2018-19 Premier League: Week 37 – West Ham United vs Southampton

At least a point here and other results going their way this weekend will see West Ham finish in a guaranteed eleventh-place.

Southampton meanwhile will be looking to finish as high as they can as Ralph Hasenhuttl prepares his team for next season.

West Ham could welcome Samir Nasri and Manuel Lanzini back from respective calf and groin injuries.

Aaron Creswell is also expected to feature after recovering from a knee injury but Carlos Sanchez isn’t expected to be risked here.

Andy Carroll (ankle), Andriy Yarmolenko (Achilles) and Winston Reid (knee) are all long-term absentees and won’t feature until next season.

Southampton will be without Maya Yoshida who is suffering from illness but the Japanese defender could return next weekend against Huddersfield Town.

Jannik Vestergaard (groin), Alex McCarthy (knock) and Michael Obafemi (thigh) are all absent and aren’t expected to feature until pre-season.

West Ham ended a three match winless streak last time out with victory away at Tottenham, but have lost just one of their last six home games.

Southampton enter this match off the back of two consecutive draws and have scored in 16 of their 18 matches in 2019 across all competitions.

West Ham have won three of their last five meetings with Southampton (W3, L2).
In each of last three meetings, one West Ham player has netted a brace (Javier Hernandez – August 2017, Marko Arnautovic – March 2018 and Felipe Anderson – December 2018)
At home, the Hammers have lost just two of their last six against Southampton (W4, L2), with both teams each winning one of last two clashes at the London Stadium by 3-0 results.
Nathan Redmond has converted only 7.25% of his 69 shots into goals, scoring on five occasions this season.
West Ham’s Marko Arnautovic has hit the woodwork once this season like Shane Long of Southampton.

Both teams haven’t had the most consistent of seasons so this is going to be a real test of where both teams are currently at.

I am therefore going to go for a draw because I have a gut feeling that both teams will cancel themselves out in midfield here.

Prediction: West Ham United 1-1 Southampton

Jake predicts: West Ham United 2-0 Southampton

Result: West Ham United 3-0 Southampton

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