Chris Sutton predicts West Ham United vs Bournemouth result amid ‘impressed’ admission
Chris Sutton has predicted a draw when West Ham travel to the Vitality this weekend to face a newly-resurgent Bournemouth side.
Fighting back to take a point off Arsenal last Sunday (16 April) has caught the pundit’s attention, and pushed the Hammers four points clear of the Premier League relegation zone.
But the Cherries’ late, late victory away at Tottenham has them two points above West Ham in 14th, despite them looking dead and buried not long ago, and Sutton believes the two sides will cancel each other out in a goalless draw on the south coast Sunday (23 April).
The former Blackburn and Celtic striker said in his BBC Sport predictions: “In the last hour of their draw with Arsenal, West Ham looked more like the team they were in the previous two seasons. I was impressed.
“But Bournemouth continue to prove me wrong, with their results and performances, and last week’s win over Tottenham makes me think they are going to stay up. That was such a huge moment for them.”
Momentum
Few West Ham fans will be getting ahead of themselves after the season they have been forced to endure, but with four points from six in the league there is cause for slight optimism heading into this one.
There have been points in the campaign previously where Moyes and his players looked to be recapturing some of the old magic, and fighting back from two down to dent Arsenal’s title hopes suggests that again.
The problem has too often been that the manager has regressed into negativity in the next game and thrown anything resembling momentum away.
As the relegation battle is finally starting to separate slightly there is an opportunity to climb to near-safety with a win or two at this point.
So if the Irons can reproduce some of what they put on show in the second half of the derby last week they could get a crucial result.
It is unlikely to save Moyes’ job either way come the end of the season now, but it might help to be the difference between whether he leaves under a real cloud or not.