West Ham vs Bournemouth tips and predictions: Goals likely in end-to-end match
- George Dempsey
- 31 January 2024
West Ham will hope to put FA Cup disappointment behind them, and get back to winning ways in the league, against a tricky opponent in Bournemouth on Thursday (1930 GMT).
We wouldn’t argue if the bookmakers went down the middle and priced both teams around 8/5 for this game, but West Ham are clear favourites.
Bournemouth have been the more productive team regarding chance creation, particularly away from home on the break.
More importantly, they’ve continued to create chances against top teams, and we’ve seen enough to suggest they’ll trouble a West Ham team that has struggled to break down organised sides in recent weeks.
The Hammers would appear to be in great form at home, but it’s worth noting the quality of the opposition.
Their most notable Premier League wins have come against Manchester United and Chelsea. They may be big clubs, but they sit ninth and 10th in the table.
Bournemouth may be firmly in the bottom half but they’ve performed well since things clicked under Andoni Iraola.
The Cherries have lost three of their last 10 matches but those defeats came against Man City, Liverpool and Tottenham.
They had won four consecutive away matches before the 3-1 defeat to Tottenham, but they can consider themselves lucky not to have claimed at least a point.
They were the more dangerous team in the first half when Tottenham had more of the play, but the script was reversed in the second half.
That’s important because as much as they can exploit West Ham when pushing forward, the Hammers themselves are adept at striking on the break.
Only Nottingham Forest team have scored more counter-attacking goals than West Ham (7) and that’s an avenue where David Moyes’ side can succeed.
Given that this game could easily swing either way in such situations, our main priority is to focus on goals-based markets here, but we wouldn’t talk you out of a small bet on the visitors.
Key stats
- Only one team have scored more counter-attack goals than West Ham
- West Ham’s home matches have averaged 2.7 goals
- Bournemouth’s away matches have averaged 3.9 goals
- Bournemouth have scored 12 goals in five Premier League away matches
- Bournemouth are unbeaten in seven games against teams outside the top six
Team news
Lucas Pacqueta and Michail Antonio are ruled out due to injury while Edson Alvarez is a doubt and will be assessed.
Said Benrahma and Vladimir Coufal are suspended.
Nayef Aguerd will miss out while on African Cup of Nations duty.
James Hill, Tyler Adams, Hamed Traore, Ryan Fredericks, Max Aarons and Darren Randolph are unavailable.
Adam Smith and Philip Billing have been passed fit but there are still doubts about Dango Ouattara.
