West Ham United will be aiming to come back to winning ways when they host Stoke City this Saturday at London Stadium. The home stadium has not been the best of places to play for the Hammers and they would be looking to overcome that by beating Stoke City. The Potters, on the other hand, are on a 3 match winning streak with their forwards getting into some serious goal scoring form.
The Hammers are currently just one position above the relegation zone with just 10 points from the opening 10 games. Although there is not much separating the two teams, both will be approaching the game with a different level of confidence. Stoke City are undefeated in their 6 last meetings against West Ham United, while the Hammers have only managed to beat Stoke City just twice in their 12 Premier league meetings.
Team news
West Ham United- Slaven Bilic will continue to miss the services of Andy Carroll, Diafra Sakho, Sam Byram and Gokhan Tore, who are suffering from long-term injuries. Apart from that Winston Reid is another fitness concern but he is expected to return by the next fixture if not this Saturday. Bilic is expected to replace him with James Collins. Apart from those, West Ham enjoys a largely unaffected squad.
Stoke City- Stoke’s injury list is pretty long with Ibrahim Afellay, Jack Butland and Glen Johnson, all first-teamers out with injuries. There is also a chance that they might miss out on Xherdan Shaqiri, who had scored two stunners against Hull City announcing his returning to form. Geoff Cameron and goalkeeper Jakob Haugaard will also require fitness tests.
Team lineups
West Ham XI (3-4-2-1): Adrian; Kouyaté, Collins, Ogbonna; Antonio, Noble, Obiang, Cresswell; Lanzini, Payet; Ayew
Stoke City XI (4-2-3-1): Grant; Bardsley, Shawcross, Martins Indi, Pieters; Cameron, Whelan; Shaqiri, Allen, Sobhi; Bony
Key Players
West Ham United- Dmitri Payet is yet to prove his mettle this season and like every match we all expect the French to turn on the heat for his team. He is a treat to watch when in form. Lanzini has shown some goal scoring form in the past few matches and considering Bilic’s strikers are underperforming currently, the team will depend a lot on the two attacking midfielders.
Stoke City- Stoke are going through a great run form currently, swiping away teams at will. All their forwards Arnautovic, Wilfred Bony, Shaqiri are finding the net quite easy and in Joe Allen, they have an exemplary number 10. Allen will be the key once again as he is the creative outlet in the attack.
Odds
West Ham United- 21.20
Draw- 5.1
Stoke City- 3.1
