West Ham VS Chelsea ( BETTING TIPS, Match Preview & Expert Analysis )™
PREVIEW & TIPS FOR West Ham vs Chelsea
On Saturday, at 17:30, West Ham receives the visit of Chelsea, in a London derby that can be decisive in the fight for the Champions League places. The two teams are tied for points, 55, in 4th and 5th place. In the “equation” for Top 4 are also Leciester, Tottenham and Liverpool.
West Ham Team News
In the last rounds, West Ham was involved in very spectacular matches, with Arsenal (3-3), Wolves (3-2), Leicester (3-2) and Newcastle (2-3). It’s time to see a more “settled” performance of the Londoners, who meet a very well organized rival.
Overall, we know that many goals are rarely scored in this London derby, so we will bet accordingly. This is despite the fact that at least five goals have been scored in the last four games of West Ham! On Saturday, Antonio, Dawson, Rice and Cresswell will be absent from the host camp, while Chelsea will play without Kovacic and Thiago Silva. There are chances, however, that the Brazilian defender will be recovered in time.
Chelsea Team News
Chelsea played well, but won only two of the last five stages of the championship, being now in 4th place (goal difference 50-31). Thomas Tuchel’s defense works at a very good level, while West Ham (goal difference 53-42) seems much more vulnerable, and that makes them the favorite guests. From 5th place, the “hammers” still regret the result from the previous stage: it was 2-3 on Newcastle’s field, a match in which West Ham played more than one half in numerical inferiority. It was 0-2 at the break, but the goals of Diop (’73) and Lingard (’80) restored the equality! In the end, Willock brought the victory of the “cotofenes” (’82), at the end of a game with dramatic accents.
Chelsea does not like fast-paced matches, but prefers to impose its patient game of passes. This was seen recently, in the matches with FC Porto (0-1), Manchester City (1-0 in the Cup) and Brighton (0-0). Important points were wasted with Brighton, although Tuchel forced after the break with the introduction of Hudson-Odoi, Werner and Giroud. Despite having a 65% possession, Chelsea shot only 7 times at goal and only four times scored correctly! The white-blues finished the game without executing any corner, a really shocking statistic for a Premier League match.
Chelsea draw confidence in the tour match with West Ham, which they won 3-0, with goals from Thiago Silva (’10) and Tammy Abraham (’78 and ’80). It was a well-deserved rematch, after West Ham United had won the previous two duels, 1-0 and 3-2.