Sky Sports pundit Paul Merson is expecting an action-packed affair when West Ham United welcome Everton to the London Stadium on Saturday.
Both teams will be well-rested after the international break and on a high following wins over Huddersfield Town and Chelsea last time out and Merson expects the teams to cancel each other out in a 2-2 draw.
“You just don’t know what you’re going to get from West Ham,” he wrote on the Sky Sports website. “In fact, that applies to Everton too! I think Everton will be better away from the pressure of Goodison Park. I didn’t think they were going to come out for the second half of their last game against Chelsea, there was no point coming out.
“I’ve never seen a turnaround like it in the Premier League. You see them on a Sunday morning when the wind is gale force and a team plays downhill, but not in the top-flight. That win will have filled them with confidence and I think they will express themselves at the London Stadium. I predict goals.”
OPINION
It does seem as if both teams will go for this one and that there will be goals. Neither side has a very good track record defensively so it may simply come down to which team is able to do more offensively. Everton arguably have the more talented players going forward in Richarlison and Gylfi Sigurdsson, but the Hammers will be confident of piercing the Toffees backline with regularity. Javier Hernandez scored twice against Huddersfield last time out and will be extremely confident, while Marko Arnautovic’s strike for Austria over the international break will have done him a world of good. West Ham’s chances of keeping Everton out may depend on whether Manuel Pellegrini opts to reinstall Fabian Balbuena at the back. If he does then the Hammers have a great chance of stopping Marco Silva’s team, but if he doesn’t then they might struggle. Either way a score draw does seem like the most likely outcome.
