West Ham v Bournemouth preview: Hammers seek back-to-back wins

Image: West Ham's form has gradually improved under David Moyes

West Ham will be looking to build on their impressive result at Huddersfield when they welcome Bournemouth on Saturday.

David Moyes' side steamrolled Huddersfield last weekend with Marko Arnautovic and Manuel Lanzini linking up to great effect in a 4-1 victory.

That stretched their unbeaten run to four games although the Hammers haven't won back-to-back Premier League games for over a year.

Bournemouth also registered a victory last weekend when coming from behind to beat Arsenal 2-1, which lifted them four points clear of the relegation zone.

However, Eddie Howe will be worried about his team's overall defensive strength as they have not kept a clean sheet in last 10 games since a 0-0 draw against Swansea in November.

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Team news

Moyes has confirmed the club should be able to call on Javier Hernandez, Declan Rice and Cheikhou Kouyate for this weekend's match with Bournemouth.

Chicharito was absent from Tuesday's FA Cup replay with Shrewsbury Town, but was back in full training on Friday and Moyes is confident he will be able to name the striker in his matchday squad.

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Moyes also revealed that Rice suffered from a minor hamstring issue during the week but should be available, while a check will be needed on Andre Ayew and Winston Reid will definitely miss out.

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Josh King and Junior Stanislas are pushing hard to be fit for Bournemouth.

Both forwards are continuing to battle hamstring complaints, and will be assessed late on ahead of the London Stadium encounter.

Howe will restore his front-line stars for the West Ham trip, following the midweek 3-0 FA Cup third-round replay loss at Wigan.

Opta stats

The five previous Premier League meetings between these teams have seen 23 goals scored at an average of 4.6 per game, which remains the highest average for any Premier League fixture to have been played at least five times.

Bournemouth have only won one of their five previous visits to West Ham in all competitions (L4), a 4-3 win at Upton Park in the Premier League in August 2015.

Premier League Highlights

Sixteen of the 23 goals scored in this fixture in the Premier League have been scored in the second half, accounting for 70 per cent of the goals; indeed, eight have come in the final 10 minutes of matches (35 per cent).

The Hammers have scored 15 goals in their last six Premier League games - one more than they'd scored in their opening 17 matches of the 2017-18 campaign.

This will be Eddie Howe's 100th Premier League game in charge - aged 40 years and 52 days on the day of the game, he'll be the third youngest English manager to reach this milestone after Glenn Hoddle (38y 36d) and Gareth Southgate (38y 150d).

David Moyes has collected 15 points from his last eight Premier League matches (P8 W4 D3 L1), one more than he won in his previous 28 matches in the competition (14).

There are better striking options for Chelsea than West Ham United’s Andy Carroll, according to Dennis Wise.

Merson's prediction

These two teams are like a bag of revels. You see West Ham go to Huddersfield and rip them apart, then they take 120 minutes to beat Shrewsbury at home.

Then you see Bournemouth beat Arsenal, then go to Wigan to form a cup run, and get turned over. Who knows, they could have gone far in the FA Cup. Don't make excuses about Bournemouth having to stay up, Wigan have got their own priorities trying to get out of League One!

I don't know how Bournemouth could stop Arnautovic, so I'm going for a home win, as he makes the difference.

PAUL PREDICTS: 2-1 (15/2 with Sky Bet)

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