West Ham welcome Norwich City to the London Stadium as both teams look to continue their solid starts to the season.
Victory for the Canaries will see them leapfrog West Ham, who could find themselves on the cusp of the top five if they take all three points.
Team news
Embed from Getty ImagesWest Ham could have Javier Hernandez available after the Mexican recovered from a knee injury, which has kept him out of their last two matches.
Michael Antonio is a doubt as he faces a month out with a hamstring injury picked up in Tuesday’s Carabao Cup win at Newport County.
Winston Reid is out with a knee injury but could return later next month.
Norwich could have Josip Drmic and Christoph Zimmerman available after the pair recovered from respective hamstring and back injuries.
Grant Hanley (groin) is ruled out along with Timm Klose and Onel Hernandez who both are nursing knee injuries.
Form
West Ham have taken four points from their opening three league games, but have enjoyed two successive away wins in the last seven days against Watford then Newport.
Norwich arrive in East London with three defeats in four matches across all competitions, having lost in midweek at Crawley to crash out of the Carabao Cup.
Stat Attack
- West Ham are unbeaten in four of their last five meetings with Norwich (W2, D2, L1), although their league meetings in the 2015-16 season both ended in 2-2 draws.
- Only one match in their last five meetings failed to see both teams score as West Ham ran out 2-0 winners in February 2014.
- West Ham haven’t been held to a goalless home league draw by Norwich since October 1983, although there has been three such draws since then with just one of those coming at the Hammers’ former Upton Park in a FA Cup clash in March 1989.
- Norwich’s Tim Krul has conceded eight goals so far this season, more than any other goalkeeper.
- West Ham have only played three through balls in the league this season, with Manuel Lanzini, Arthur Masuaku and Felipe Anderson all doing so once each.
Prediction
This game is going to be anything but goalless because both teams are strong when on the attack, particularly Norwich when they get the ball forward to Teemu Pukki who is going to be difficult to quieten down for an entire match.
I am therefore expecting an entertaining draw and although 1-1 would be a good result, I think we are in for a cracker.
Prediction: West Ham United 2-2 Norwich City
Result: West Ham United 2-0 Norwich City