GW 24: Wolves vs. West Ham

Wolves against West Ham looks to be another interesting game from matchweek 24 as both of these teams are involved in the extremely tight battle that has taken over the middle of the table, where only 3 points separates 7th from 12th. With Wolves in 8th and West Ham in 10th there is only 1 point between them meaning a win from either side would guarantee them moving up at least one place and, to be honest, most likely more considering the inconsistency of many of these sides. On the topic of inconsistency, both teams fit the description as Wolves have won 2 and lost 2 of their last 4 games while Watford have won 1, drawn 1 and lost 2 of their last 4. The last match between these two teams was an extremely tight match as Wolves narrowly came out on top 1-0 after a 92nd minute winner from Adama Traore. Wolves edged West Ham in shots and possession but overall there was practically nothing between the two sides which is now showing in the table. However, with Wolves at their own ground for the fixture, you would expect them to do even better than last time and maybe to knick the match yet again.

Wolves have exceeded all expectations that would have been set for them at the beginning of the season, as they have rocketed into the top half of the table in their first season after promotion. They have been playing some open and expansive football as well which has been pleasing the fans and overall, they seem to be a football club on the rise. Although Wolves have been considered quite a prolific defensive side this season, their defensive form has experienced a big drop off over recent games as they’ve conceded 8 from their last 3 and are without a clean sheet in their last 5 matches. When you consider they kept 5 clean sheets from their first 8 matches this looks extremely bad as they’ve let a lot of their defensive solidity go maybe in a search for more goals. Wolves have lost 2 of their last 3, however, their overall form recently has been alright as they’ve won 5 and drawn 1 of their last 9. Their last match was an absolute thriller as they barely came out on top against Leicester winning 4-3. This was another game in which they relied on a late goal to get them the win as Diogo Jota completed his hat trick in the 93rd minute after a Raul Jimenez ball gave him a good opportunity. Although Wolves played well overall in this match, it was clear that there were some major defensive problems and they might not get as lucky on the attacking end in this match.

Neves was brilliant in Wolves’ last match and you would expect him to produce the goods yet again in this match. West Ham are particularly strong in the attack so the 4.5 tackles and interceptions a match that Ruben Neves is currently making should be crucial for Wolves on the defensive end. He is also a very solid attacking player for Wolves, which was shown in their last game, as he is currently taking 2.4 shots per game and making 0.9 key passes. In their last game he took 3 shots and made 3 key passes showing that he can turn into an attacking threat as he provided great transition play on the day, as he also grabbed 1 assist in the match. Although you would expect him to play a deeper role in the match at hand, he has the ability to turn defence into attack in the blink of an eye which will be important while playing a side who play a high defensive line and who struggle when defending against through balls. Diogo Jota will be another key man and after his superb performance in the last match you could expect his form to continue. Although Jota’s overall form for the season hasn’t been great he scored a hat trick in his last match and over the last few games he has looked to be a very dangerous player, especially when playing in a two up top with Jimenez. When they do play like this formation (3-4-1-2), it allows Jimenez to drop deeper where he’s able to collect the ball, while Jota uses his pace to look for balls in behind the defence from either Neves or Jimenez. This is what happened in their last match and it created a devastating offensive effect as Jota was constantly in behind the defence causing trouble. You’d expect that his pace and technical ability will be important yet again, especially when Wolves are looking to play on the break.

West Ham started the season poorly but since then they’ve come into a bit of form finding themselves in 10th in what will be considered a modest start to the season for the Hammers. Their from over the last few games has been very patchy as they’ve only managed 1 win from their last 4 PL matches which was surprisingly against Arsenal. In this period, they have lost Bournemouth and Burnley which is poor considering they really should be at least getting a point from these games, especially against the latter. The alarming part about their recent form is how they are consistently conceding to middle to lower table sides as they conceded 2 each to Burnley, Brighton and Bournemouth while somehow keeping a clean sheet against Arsenal. The Hammer's last match was a disappointing 2-0 loss to Bournemouth in which West Ham didn’t threaten enough, perhaps due to Arnautovic’s absence from the match. Expected goals had the game in Bournemouth’s favour as well, predicting the score at 1.12 to 0.54 as West Ham managed to obtain the bulk of the possession but only had 1 shot on target from 9 total. Again, this poor finishing and limited attacking threat could have be largely down to Arnautovic missing out which shouldn’t be a problem in this game considering his talks with Shanghai SIPG seem to be over. Still though, their is big room for improvement and West Ham will definitely be looking to leave this last game behind them.

Declan Rice could be an influential figure in this match as the 20 year old has massively impressed throughout the entirety of this season. For his age, he has been incredible for West Ham, and his overall performance over the season was really symbolised by his superb performance against Arsenal a couple of weeks ago. He is making 4 tackles and interceptions a game from the base of midfield as well as 1.9 clearances and 0.4 blocks. Wolves have a brilliant centre midfield pairing fo Joao Moutinho and Ruben Neves so Rice’s defensive contribution will be even more important than in most matches, especially if Moutinho takes up the number 10 role as he has in recent games, as this will most likely mean Rice will sit deep on him to try to nullify his creative presence. New arrival Samir Nasri is another West Ham player to keep your eye on as his early performances have impressed for the Hammers. Although he’s only made 2 Premier League appearances thus far, his early stats have impressed as he is taking 1 shot per game as well as 2 key passes and 0.5 dribbles as he already has an assist to his name in the league. Although he hasn’t had enough time back in the league for anyone to see if he’s really ready to compete at this level again, early signs are good and he could impress against a side who have been defensively week over the past few matches.

Wolves, as they have been for most of the season, are very lucky in terms of injuries at the moment, as not a single player from their senior squad is injured. However, Willy Boly is still suspended and will be until February 2nd after picking up a red card against Manchester City 2 weeks ago. You can see from their last match that they did struggle defensively without him and the same could happen this time around against another powerful attacking team. West Ham are missing quite a few players through injury, however, most of these players have been out for long periods of time already meaning these problems shouldn’t affect the overall form of the team too badly. Balbuena, Reid, Sanchez, Wilshere, Lanzini and Yarmolenko are all going to miss the game and with this large amount of injuries you can see why West Ham have been inconsistent over the course of the season. Some good news for the Hammers though is that star man Marko Arnautovic has just signed a long term contract until 2023 and his possible move to China seems to be off meaning he should be available to play in this match.

Both of these teams had FA cup matches over the weekend where they both struggled as Wolves achieved a draw against Shrewsbury while West Ham lost 4-2 to AFC Wimbledon as yet again, they both proved how erratic their form has been. These FA cup matches could mean the potential of rotation from both sides as they’ll be looking to rest some of their players as they’re playing just 3 days after their last matches. When looking at the styles of the teams you notice that West Ham could really prosper in the wide areas in this game due to the absence of Boly on the left side and with how far the wing-backs push up the field meaning that players like Felipe Anderson and Snodgrass could have a lot of space to run into. However, if they want to make full use of this space they might not want to play players like Anderson and Snodgrass (who have been regular starters) as they both like to cut inside whereas players like Antonio will stay wide and hug the channel therefore making the most use of space in behind. With these teams so close in terms of both points and overall ability it’s hard to predict which way this game is going to go but I feel the defensive frailties of West Ham will lead to a 2-1 Wolves win.