Mark Lawrenson predicts result of West Ham United Premier League clash v Chelsea
Mark Lawrenson has made his prediction for the upcoming Premier League clash between West Ham and Chelsea this weekend at the London Stadium.
The Hammers opened their campaign with a 1-1 draw on the road against Bournemouth, while Chelsea were held to a 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge by Liverpool in their opening game.
And Lawrenson, while speaking to Paddy Power (18 August), believes David Moyes is likely to set up to make sure they don’t lose the game first and foremost and this is predicting another draw.
“Both teams started with a draw and I’m going to go for another draw, I think this will be really tight,” he said.
“We know what David Moyes is like, especially at home against the big boys. First job is to make sure that they don’t concede.
“Chelsea were very good in the second half against Liverpool without really making the opportunities that you thought they should have given the amount of play they had. They’ll build on that but it’s another draw here. West Ham 1-1 Chelsea.”
Strong
The performance that West Ham turned in last week arguably exceeded the expectations of many considering we had no new players on the pitch and no Declan Rice.
However this week both Edson Alvarez and James Ward-Prowse are expected to be available for selection, while Lucas Paqueta’s move to Man City is off which means he can focus on us instead.
The team should look that little bit sharper after another week of training too, and with the way that Chelsea like to play attacking football that should open up opportunities for us to counter-attack against them which is one of our greatest strengths.
Lawrenson is right that well likely prioritise one point over none, but we have the quality to get all three if we play well especially in front of the home fans.
We’ll have to be clinical and focused at the back, but we’re capable and with Chelsea very much in transition too this is a great time to play them.
In other West Ham news, Fabrizio Romano has shared an update on a potential triple transfer swoop.