Paul Merson predicts result of West Ham United clash v Wolves
Paul Merson has predicted that West Ham United will make it two consecutive games without a win in the Premier League when they face Wolves on Sunday 17 December.
The Sky Sports pundit believes that the Irons will improve, following their 5-0 thrashing by Fulham, against Gary O’Neil’s side at the London Stadium, predicting that it will be a 1-1 draw.
Wolves travel to East London in reasonable form after an impressive start to the campaign and have not tasted defeat in either of their last two matches and Merson thinks that recent run will see the two sides share the points.
Writing for Sportskeeda (14 December) he said: “West Ham are a bag of revels. They somehow managed to beat Tottenham against the odds but got absolutely blown away by Fulham. Wolves, on the other hand, are a dangerous team and have earned respect under Gary O’Neil.
“They’d be a lot higher up the table if it wasn’t for a handful of close VAR calls, but when I look at the players across the two sides, I can’t separate these two sides, at least on paper.
“Wolves play better football, while West Ham have a few matchwinners who can show up at any time. There isn’t much between these two teams, so I’m going for a 1-1 draw.”
Time to bounce back
West Ham’s display last time out in the Premier League was nothing short of embarrassing as Marco Silva’s Fulham ran riot at Craven Cottage, tearing apart the Hammers’ backline with ease whenever they decided to venture forward.
That sort of performance is inexcusable and Moyes’ side must improve against Wolves, regardless of their performance against Freiburg in the Europa League. The Premier League has to always remain the focus and the Hammers can’t afford to continuously drop points.
A draw against a team that has proven difficult to face as Wolves have been in the early stages of the campaign wouldn’t be a terrible result. But a team with genuine ambitions of qualifying for Europe once again will want to pick up three points from this clash.
As Merson said, West Ham have been like a bag of revels this season. You never have any idea what side is going to turn up and that makes it so hard to predict what will happen at the London Stadium on Sunday.
Anything less than three points will see some supporters continue to call for Moyes’ head.
In other West Ham news, one Irons player could be part of a “sensational” double transfer raid in the January transfer window