West Ham faces a crucial game in the Premiership tonight when they welcome a resurgent Leicester to the London Stadium. Slaven Bilic was sacked after a disastrous run of form but new boss David Moyes failed to galvanize the Hammers against Watford last weekend. Their 2-0 defeat left West Ham marooned in the relegation zone and Moyes now faces an uphill struggle as he bids to keep the Hammers in the top flight. He finished bottom of the table last season with Sunderland and will need to buck his ideas up quickly if he is to save West Ham, starting with Friday night’s visit of Leicester.
The latest relegation odds show that Swansea are the 4/9 favourites to go down with Coral and Sky Bet. The Welsh side cannot seem to buy a goal at present and a lack of ambition going forwards is killing their survival chances. Paul Clement has gone in to 2/1 with Bet Victor as the next Premiership manager to leave his post, and the Swans may turn to someone like Tony Pulis in a bid to save themselves. Then it is the league’s bottom club, Crystal Palace, who are 10/11 to go down. They have improved under new manager Roy Hodgson, but not by much and they are still five points adrift of safety. Huddersfield, who were thrashed 4-0 by 10-man Bournemouth last weekend, are 6/4 third favourites with Sportingbet. They are 10th in the table, six points clear of West Ham in 18th, but they are the smallest club in the top flight and bookies feel they will eventually get dragged into the relegation scrap.
Then we come to West Ham, who are 4/1 fourth favourites to go down with 10Bet. Hammers fans will remember all too well that they were considered too good to go down in 2010-11, and were promptly relegated. This season has a similar feel to it as the Hammers are defensively inept, lightweight in midfield and not creating enough chances. After battling relegation throughout the 2016-17 campaign Bilic pledged to get West Ham into the top eight this season after buying Marko Arnautovic and Javier Hernandez in the summer. Now Bilic is gone, Arnautovic is misfiring, Hernandez is injured and West Ham are in the thick of the relegation battle once again.
Changing managers can save your skin, as Leicester well know. Last season they were in serious trouble and replaced Claudio Ranieri with Craig Shakespeare, a move that catapulted them up the table to safety. This season they were struggling again so Shakespeare was axed and new boss Claude Puel has had a similar galvanising effect. The Foxes are up to 12th in the table and come into this game with far more confidence than their opponents. There is no shame in losing 2-0 to champions elect Man City in their last game, and they went unbeaten in the previous six, showing that Puel has made them much tougher to play against.
We should not forget that this Leicester team won the title 18 months ago. It is basically the same team that finished above Arsenal, Tottenham, Man City, Chelsea, Man Utd, Liverpool et al. Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez still have the potential to terrorize any defence in the world, and they will relish the opportunity to come up against the Premiership’s weakest backline. West Ham have conceded 25 goals in 12 games, which is more than two per game, and that is the worst record in the league. That makes the 17/10 on offer at William Hill on an away win look really tempting. Vardy to score at any time also looks great at 19/10 with Sun Bets as his pace and movement should prove too hot for Angelo Ogbonna and Winston Reid to handle.
Calculators
