West Ham vs Chelsea Predictions, Betting Tips, Match Previews

West Ham finally look to be turning their disastrous start to the season around, although they are far from the side we saw last season. They managed a win at home to the dreadful Sunderland at the weekend to make it two wins on the bounce for them, but even that required a 94th minute Winston Reid opener to give them the three points.

This came after another drab performance at Crystal Palace which saw them edge a 1-0 win, but Slaven Bilic will just be happy that his team aren’t conceding three or more goals every game after their previous matches.

West Ham’s road to this stage of the League Cup hasn’t exactly been convincing either. They didn’t play the first round of games due to their ill-fated Europa League campaign, but their match against Accrington Stanley required another injury time winner, despite them playing a very strong side.

The hosts do have some danger men for Chelsea to keep an eye on though. Despite Dimitri Payet’s relatively poor season Michail Antonio has still managed to score five league goals, with three of them coming at home. He hasn’t scored in five games now though, so maybe Bilic’s focus on defence is nullifying his attacking threat.

Chelsea are having no such problems with their leading men. Eden Hazard scored again in Chelsea’s 4-0 hammering of Manchester United on Sunday to take his season tally to four, whilst Diego Costa scored last weekend against Leicester to make it seven goals for him. The Spanish striker is unlikely to start on Wednesday though, with summer signing Michy Batshuayi preferred in their League Cup fixtures this season. The young Belgian has scored three goals this season though, two of which have come in this competition. He looks a good choice for an anytime goalscorer bet at odds of 6/5 with bet365.

The visitors’ 4-0 win at home to Manchester United at the weekend made it three wins on the bounce since their humbling defeat at Arsenal. Since that 3-0 loss they haven’t conceded a goal and have scored nine at the other end to put them well and truly back in the Premier League title race.

With no European football to focus on this season, Chelsea are taking every tournament seriously. This was shown by strong squad selections in their 3-2 win over Bristol Rovers and their 4-2 extra time win over Leicester. West Ham’s results may have improved recently, but their performances still leave a lot to be desired. Chelsea, on the other hand, looked scintillating at the weekend, so odds of 4/5 for a Chelsea win look good value to me. I’m going for a 2-0 correct score prediction at 17/2 as well.