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West Ham vs West Brom – Match Preview

If you were to use some really lazy cliche you would open this preview by saying this game is a derby, well here goes.
There is a derby encounter at The London Stadium this Afternoon as West Ham take on West Brom in East London in the ‘West’ derby. Intro complete.

More importantly it’s about as mid table as you can get as 9th play host to 8th. A sentence in fairness when looking at these two teams is not one you would have necessarily thought of writing at any point this season. But as always the Premier League continues to defy logic and that is where we are Today.

Regardless of result today West Brom will stay in 8th but a win for West Ham would bridge that gap as they look to continue their resurgence up the table. Let’s not forget that as recently as December they were in the bottom three with Slaven Bilic being given the dreaded ‘vote of confidence’

But since that vote of confidence the club owners have been handsomely repaid with Bilic’s men earning 6 wins from the last 10 matches as The Hammers now find themselves comfortably in the top half of the table and that’s before we’ve even mentioned the saga regarding Dimitri Payet.

Since Payet become persona non grata at the club, they have won 3 of their last four with the only blip on the radar being the thumping that was handed out by a youthful looking Manchester City 10 days ago. Whisper it quietly but they seem to be better off without him.

The attacking burden has been now carried by a fit again Andy Carroll, his form has got many asking the question as to whether or not an England call up could be waiting in the wings next month, well if he continues his goalscoring exploits as of late he will certainly be knocking on the door.

He will look to continue his decent run of form as of late against a West Brom side who are unbeaten in their last 3 matches, picking up 7 points from a possible 9. A string of results that continues to exceed even the expectations that Tony Pulis would have had at the start of the season.

They come into this game off the back of a 1-0 win over Stoke last Saturday. In a game which was dominated by Saido Berahino in the build up, it would be Pulis who would have the last laugh as he mastermind a victory of his former employers.

It was James Morrison solitary goal which was enough to dispose of Stoke. Morrison is in somewhat of a purple patch of form as that was his second goal in the space of the week. His opener against Middlesbrough 10 days ago was not enough though to beat Aitor Karanka’s side as they had to make do with a draw.

And I have a feeling that is exactly what the result will be this Afternoon. With the close proximity of the two teams in the table there is very little to choose between them. Both sides in decent form and hard to break down can only point to those points being shared.

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