West Ham supporters expect away win

Over 58% of Claret and Hugh readers polled yesterday expect a West Ham away win tomorrow on the South Coast at St Mary’s.

Over 34% of supporters believe it will finish in a draw while the remaining 8% say Southampton will come away the victors of Thursday evening’s televised match.

Bookies currently make the Saints the 5/4 favourites with a West Ham win priced at 11/5 and the draw 5/2

The two clubs first played each other in December 1899, West Ham have 75 games, Southampton has won 50 with 46 games drawn.BBC pundit

BBC pundit Mark Lawrenson is predicting back to back losses for West Ham losing 2-0 to Southampton.

Sky Pundit Paul Merson predicts a 2-2 draw telling the Sky Sports Website “This should be a good game. West Ham were flying along before losing to Watford, while Southampton are showing you when you run around and work hard, like Man Utd did, they all have the talent and it is amazing what happens. They now have a bit of confidence and are all working hard but, despite losing on Saturday, West Ham are also a decent team, so I am going to go for 2-2 here.”Southampton have only lost one of their previous nine home league games against West Ham (W4 D4), with that lone defeat coming in February 2017 (1-3).

West Ham are looking to win back-to-back games against Southampton in the Premier League for the first time since October 2001 (a run of four wins).After winning their first ever away game at Southampton in the Premier League (2-0 in November 1993), West Ham have won just two of 15 such games since (D6 L7).

This match between Southampton and West Ham United will be the ninth Premier League match played on a Thursday since the start of 2016/17 – none of the previous eight have been won by the side playing at home (W0 D4 L4).

Charlie Austin has never scored a Premier League goal on a Thursday (two games) but has scored on every other day of the week during his Premier League career. Should he score in his match, he’d be the 26th different player to score on every day of the week in the Premier League.