David Moyes fan Chris Sutton predicts West Ham United vs Fulham result for BBC Sport after Tottenham ‘surprise’
West Ham are set to come back down to earth with defeat to Fulham at the weekend despite their “surprise” victory over Tottenham in midweek, believes Chris Sutton.
The pundit claimed in his BBC Sport predictions column (8 December) that the Hammers had required a pair of “lucky” goals to inflict defeat on Ange Postecoglou’s side on Thursday night, and with Marco Silva’s side scoring freely he has tipped them to win on Sunday (10 December).
Sutton has gone for a 2-1 win at Craven Cottage as despite being a “big fan” of David Moyes he has backed the “flying” West London rivals thanks to their recent scoring form.
Sutton said: “The goals are flooding in for Fulham now, and they have scored 11 in their past three games. I really wasn’t expecting that from Marco Silva’s side, who had managed only 10 in their previous 12 league matches this season.
“West Ham surprised me too with their win at Tottenham on Thursday. The Hammers played well in the second half, although they did get a couple of lucky goals to turn things around.
“This feels like it is going to be close. I am a big fan of what David Moyes has done at West Ham, but Fulham are flying at the moment so I am backing them to follow up their impressive victory over Nottingham Forest.”
Up and down
West Ham under Moyes seem to be at their most dangerous when they aren’t expected to get anything and questions are building up over the manager.
An uninspiring draw with Crystal Palace last weekend sent the club to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium without much backing and they turned around a deficit to record their third win in four Premier League games.
On that run it seems harsh for them to be tipped to lose their third straight game against a local rival, especially when Fulham have only won two of their past seven in the top flight, but the inconsistency can’t be ignored.
On paper Moyes’ players should be going across the capital with a lot of confidence to extend their run, but that is too often the exact time they then come up short.
West Ham have proven plenty of times they have more than enough to take all three points from this fixture, despite injury issues in attack, but whether they will turn up to do so will remain unclear until the day.
Despite a relative lack of hype around the team this season Moyes currently has his side only two wins from Manchester City in the Champions League spots, so there is no reason why he can’t keep proving doubters wrong this weekend.
Fulham may have scored plenty but they’ve also conceded a lot, nine times in three games prior to their 5-0 win over Nottingham Forest, so Jarrod Bowen and company should be confident.
In other West Ham news, the Irons have a search in progress across all top divisions to find a transfer answer at a key position.