West Ham travel up to Stoke City this weekend on the back of a heartbreaking last minute defeat to Tottenham Hotspur on Monday night. A 90th minute goal from Gareth Bale secured a 3-2 win for the team from North London. West Ham will be looking to bounce back from this, this weekend when they play up at the Britannia Stadium.
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West Ham have won only twice since the turn of the year and their good form from the start of the season has slowly deteriorated and has left them looking worryingly over their shoulder at the relegation zone. Their last win was only three games ago at the start of February but before that it was on New Years Day against Norwich City and they that have only picked up eight points from a possible twenty four.
West Ham will be without their captain Kevin Nolan this weekend after results showed yesterday that he picked up a broken toe in the loss against Tottenham on Monday. The Hammers could also be without Mark Noble who missed the game earlier in the week. It will be interesting how Sam Allardyce replaces Nolan and a change in formation could be in order. I think a lot of West Ham fans would like to see him go 4-4-2 with somebody play up top with Andy Carroll but I think he will bring Jack Collison in and play either him or Joe Cole in the Nolan position. If he does stick with the same formation, Collison would be the right play to fill in that position.
Stoke go onto this weekend’s fixture off a 1-0 loss away at Fulham. An goal from Dimitar Berbatov was enough for the home side at Craven Cottage last Saturday which left Stoke in tenth position. Like West Ham Stoke have only won twice since the 1st January.
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Stoke could be without two of their normal starting eleven on Saturday. While Robert Huth will be out through suspension, winger Matthew Etherington is struggling with his back and will face a late fitness test. Striker Michael Owen is also a doubt for the home side as he is having problems with his thigh muscle.
In the reverse fixture at Upton Park the game finished 1-1. Stoke took the lead through Jonathan Walters before Joey O’Brien equalised on 48 minutes. West Ham were probably the better of the two sides throughout the game and will hope to be so again on Saturday but the Britannia is a very hard place to go and pick up points.
West Ham will be hoping to get all three points as a win would ease their relegation worries that have come about of late and would put them joint on level with Stoke. If Stoke come out on top it will put their point tally to 36 points.
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