STAR PREVIEW: West Ham v Southampton

[dropcap]B[/dropcap]onkers was the name of a song performed at Danny Boyle’s spectacular Olympic opening ceremony in 2012.

Four years on and we are in the bonkers situation of West Ham patently not settled in their new stadium, unhappy fans and a team woefully out of form and who have only Stoke and Sunderland behind them in the table.

The London Stadium as it has been (originally!) called certainly doesn’t feel like home yet for the Hammers and my theory is that away teams are treating it as a neutral venue and more than up for the challenge of playing at what, if nothing else, remains a magnificent sporting arena.

Southampton didn’t start the new season brilliantly but are getting better and will see the current turmoil at West Ham as a gilt-edged opportunity to leap from 14th to 9th in one fell swoop.

Southampton manager Claude Puel said: “We can see the good work on the training sessions and in every game, we are strong in defence and also with good possibilities on the counter-attack, playing good football, even with different players out on the pitch.

“All of the squad can take confidence from this, to show that it is possible to play these many games every three days, which is what we challenged the squad to do at the start (of the season).

West Ham v Southampton
Premier League
16:00 Sky Sports 1 / Sky Sports 1 HD / Sky Sports Ultra HD

HEAD TO HEAD RECORD
(Maximum 10 matches)
Feb 2016 PREMIER Southampton 1-0 West Ham
Dec 2015 PREMIER West Ham 2-1 Southampton
Feb 2015 PREMIER Southampton 0-0 West Ham
Aug 2014 PREMIER West Ham 1-3 Southampton
Feb 2014 PREMIER West Ham 3-1 Southampton
Sep 2013 PREMIER Southampton 0-0 West Ham
Apr 2013 PREMIER Southampton 1-1 West Ham
Oct 2012 PREMIER West Ham 4-1 Southampton
Feb 2012 CHAMPIONSHIP West Ham 1-1 Southampton
Oct 2011 CHAMPIONSHIP Southampton 1-0 West Ham

STARTING XI

West Ham

13 Adrián
4 Nordtveit
2 Reid
21 Ogbonna
5 Arbeloa
16 Noble
8 Kouyaté
30 Antonio
10 Lanzini
27 Payet
11 Zaza

Southampton

1 Forster
2 Soares
6 Fonte
17 van Dijk
21 Bertrand
14 Romeu
23 Højbjerg
8 Davis
11 Tadic
22 Redmond
10 Austin

Southampton for the win at 7/5 with Star Sports and to burst a few more bubbles.

RECOMMENDED BETS (scale of 1-100 points)

BACK SOUTHAMPTON 12 points at 7/5 with Star Sports

PROFIT/LOSS SINCE EUROS: +62.03 points

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