Southampton - West Ham 27.12.2018. 20:45

Tonight at 20:45 Central Europen Time we will watch game between Southampton and West Ham United. As always we will first look at the table:

Premier League table

Southampton is at 16. place with 15 points just 3 above red relegation zone, while West Ham United sits at comfortable 12. place with 24 points in relative midtable safety. That fact tells us that Southampton will be more motivated club for this match. Battle for survival is the biggest motivation factor, sometimes even bigger than fight for European place.

When we look to home/away table bellow we can see that Southampton is one of the worst home side in league with just 1 win, 5 draws and 2 lost games. They scored 9 goals at home and concede 12. On the other hand West Ham away has 3 wins, 2 draws, 3 lost games with 11 goals scored and 11 conceded. They got more points away than Southampton at home!


Premier League home/away table

Look at form table from last 6 and 10 games tells us that West Ham is on high 4. and 7. place with 4-0-2 11:9 in last 6 and 5-2-3 17:14 in last 10 games. Southampton is on 11. and 15. place with 2-1-3 11:12 from last 6 and 2-4-4 13:19 from last 10 games. West Ham looks like in better form.

Southampton at home in last 4 games has 1-3-0 6:5, while West Hame away in last 4 games has 2-2-0 7:2. Both clubs not easy to lose.


Let's see who did they play in last 4-5 games:

Sat 01/12/18 PRL Southampton - Manchester United 2:2

Wed 05/12/18 PRL Tottenham Hotspur - Southampton 3:1

Sat 08/12/18 PRL Cardiff City- Southampton 1:0

Sun 16/12/18 PRL Southampton- Arsenal 3:2

Sat 22/12/18 PRL Huddersfield Town - Southampton 1:3

Next games after West Ham for Southampton are:

Sun 30/12/18 PRL Southampton - Manchester City

Wed 02/01/19 PRL Chelsea - Southampton

As you can see they are big underdogs vs Manchester City and Chelsea, so they must do everything what they can to win West Ham, because they will hardly win City or Chelsea. They won Arsenal 3:2 which was great success and Huddersfield who is direct competitor in survival fight. New Austrian manager R. Hasenhüttl is good so far. I personally think that he is going to make mid table club from them.

West Ham recent games are:

Sat 01/12/18 PRL Newcastle United - West Ham United 0 : 3

Tue 04/12/18 PRL West Ham United - Cardiff City 3 : 1

Sat 08/12/18 PRL West Ham United - Crystal Palace 3 : 2

Sat 15/12/18 PRL Fulham - West Ham United 0 : 2

Sat 22/12/18 PRL West Ham United - Watford 0 : 2

After Southampton they will play

Sun 30/12/18 PRL Burnley - West Ham United

Wed 02/01/19 PRL West Ham United - Brighton

They have good record, but all those clubs are weak except Watford against which they have lost. Next games are not so hard as Southempton's.


According to various sources Southampton will play without Cédric Soares, R. Bertran and P. Højbjerg. First has calf injury, second back injury while third is under suspension because of red card. All of them had more than 10 appearances in this season.

West Ham has more problems with unavailable players, but most of them are long term absent. List is quite long: Javier Hernández(harmstring), F. Balbuena (knee), M. Arnautović (harmstring), J. Wilshere(ankle/foot), R. Fredericks (ankle/foot), A. Yarmolenko(achilles tendonitis), C. Sánchez(knee injury), M. Lanzini(knee), W. Reid (knee).


When we look at squad we can see that biggest threat from Southampton are Ings, Austin and Armstrong all ready for this game. For West Hame those are Arnautovic, Yarmolenko, Hernandez and Felipe Anderson. Only Anderson will be available for this game. This can give Saints bit of advantage.

When we look at goal statistics we can see that Southampton at home has 62% games end up with both teams to score and over 2.5, while West Ham away has 50% of games end up in both teams to score and over 2.5. So BTTS and over 2.5 is worth considering.


Conclusion: Southampton has bigger motive in the game which is battle for survival. West Ham is in better form but played vs not so strong clubs. Both sides rarely lose at home and away. Southempton has all key players ready, while West Ham has a lot of injured players. Both sides score and concede goals and play over 2.5. Southampton's new manager is very good so far. When I see all of that BTTS and over 2.5 could be how it could end. I would say that Saints are closer to win here, but draw would not surprise me much.


My prediction Southampton - West Ham 2:1.