West Ham welcome Brighton & Hove Albion to the London Stadium in a huge Premier League clash in the race for an European spot.
Victory would see West Ham stay sixth and move to within four points of the top four, whilst Brighton can leapfrog the Hammers into sixth position with a win.
Team News
Lucas Paqueta is set to miss out for West Ham after he suffered a knee injury during the Hammers’ win at Arsenal.
Nayef Aguerd (illness) and Kurt Zouma (knee) are doubts but Mohammed Kudus is ruled out after he was called up by Ghana for the Africa Cup of Nations.
Michail Antonio (knee) remains absent but is nearing a return, although a surprise unannounced appearance on the substitutes bench can’t be ruled out.
Brighton will be without defender, Lewis Dunk after he picked up his fifth yellow card of the league campaign, during the Seagulls’ win over Tottenham.
Igor and Facundo Buonanette are doubtful after they suffered knocks against Spurs.
Tariq Lamptey, Ansu Fati (both muscle), Adam Webster (knock), Simon Adingra (hamstring), Kaoru Mitoma (ankle), Joel Veltman, Solly March and Julio Enciso (all knee) remain absent.
When is Kick-Off?
West Ham host Brighton in a 7:30pm GMT kick-off at London Stadium on Tuesday 2 January, live on Sky Sports in the UK.
Stat Attack
- West Ham have won just one of 13 previous Premier League meetings against Brighton (W1, D6, L6).
- Brighton are unbeaten in their six previous Premier League visits to West Ham (W2, D4).
- West Ham’s highest expected goal percentage within an individual game this season came during their win at Brighton in August, as they managed 3.0 expected goals in that victory.
- Six of Jarrod Bowen’s 11 league goals for West Ham this season were scored on his left foot.
- Joao Pedro and Pascal Gross have been involved in nine league goals for Brighton this season, with Pedro delivering seven goals and two assists whilst Gross contributed three goals and six assists.
Prediction
Currently seven points adrift of the top four, West Ham produced a clinical performance to stun Arsenal in North London despite resilient defending against fearsome waves of attacks from the Gunners, although they now will need to be as strong in what should be a more even contest.
Brighton meanwhile benefitted from their week’s gap between festive fixtures to comfortably beat Tottenham in one of their most energetic but clinical displays of the season, so hopefully we will see more of the same especially given that they have had more rest time than other teams.
West Ham though are a difficult team to beat at home and the Hammers will be buoyant by how they ended their top-flight hoodoo against Brighton in late August, although they will be eager to do the double and end the Seagulls’ unbeaten away form in this fixture.
Add in the strong goalscoring of both teams this season and I can see a cracker although it is hard to call a winner here.
Prediction: West Ham 2-2 Brighton
Result: West Ham 0-0 Brighton
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