EPL betting preview: West Ham United- Everton

Nov 07, 2015
football betting tips - West Ham United

EPL: West Ham United- Everton

Earlier this season, ahead of a 0-0 away draw with Swansea, I spoke about the offensive talents that Roberto Martinez has at his disposal ....
 

Big odds for Everton to win in a fixture and at a venue they have done well in, not losing any of their eight EPL meetings (and only once in 23 h2h games in total) with City and winning on three of four visits to South Wales. Visiting coach Roberto Martinez knows the Liberty Stadium as well as anyone having overseen the start of the Swansea revival and he was in charge of the best League 1 team I have ever seen with the Swans and I have see a LOT of League 1 football......too much !  City will always hold a special place in his heart and he will want to continue to do well here and his team could be meeting the Swans at the perfect time, as they looked very lacklustre at Watford last week, with boss Gary Monk angry at performance levels which he said were nowhere near the required level.The Toffees have averaged 1.6 points per game with four of their five starts coming against teams who finished top 7 last season and talk of a crisis at the club pre season look over blown and Kone, Lukaku and Naismith ( hat-trick from off the bench against the League champions) give them a real offensive threat, along with Ross Barkley who with three assists in four starts is starting to look the player we always knew he could be and quaility options like Aaron Lennon, Gerard Deloufeu and Kevin Mirallas are having to wait their turn on the bench. Retaining John Stones, at least for the time being, showed more ambition than the board have done for several years and sent out a message to the top Premier League clubs and with no european distractions this season, replacing City in the top 8 will be a minimum target for Martinez and his troops.
 
They really should have taken all three points there, Romelu Lukaku (pictured) missed two huge chances when clean through in a second half that the Toffees dominated, City saw little of the ball (which is very unusual) and played mainly on the counter. Martinez said afterwards :"We created good chances and they should have won us the game. "I'm disappointed, but the overall performance was satisfying. "In the second half we took control, we played through them a few times and everything started with the composure of John Stones and Phil Jagielka.
 
Then, ahead of a trip to WBA shortly after I added: Albion have not found their stride yet offensively, they have failed to score in five of their eight competitive starts, scoring one in two and only managing two goals in a 3-2 defeat. They are going to need to find their goal touch to take points from the stronger teams and we have seen the best of them this season away from the Hawthorns, when they do not have to make the running.
 

Stones is a doubt for Everton, but expected to play, if not, we will see a EPL debut start from Ramio Funes Mori, he played 90 minutes in the cup at Reading last week and a cameo role off the bench in the 3-1 win over Chelsea , as a full Argentine international and Everton's biggest summer signing, he should be up to the task. Lukaku is "due" and as we know with strikers on a barren spell, a second and third goal often follow quickly once the breakthrough comes and he might be boosted by returning to the Hawthorns having scored 17 goals on loan with Albion in 2012-13, he scored here for Everton last September in a 2-0 win and a repeat of that would do nicely.

 

They were 2-0 down there but fought back to win 3-2 with a brace from Lukaku and we know from experience that youngsters thrive on confidence and that strikers, once they end a barren spell, tend to go on a bit of a hot streak and the Belgian striker fits the criteria of both and four more goals will make him only the 5th EPL striker to hit 50 goals before his 23rd birthday and he has until May 13th to complete the feat. Next up was the derby game with Liverpool when I wrote ........

He (Lukaku) didn't score against the Reds last season, but he had two in this fixture the season before and whist on that previously discussed loan spell at WBA, scored in both games versus Liverpool. He scored there and we did well following the young striker for a couple of games, he cme up short in three games subsequently, but found the net in a strong Everton performance against Sunderland last week, with strike partner Arouna Kone scoring a hat-trick. Now we know that the Toffees have two strikers in form and the fact that Kone got all the headlines, will probably concentrate the mind of the Belgian striker still further. He will be greedily eyeing up this fixture in any case, having scored in all six starts for Everton versus the Hammers and with United missing suspended central defender James Collins ( as well as striker Diafra Sakho) his task and that of the Everton offense will be easier with United having conceded eight goals in the four home games Collins has sat out this season.
 

United were very poor last week at Watford, the Hornets did play well, but it was hard for the East London side to take any real positives from that, boss Slaven Bilic will be looking for a response today, but I am not sure that this is the right fixture for them and I favour the away win and goals, with (at least) one for Lukaku.

 

1.75 units Everton level ball 2.06 asian line/Sportmarket.
 
If you can find it.... 1.25 units Romelu Lukaku to score anytime at 2.50-2.90 general quote......maybe a little less at the lower end/ more at upper end of price range.

 

Good Luck.

 

 

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Country: 
England
Sport: 
Football
Competition: 
English Premier League
Football Teams: 
Everton
West Ham United

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