West Ham vs Backa Topola tips: Irons to give Serbian high-flyers a good hammering
- Robbie Savage
- 20 September 2023
Planet Sport's Robbie Savage thinks West Ham will continue their impressive unbeaten run in Europe with another high scoring victory.
Expect goals. Backa Topola’s last game was a 6-3 win so I think there will be goals.
West Ham’s record in Europe over the last couple of seasons has been amazing.
Semi-finalists in the Europa League, unbeaten last season, obviously winning the Europa Conference League against Fiorentina in the final.
David Moyes is doing a fantastic job with West Ham in Europe. No doubt about that and they have started this season ever so well.
I think there will be goals, I think it will be a goal fest for West Ham. I’m going for a 4-0 win.
Robbie’s Pick: West Ham 4-0 Backa Topola
Team news
West Ham came through the defeat to Manchester City with no major injury concerns, but manager David Moyes will use this match to rotate his team.
Expect the disgruntled Lukasz Fabianski to play his first game this season between the sticks, after losing the number one jersey to Alphonse Areola.
New signings Konstantinos Mavropanos and Mohammed Kudus should get a run out at some point, and may even start.
Edson Alvarez is serving a one-match suspension from his time with Ajax.
Key stats
- West Ham were last beaten in Europe back in May 2022.
- West Ham haven't kept a clean sheet in eight competitive matches
- Backa Topola are top of the Serbian league after seven games and are unbeaten in that competition this season
Other suggested bets from Planet Sport
West Ham's bench finally has a bit of depth to it and you would expect Moyes to shuffle the pack for a match everyone expects West Ham to win at a canter.
However, Moyes is a pragmatic manager and is not a huge fan of tinkering with winning formulas so don't expect sweeping changes to his first XI.
The Irons have been big scorers in the early stages of the European competitions and over 3.5 goals certainly looks appealing.
That will tie in nicely with over 10.5 corners in the match as it's a tried and tested West Ham tactic, especially with James Ward-Prowse now in the ranks.
This also brings into play Mavropanos, who scored a brace for Greece at the start of September, and at 6ft4in he will be a big target late in the game...if Moyes brings him on.
He's a big price as last goalscorer.
If you are feeling the new signing vibe, why not chuck Mohammed Kudus into your build-a-bet as an anytime scorer.
