On the 15th September, West Ham United travel the the KC Stadium to take on last year’s FA Cup runner-up Hull City. Both teams have had average starts to the season and are both hovering around 10th place. West Ham have had a disappointing start losing two of the first three league games and crashing out of the Capital One Cup to League One side Sheffield United. Hull had a good opening day result with a 1-0 win over QPR, but drew vs Stoke and lost to Aston Villa after that. A win after the long international break would do a lot to lift the spirits of either club.
Team News
Hull will be without summer signing Robert Snodgrass because of a long-term injury for this match. They will also be without Andrew Robertson.
West Ham will be missing Carl Jenkinson, Joey O’Brien, and Matty Jarvis who are all set to return for the next match. They will be without Kevin Nolan and Andy Carroll through long term injuries as well. They may get a boost if James Collins can pass his late fitness test.
Interesting Statistics
- Hull have only won one out of the last seven matches vs West Ham.
- Three of the last six matches between these two involved a red card.
- Only one of the last seven matches had fewer than two goals.
- Five out of the last seven matches have been 1-0 at half-time.
Key Men
One of West Ham’s better summer signings so far has been Cheikhou Kouyaté. Kouyaté came in over the summer from Anderlecht and seems to have adjusted quickly to the Premier League. He is a big powerful player, so you would expect him to fit into a Sam Allardyce side pretty well. The Senegalese man won 56% of his total duels this season and has been really good at breaking up the play of the opposition. He has been a good shield in front of the back four, allowing some of the more creative additions, like Mauro Zarate, to play with more freedom.
Hull made some big summer signings as well. Hatem Ben Arfa was an interesting signing for them, but he could prove to be vital. Ben Arfa has always been a bit of an enigma of a player. It’s always been obvious that the little Frenchman had talent, but he hasn’t always been able to apply it due to a lack of work ethic. He can make fans adore him with his fantastic feet and then make them hate him because of poor decision-making or a refusal to track back. Ultimately, this could be a great signing for Hull or the Frenchamn could easily flop. Ben Arfa does bring the ability to change the game with one moment of magic, something Hull lacked.
Betting Preview
Mohamed Diame faces his old club on his Hull City debut and will be eager to impress!
You can back him to be booked at anytime during the game at odds of 4.5 with Tailorbet here http://goo.gl/5YLgHN
Prediction
This will be a tight game and with both teams making a lot of signings that need to settle in it will be tough to call. Hull had an amazing last day of the window signing lots of good players, but it will be a test to see how quickly they settle. West Ham have not had the best of starts to the season, but did show against Crystal Palace they can play some really good football. This is going to be a tight game, but Hull were very good at beating teams around them last season, so I’m going to go with a Hull win.
