The Hammers round off game week 13 at home against the Cherries tonight at 8pm. Moyes’s West Ham look to surprisingly escape the relegation zone with this fixture having only won 2 games at the London Stadium. Moyes hopes they bounce back after their 1-0 loss against Liverpool: “we’ve got to get goals around the team”.
Team News
West Ham: Lukasz Fabianski, Ben Johnson, Thilo Kehrer, Aaron Cresswell, Declan Rice, Thomas Soucek, Gerard Bowen, Flynn Downes, Said Benrahma, Gianluca Scamacca
Bournemouth: Neto, Ryan Fredericks, Steve Cook, Chris Mepham, Marcos Sensei, Adam Smith, Jefferson Lerma, Marcus Tavernier, Ryan Christie, Phillip Billing, Domonic Solanke
Worries over Lucas Paqueta have been suppressed by Moyes who has recently stated “at the moment we don’t think its as serious as we feared ”. The Brazilian playmaker suffered a collarbone injury in their 1-1 draw against Southampton. Maxwell Cornet was expected to make the starting line-up, with Moyes stating he is “Maxi is back on the grass”, but Aaron instead Cresswell makes the squad.
Scott Parker’s apprentice Gary O’Neil shared his thoughts ahead of the game tonight, suggesting “their results have been up and down, but it’s a tough place to go because we need to be 100%”. He hopes to carry on his good form with Bournemouth and reputations with the fans, “the boys are responding and the fans are sticking with us”, a win tonight would take the Cherries level with Liverpool in 8th position with a game in hand.
Despite their poor start to the season West Ham were unlucky to lose against Liverpool on Wednesday, so are clear favourites to win this one, but Gary O’Neil’s side have the 4 game unbeaten streak helping their momentum tonight.
SCORE PREDICTION: West Ham 2 Bournemouth 1
word count = 225