This Saturday’s match of the 29th round of English Premier League can be called a “lower end” derby as 18th-placed Swansea meets 13th-positioned West Ham that has just three points more at the moment. Besides, the Welsh had been in a great 10-game unbeaten streak till previous round, while on the other hand the Hammers lost even three out of last five matches. On the other hand, the team from London can boast with fact that it won last three head-to-heads with Swansea.
Of course that the only team from Wales in the Premier League will try to put an end to the losing streak in this match, especially as they face one of direct competitors in the survival race. If Swansea wins it would have the same number of points as the Hammers from London and would probably escape the drop zone where it again dropped in after away defeat by Brighton 4-1 last week.
In that way their great 10-game unbeaten streak came to its end. In the same period Swansea played number of FA Cup matches where after home victory over Sheffield Wednesday of 2-0 it reached the quarter-finals. Right because of that we believe Swansea doesn’t lack self-confidence ahead of their league match with the Hammers. Out of action are defender Rangel, midfielders Fer, Sanches and Britton, and forward Bony.
Probable lineups Swansea: Fabianski – Naughton, van der Hoorn, Fernandez, Mawson, Olsson – Dyer, Carroll, Ki Sung-Yong, Clucas – J. Ayew
We have said that Hammers from London have three-game winning streak aginst the Welsh but manager Moyes players will definitely have a very difficult task on Saturday, given that their rivals need very much points for the survival struggle. Besides, West Ham lost three previous away matches; firstly to third-division Wigan in the FA Cup, and then to Brighton and Liverpool in the Premier League.
True, West Ham plays much better in front of its fans where it has five-game unbeaten streak of three wins and two draws, which in fact brought three points that West Ham has more than teams in the drop zone. It still means that the Hammers should take seriously the survival struggle, especially as point differences between 10th and 19th places are really small. Let’s add that the Saturday’s match will skip suspended defender Masuaku, and injured midfielders Obiang and Fernandes, and forward Carroll, while not fully ready defenders Fonte and Evre are questionable.
Probable lineups West Ham: Adrian – Collins, Ogbonna, Cresswell – Zabaleta, Kouyate, Noble, Antonio – Joao Mario, Lanzini – Arnautovic
After achieving historic success last weekend with qualification for the quarter-finals of the FA Cup, we expect from Swansea players to again return to winning habits in the league, especially as their guest is team that plays much better at home than away recently.
Pick: Asian handicap 0
Swansea 1.85 - 85/100 @1XBet