2022-23 Premier League: Week Eight – West Ham vs Wolves

West Ham continue their fight for survival as David Moyes’ Hammers host Wolves at London Stadium.

With just two points separating both clubs coming into this match, victory would see West Ham climb out of the relegation zone – potentially at Wolves’ expense depending on results elsewhere just above the bottom three.

Wolves meanwhile can move five points clear of David Moyes’ Hammers with a win.

 

Team News

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Ben Johnson could return for West Ham if he is declared match-fit following his return from a hamstring injury.

Nayef Aguerd (ankle) remains ruled out.

Wolves will be without Nathan Collins after he was red carded in their 3-0 home defeat against Manchester City a fortnight ago.

Diego Costa (fitness) could feature but Hee-Chan Hwang (muscle), Chiquinho, Sasa Kalajdzic (both knee) and Raul Jimenez (groin/adductor) are ruled out.

 

Stat Attack

• West Ham have won just three of their last eight meetings against Wolves (W3, L5).
• Wolves have won two of their four visits to the London Stadium (W2, L2), in which they kept clean sheets during both wins but conceded five goals across both defeats.
• Both meetings last season were won by the home team by 1-0 results.
• David Moyes’ Hammers have gained just one point from three home matches in the Premier League this season (D1, L2), with both defeats coming by 2-0 results.
• Wolves have scored just once in three away matches this season – Daniel Podence netted a sixth-minute opener at Leeds in August but lost that match by 2-1 result.

 

Prediction

West Ham were unlucky to not snatch a point at Everton last time out but their finishing simply was poor despite fantastic attacking build-up play, whilst a small marking error proved costly so I do expect some improvement following a two-week break.

Although getting any postive result against Man City was going to be incredibly difficult, Wolves were just defensively outclassed as they struggled with City’s intensity and wasted their own chances, despite somehow playing well overall once reduced to 10 men.

Both teams however are joint-lowest goalscoring clubs in the current table so a classic is pretty unlikely but if West Ham can sort out their finishing, they should have enough to edge this contest given Wolves’ attacking injury crisis.

Prediction: West Ham 1-0 Wolves

Result: West Ham 2-0 Wolves