West Ham vs Middlesbrough Predictions & Betting Tips, Match Previews

West Ham won’t even have considered starting the season in such a shambolic way after their successes last term. They opened the campaign with a somewhat expected defeat at Stamford Bridge and then earned a 1-1 draw at Astra as they looked for Europa League group stage qualification. So far, so average.

A laboured 1-0 victory at Bournemouth followed, highlighting some potential problems in the squad, and the 1-0 loss at home to Astra saw them eliminated from the Europa League after a shocking performance.

Next time out West Ham lost 3-1 at Manchester City before relinquishing a two goal lead at home to Watford, only to lose the game 4-2 courtesy of some tragically bad defending. They followed this with another shocking performance as they lost 4-2 at West Brom, and despite getting back to winning ways in the League Cup, they lost 3-0 at home to Southampton last weekend.

West Ham’s victory in the League Cup wasn’t even a convincing display, with the Hammers requiring a very late Dimitri Payet winner to win the game 1-0. Slaven Bilic has a lot of issues to iron out and probably not a lot of time to do it.

Middlesbrough were promoted back to the top flight last season and wasted no time strengthening their squad in the summer with some big name purchases. This looked to have paid off as they drew with Stoke on the opening day and then beat north east rivals Sunderland away from home.

However, the wheels have since fallen off. They were knocked out of the League Cup by Fulham and then played a drab goalless draw at West Brom. Three consecutive defeats to Crystal Palace, Everton, and Spurs have been played out since, and they find themselves 16th in the table.

One thing West Ham have in their favour is their attacking options. With the likes of Payet and Michail Antonio they always look like bagging a goal, but their defence has been awful. They have scored in all but one of their Premier League games but have only kept one clean sheet and have conceded 11 goals in their last three Premier League outings.

Middlesbrough’s defence isn’t much better though. They have shipped seven goals in their last three games and have kept just one clean sheet this season. But like their opponents they have talented players such as Alvaro Negredo and Christian Stuani to call upon, and as such they have netted in all but one of their outings this term.

Five of West Ham’s six Premier League games this season have seen at least three goals scored in them, as have four of Middlesbrough’s. This, combined with both teams awful back lines, makes odds of 6/5 for Over 2.5 Goals and Both Teams to Score look a promising bet. I’m going for a high scoring 2-2 correct score prediction at 14/1 as well.