The first Monday Night Football of the new season takes place tonight when West Ham travel across London to arch rivals Chelsea. The Hammers will be looking to improve on their seventh place finish last season, with a top 6 finish available at 12/5. Chelsea can’t be any worse than they were last year. Many are tipping them for the title, available at 11/2, but they still need to make some new signings before the end of the transfer window.
Chelsea’s 10th place finish last season was a pitiful defence of their Premier League title, but they should improve under new manager Antonio Conte. Conte likes his teams to be defensively robust and keep clean sheets, but they’ve been porous in pre-season and combined with West Ham’s attacking strengths, they’ll be tested this evening. Thibault Courtois is priced at 13/10 to keep a clean sheet. The two meetings last season didn’t go Chelsea’s way, with a draw and a defeat to the Hammers, the first time that this had happened since 2002/03. Conte’s preferred formation is still unknown, but new signings N’Golo Kante and Michy Batshuayi look set to make their debuts. Batshuayi could start upfront alongside Diego Costa, with the striker favourite to score first at 15/4. Kurt Zouma is still out with the long term injury that he suffered last season.
West Ham’s hopes will rest on star player Dimitri Payet. Slaven Bilic has already said that Payet is unlikely to play a full game, but the Frenchman can make an impact in a short space of time. He’s available at 7/2 to score anytime, whilst new signing from Swansea Andre Ayew is backed at 11/1 to score first this evening. Aaron Cresswell is unavailable with a long term injury, as is Manuel Lanzini, who turned his loan move into a permanent one over the summer. Another new signing, Sofiane Feghouli marked his West Ham debut in the Europa League last week with a goal, and could feature this evening. The Hammers have scored in their last 13 league matches and will target an early strike tonight. Odds of 37/20 are available on them to score first this evening.
Match Prediction and Stats
Chelsea are unbeaten in their last 10 home matches against West Ham and haven’t lost to them at Stamford Bridge in the league since September 2002. They’ve also won more points than any other side on the opening week of the season. It all looks ominous for West Ham, but the first weekend has shown that anything can happen in the Premier League. Expect goals though with both teams to score at 5/6 and for a score prediction, a Chelsea victory with a scoreline of 2-1 is at 29/4.
