Brighton & Hove Albion welcome relegation battling West Ham to the AMEX Stadium in a crunch Premier League match.
Victory would see Brighton stay eighth in the table and move to within a point of seventh-placed Fulham, whilst West Ham could go 13th for at least a few hours with a win if Wolves fail to pick up maximum points elsewhere.
Team News
Pervis Estupinan could return for Brighton after he missed their midweek FA Cup win at Stoke with a hamstring injury.
Billy Gilmour (muscle) and Solly March (unspecified) could also return but Levi Colwill (muscle), Adam Lallana (hamstring) and Jakob Moder (knee) remain absent.
West Ham could welcome Valdimir Coufal back into contention after he missed their midweek FA Cup exit at Manchester United with a heel injury.
Lukasz Fabianski (eye/cheekbone), Kurt Zouma (quad) and Maxwel Cornet (calf) remain absent.
When is Kick-Off?
Brighton host West Ham at AMEX Stadium on Saturday 4 March in a 3pm GMT kick-off, albeit untelevised in UK.
Stat Attack
- Brighton are yet to lose to West Ham in the Premier League (W5, D6).
- West Ham have failed to win in their last five visits to Brighton (D2, L3).
- Both teams have scored in seven of their last eight meetings, except for a 2-0 away win for Brighton earlier this season.
- Brighton have conceded just one league goal at home in 2023 (W2, L1), which came in a 1-0 loss to Fulham a fortnight ago.
- West Ham are winless in their last 10 league matches away from the London Stadium (D3, L7).
Prediction
Although their FA Cup win at Stoke was rather scrappy yet clinical, Brighton will be pleased with how they performed overall after having had last weekend off, especially after their poor League Cup exit at Charlton on return from the World Cup break.
Roberto De Zerbi’s Seagulls though did see most of their attacks soaked up by the Potters, yet showed grit and composure to weather those difficulties which will boost their morale coming into a league fixture which they’re yet to lose.
West Ham meanwhile comfortably hammered Nottingham Forest last weekend in the league with a clinical performance, which they continued into their midweek trip to Man Utd yet somehow managed to defensively implode at 1-0 up with some sloppy play.
David Moyes now needs to quickly get his players motivated because if they pick up at Brighton how they finished at Utd, I can see them losing this game quickly but the Seagulls’ firepower seemed to hit a rut last month after a free-scoring January.
Nevertheless, I do fancy Brighton to win this if they play their best football and are more clinical in their finishing than last month, whilst West Ham will need to be at their best to get anything from their bogey top-flight opposition.
Prediction: Brighton 2-1 West Ham
Result; Brighton 4-0 West Ham
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