West Ham - Match Preview

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The Match

After a lengthy international break, club football action is back in full swing as Chelsea travel to Upton Park to face West Ham today 17.30 GMT in their latest Premier League match with both teams looking to bounce back from recent disappointing results.

Team News
Although the Blues are still in the qualification zone for next year’s Champions League and only 4 points shy of table leader’s Arsenal, they have failed to win their last two games – losing 2-0 against Newcastle and drawing 2-2 with West Bromwich. Which led to critics from the specialized media and a very small percentage of the inpatient fan base.

Jose Mourinho is not happy with the way his side is performing and has yet to find a consistent starting XI. Unlike his first spell with Chelsea, where he had clearly a settled first team, Mourinho is finding difficulty to determine who he thinks give us the better chance to win and is likely to continue experimenting until the team reacts positively and start wining again.

The Special One is very unlikely to change systems though, so don’t expect anything different from the 4-2-3-1 Chelsea has been playing since his arrival. The back four will probably be the same that played against WBA (despite the return of Ashley Cole), Lampard and Ramires have a good chance of starting and Eto’o is almost a certainty (since Torres is not fully recovered from a training injury).

However, the attacking trio is anyone’s guess: Oscar and Willian had a long trip to USA and Canada, Mata hasn’t impressed Mourinho, Schurrle might be saved for midweek and so could Hazard.

Nevertheless, whoever is selected to play will have to play well and get the result. A win - Chelsea backed at 7/10 in betting market to triumph - is crucial if Chelsea has any intention of winning the League!

About the Opposition
Despite having started the season relatively well, West Ham United hasn’t won in their last 4 matches (L2 D2), which led them to fall to the 16th place (10 points) and only out of the relegation zone in virtue of a superior goal difference. Their home form is the worst in the League (L3 D1), but Sam Allardyce’s men will be looking to repeat their 3-1 victory from the last time they faced Chelsea at Upton Park.

With that in mind, it is hard to imagine West Ham sitting back and defending for 90 minutes, especially with the onus on them at home. Their fans will be expecting them to attack and go for the win so they can get away from the bottom three and start thinking about a possible winning streak to reach the upper half of the table.

West Ham plays on a 4-2-3-1, but with their attacking trio has a huge marking responsibility. The wingers are key to both their attack and their defense. Morrison is a very important player for Allardyce, but Downing in particular is their ‘go to guy’ and whoever plays LB for Chlesea will have to pay close attention to him.

The Hammers do have a lot of problems as an ‘excuse’ to their lately horrible displays though. Their main man Andy Carrol had a bad heel injury and will miss a huge part of the season; George McCartney is yet to start a game this season due to a knee injury; Diarra is also out due to the same knee injury; Matthew Taylor with a thigh problem; and both Joey O’Brien and James Collins missed their nation’s friendly because of their hamstring.

Probable Lineups:
West Ham (4-2-3-1): Jaaskelainen; Demel, Tomkins, Collins, McCartney; Noble, Collinson; Downing, Morrison, Diame; Nolan.
Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Cech, Ivanovic, Cahill, Terry, Azi; Ramires, Lampard; Willian, Mata, Hazard; Eto’o.

Stats and Facts
1) West Ham are without a win in four Premier League home games (L3 D1); their worst such run under Sam Allardyce.
2) Chelsea are unbeaten in their last six Premier League London derbies (W4 D2).
3) Frank Lampard has scored in three of his last four Premier League appearances against former side West Ham.
4) However, Frank Lampard has failed to score in 10 successive Premier League apps – his longest goal drought in the competition since April-August 2003.
5) 35.4 per cent of West Ham’s passes this season have been in the final third of the pitch; a Premier League-high.
6) All 12 of Jose Mourinho’s Premier League defeats as a manager have come away from home, but just two of these have come in London (v Fulham in March 2006 and Tottenham in November 2006).
7) However, of all managers in Premier League history (minimum 15 games), Mourinho has the best points per game record away from home (2.05).
8) Sam Allardyce has picked up just two points in his previous six Premier League meetings with Jose Mourinho (D2 L4), but he’s lost all three of his home games against him.

(Stats above obtained from Daily Mail)

Betting Odds (Full Time)

West Ham Win – 9/2
Draw – 14/5
Chelsea Win – 7/10

(Odds obtained from Betfair)

TV
Depending on where you are from, you can watch the match in the following channels:

United Kingdom: Sky Go UK, Sky Sports 1 Ireland, Sky Sports 1/HD
United States: NBC Sports Live Extra, DirecTV, NBC
Middle East: Al Jazeera Sports
Brazil: ESPN + Andina, ESPN + Sur, FOX Sports Brasil
India: Star Sports 4 India
For additional regions, you can check out the TV schedule for the match here.

There should be many match streams that can be found online if your local sports channels are not broadcasting the game or if you happen to be busy and cannot catch the game live, follow TalkChelsea on Twitter as it would provide live match commentary on the action.

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