West Ham take on Brentford at home in the Premier League on Saturday afternoon.
The Hammers sit both four places and four points behind the Bees, while both teams go into the game on the back of defeats.
When the two sides met in September, honours were even with the score ending 1-1. A goal inside the first minute for Bryan Mbeumo opened the scoring before Tomas Soucek poked one home to equalise for the Hammers early in the second half.
Brentford have been very and have been a real threat in front of goal, possessing the quality of Yoane Wissa and Mbeumo up front, who share 25 league goals between them this campaign.
Thomas Frank’s side sit on a very respectable 31 points in the league, but only eight of those have come away from home, so you could speculate this is something Graham Potter will try and use as a motivator for his players on Saturday.
However, this type of form hasn’t been the case of late for the Bees, with the side failing to win in their last five home games. They instead come into the game in good away form, winning their last two away games, which included a 5-0 win over Southampton at St Mary’s, and more recently a 2-1 win over Palace at Selhurst Park.
In the first half of the season, though, Brentford were the team to beat when they were at home, and up to their 2-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest on 21 December, the Hammers were the only team to pick up a point at the Gtech Community Stadium, which again will give Graham Potter’s side a bit of a boost to believe they can get the better of their opponents this weekend.
West Ham’s need for a win
Since Potter has taken over at West Ham, results haven’t been ideal, but performances have been far better. Potter has acknowledged and appreciated this, and has said how he’s seen how Hammers’ supporters are aware of this as well:
‘[The loss to Chelsea] wasn’t perfect and, again, not probably where they want to be long-term, but certainly from a direction or a team looking like they’re on the same page fighting for each other, I think that was in a good place,’ the manager said, speaking on Iron Cast.
It’s important West Ham start winning games to merit these performances, and it feels like only a matter of time before this starts happening, especially off the back of two strong performances against Aston Villa and Chelsea, where the Hammers were very unfortunate not to come away with more points in both.
The Hammers’ chances will be helped by the return of Jarrod Bowen who scored in West Ham’s last game against Chelsea, and fans will be hopeful he can replicate his performance against Brentford at home last season, where he scored his first ever hat-trick for the Hammers.
The returning James Ward-Prowse and the new signing Evan Ferguson will certainly help bolster the squad and give Potter more good options in a game West Ham will be desperate to see both a great performance, but more importantly, a win.
