Week 31 – West Ham vs Leicester City – Sport Grill

West Ham welcome Leicester City to the London Stadium in a huge Super Sunday clash in the race for Champions League football. 

Victory will see David Moyes’ Hammers move to within a point of third-placed Leicester, whereas the Foxes can move seven points clear of their hosts with a win.

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Michail Antonio is a major doubt for West Ham after suffering a hamstring injury in Monday’s 3-2 away victory at Molineux.

Andriy Yarmolenko, Declan Rice (both knee), Darren Randolph (hip) and Angelo Ogbonna (ankle) remain ruled out.

Leicester have no fresh injury concerns to report as Caglar Soyuncu (Coronavirus), James Justin, Harvey Barnes (both knee), Cengiz Under (thigh) and Wes Morgan (back) remain absent.

Stat Attack

• West Ham have won just one of their last five meetings against Leicester (W1, D2, L2).
• Leicester have claimed 11 points from their last five trips to the Hammers (W3, D2).
• Jesse Lingard has scored in each of West Ham’s last three home games, with two of his three goals coming before half-time.
• Kelechi Iheanacho has scored seven goals in his last five appearances for Leicester across all competitions.
• David Moyes’ Hammers won their only previous home game this season to be refereed by Mike Dean, defeating Leeds 2-0 last month.

Prediction

West Ham do seem to have a psychological issue because they have started their last two games fantastically on the front foot with three goals, yet they have proceeded to mentally switch off defensively as were lucky to cling on at Wolves and avoid a second consecutive 3-3 draw.

Leicester meanwhile never really got going in last Saturday’s loss to Manchester City, despite threatening well on attack but poor finishing and unlucky offside decisions cost them and they cannot afford to repeat that slow start here against these fast Hammers.

This game is also a six pointer because West Ham can move to within a point of Leicester with victory thus boosting their top four chances, whereas Leicester really need to make hay with coming games if want third place wrapped up before their tough final three matches against Man Utd, Chelsea and Tottenham.

On that note, I am expecting a competitive contest between two quality teams who could well upset the apple cart come end of season, so am plumping for an entertaining score draw.

Prediction: West Ham 2-2 Leicester

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