West Ham look to reignite their top four ambition as David Moyes’ Hammers host Southampton at London Stadium.
Victory would see the Hammers stay fifth whereas Southampton can go 14th with a win.
Team News
Michail Antonio is a doubt for West Ham after missing their midweek Carabao Cup exit at Tottenham due to illness.
Vladimir Coufal is back from suspension but Aaron Cresswell (back), Kurt Zouma (hamstring) and Angelo Ogbonna (knee) remain ruled out.
Southampton could welcome Fraser Forster back in goal after the goalkeeper recovered from a knock.
Stuart Armstrong (calf) and Che Adams (hamstring) are also in contention but Alex McCarthy (thigh) and Adam Armstrong (leg) are ruled out.
Stat Attack
- West Ham are unbeaten in their last eight league meetings against Southampton (W6, D2).
- Southampton have conceded three goals in each of their last four visits to West Ham (L4), whilst netting just once in a 3-1 defeat in February 2020.
- West Ham have failed to win in any of two previous Boxing Day meetings against Southampton (D1, L1).
- Southampton have played London based teams in their first post Xmas Day fixture in each of last four seasons and won just once (W1, D1, L2).
- The Hammers have won just one of their last five matches held on Boxing Day (W1, D2, L2).
Prediction
Having failed to score in their last two league games, West Ham certainly looked much stronger in attack during their midweek Carabao Cup exit at Spurs, yet weak intensity off the ball and wasted chances proved costly so there is improvement to make here.
Southampton meanwhile had last weekend off due to a Coronavirus outbreak at Brentford so will be fresh and I wouldn’t be surprised if they play on the counter-attack again, especially given how competitive they were at Crystal Palace despite the Eagles’ trickery on the attack.
Boxing Day though hasn’t exactly been kind to neither team in recent seasons and Southampton are yet to lose this fixture on this particular date, so I can see an interesting clash because West Ham will look to attack with intensity but Southampton’s midfield could be key to the result.
Prediction: West Ham 1-1 Southampton
Result: West Ham 2-3 Southampton