s record reads a decent looking W4, D2, L4, and here they can be backed at around 3.85. If you do fancy West Ham to do well then you have the option of keeping the draw on your side , and they can be backed on the +0.5 handicap at around 1.95 and this looks to offer some decent value.
The recent head-to-head record at Upton Park is completely dominated by the visitors and reads West Ham 0 Wins, 0 Draws, and Arsenal 4 Wins.
The draw can be backed at around 3.80 and this looks correctly priced.
With Leicester now 11 points clear with 7 matches remaining, Arsene Wenger’s side are in last chance saloon. Here they are coming off a very good 4-0 home win over Watford and currently the Gunners sit in 3rd place on 58 points. Arsenal’s recent away record reads a reasonable looking W7, D4, L4.
When facing top half teams away from the Emirates, Arsenal boast a very average looking record that reads W3, D4, L3, and here they can be backed at around 2.02, which looks priced too low.
As far as goals are concerned then we have some mixed stats. When looking at both sides last 10 respective home and away games to similar opposition. In the 20 matches, 5 games have seen 4 or more goals, 6 games have seen 3, whilst 9 have seen 2 or less goals scored. All 4 of the recent head-to-heads at West Ham have seen 3 or more goals, and over 2.5 goals can be backed at around 1.98.
This looks a very good match to start the weekend’s action. I am going to leave the goal line alone as I believe this is priced up about right. Instead I am going to turn to the match line and look to the home side to avoid defeat. West Ham do have a terrible record in this fixture and their victory at the Emirates in the opening day of the season was their first win in 16 Premier League meetings between the 2 sides. However Slaven Bilic’s side are going through a very consistent period. They are now unbeaten in 6 Premier league matches and they have only lost 2 of their last 18. As previously stated they are unbeaten in 13 home games and they are coming up against an Arsenal side who have only won 3 of their last 10 away matches. Both sides still have much to play for and the stats and value point to the Hammers. So my recommended trade is West Ham +0.5 at around 1.95.