The first match of 2019 for these two teams will take place at Olympic Stadium in London, the home of West Ham.
West Ham are coming into this match after a defeat against Burnley (2:0). and with that defeat, West Ham is 3-0-2 in the past 5 games. In the season so far, West Ham is holding an 8-3-9 record which puts them at 11th spot in the Premier League, 11 points below the top 5 and 12 points from the relegation zone. So in that regard, West Ham is in a safe mid-table spot with 20 games behind them. The recent match against Burnley was quite disappointing for West Ham who were expected to put up a better fight. The match saw a total of 28 goal attempts (17-11) and 9 shots on goal (5-4), most of which came in the second half, but despite that, the only 2 goals were scored in the 1st half by Burnley. Burnley scored an opener in the 15th minute to which they added another goal in the 34th minute. West Ham pushed for a goal of their own in the 2nd half but despite all their attempts they failed to score. The match ended with a final score of 2:0 which was the 2nd H2H win for Burnley in the last 10 encounters between the teams.
Brighton are currently sitting at 13th place in the league, 2 points behind West Ham. In the span of 20 games, Burnley achieved a 7-4-9 record and a poor 1-1-3 in the past 5 games. On the bright side, Burnley did not lose their last 2 games, instead, they drew against Arsenal (1:1) and won against Everton (1:0) in their most recent match on 29th December. Looking at the match against Everton, we did not see a goal being scored for the first 59 minutes, despite Everton having 5 goal attempts and 2 shots on goal, while Brighton had only 2 goal attempts and no shot on goal for the first 45 minutes. The second half saw more action, as teams combined 16 goal attempts (8-8) and 5 shots on goal (3-2). Although we saw a lot of scoring opportunities, we only saw 1 goal being scored in the 59th minute, when Locadia scored for Brighton. Brighton managed to hold the 1 goal lead for the remaining 30 minutes, while West Ham attempts to equalise failed to produce a goal. Final score: 1:0.
We are not surprised West Ham are considered a favourite to win this match. At home, they are holding a 4-1-5 record and a 3-0-2 in the last 5 games. In the course of the 10 home games, West Ham scored 14 and conceded 16 goals, which is not the best record to have, but considering they conceded 4 goals against Manchester City (0:4), their defence is not as bad as it seems. Brighton on the other side are terrible travellers. In the course of 10 away games, they achieved a 2-1-7 record with only 1 win in the last 5 away games against Huddersfield (1:2). Their biggest issue in away games is their attack, as they only managed to score 7 goals in 10 games. In addition, Brighton did not score a single goal in the last 2 away games against Burnley (1:0) and Bournemouth (2:0). All in all, this match should end in West Ham favour as they proved to be a better team from what we have seen from the 2 sides in recent matches.
Prediction: West Ham to win
Odds: 2.07 Matchbook
