PREMIER LEAGUE: The Striker previews WEST HAM v LEICESTER with a recommended BETDAQ bet.
WEST HAM V LEICESTER
8pm We finish the midweek round of Premier League fixtures on BETDAQ BETTING EXCHANGE with West Ham hosting Leicester on Thursday night. This might not be the most glamorous fixture compared to some other games we’ve had this week, but it is a very interesting one to see where both clubs stand. Leicester are running out of time – they are pretty much nailed on to go down now and would need a miracle to stay up. You would have said before the weekend that Graham Potter hasn’t really made a massive impact as West Ham manager, but a win away to Arsenal broke winless run and would have been a nice confidence boost for the squad.
This is a game that West Ham will be expected to win – the three clubs that got promoted from the Championship have looked short of Premier League quality. The three of them will go back down, and that’s creating a debate how the gulf in class between the Premier League and the Championship given the exact same thing happened in 2023/24. Even when Burnley were expected to stay up given how high their performance level was in the Championship. Obviously the volume of money in the Premier League is massive these days, and that is 95% of the reason. The other 5% in my opinion is clubs trying to play Guardiola like football – really and truly they want to play ugly, tough to beat, football to try stay up your first season. Play like Big Sam used to!
Given how poor Leicester have been, it’s not a surprise to see West Ham come into the game as the odds on favourites. The Hammers are trading 1.67 with Leicester 5.5 and the draw is 4.3 at the time of writing. Take away the Arsenal win and you could easily paint a different picture of how Graham Potter has started as West Ham manager. While they should get the job done here, I wouldn’t be rushing to back them as short as 1.67 – they just haven’t won enough games this season and their average xG conceded is very high. Leicester have an average xG conceded of 1.78, but West Ham are only marginally behind them at 1.74.
I’m not keen backing a club with a defensive figure like that at sub 1.7. West Ham have clearly been better going forward – their average xG created is 1.34 compared to Leicester at 1.11, but the gap isn’t huge that you’d make West Ham sub 1.6 here for example. I’m happy to stay out of the match odds market here, because this game absolutely screams goals. Both sides have been very poor at the back, and we can expect plenty of mistakes here. Over 2.5 goals is trading 1.75 and that looks cracking value – I was really surprised to see it trading so high, even bigger than the West Ham win, and I feel we’re getting enough value to have a confident Five Star NAP!
The Striker Says:
Five points win Over 2.5 goals at 1.75 with BETDAQ BETTING EXCHANGE
You can view all markets here -> https://betdaq.biz/WhuLei
