West Ham United V Bolton Wanderers Betting: Saturday, 6th March (Premiership)

West Ham United V Bolton Wanderers

Kick-Off: Saturday, 6^th March – 15:00 GMT

West Ham United

League Position: 13th

Recent Form: DLWWL

Since the arrival of David Sullivan & David Gold as West Ham’s new owners, the club has risen from the depths of the Premier League. From looking dark and gloomy in the relegation zone to a more healthier, almost mid-table position. The new owners have dipped into their pockets despite the clubs well known cash-flow problem and Gianfranco Zola has reaped the rewards as West Ham manager, seeing this mixture of new and familiar work to great effect. However, can they continue this fine trend of form in a fixture they look destined to win paper?

West Ham have a five match unbeaten run at home to protect on Saturday, but they aim at the weekend won’t just be to stretch this confidence building home run of theirs but more about attaining all three points on a ground where they’ve recently been quite formidable and against an opponent seriously struggling for results, form and confidence. It’s a funny old sight to see West Ham as a short priced favourite to win any game considering they themselves were a shivering wreck just a mere few months ago. However, that is now the case as West Ham appear to be on the road to redemption as far as avoiding the drop goes, with West Ham now occupying a rather cosy 13^th position in the Premiership table.

Yet another piece of irony is in West Ham’s defence. It was quite clear for everyone to see that January ideally needed some new forward recruitment as this West Ham side, one which had to cope without their star man up front in Carlton Cole for most of the season, needed some fresh blood up front as their fringe crop weren’t making ends meet. The owners rightly recognised the need for strikers and paid good money for them; with Benni McCarthy, Ilan & Mido all being introduced to the West Ham squad during the January transfer window. These new faces have sparked a valiant revival in West Ham’s fortunes, one which has led to a five match unbeaten run and a succession of wins at Upton Park, with West Ham winning on their previous two visits to Upton Park.

However, the most interesting statistic of note is West Ham’s recent superb run of form at the back. An area where West Ham have had problems all season with but did next to nothing in strengthening it during January. Instead, however, the defence aided by England international Matthew Upson has been outstanding of late, especially so at Upton Park. Robert Green, who himself has a point to prove as his starting berth in the England set up is far from a formality after a patchy season to say the least, has gone a little over 420 minutes without conceding a goal at home. That’s a staggering achievement for a goalkeeper which has lacked confidence this season, and for a defence which has generally been drastic on the whole.

West Ham are a team on the up, but this has been aided by some fresh faces, and so, West Ham are currently riding this wave of solid form. However, it will be interesting to see how they cope once a few bad results come their way as it’s hard to weigh up whether or not this West Ham side, after seeing some new recruits join only a month or so ago, is quite as strong a unit as Zola and the board like to think. Results are generally going their way at the moment, and while we don’t expect their demise to start on Saturday there are still reservations over the Hammers in that they aren’t out of the relegation woods just yet in our opinion.

Bolton Wanderers

League Position: 15th

Recent Form: DLDLW

This is a huge game for Owen Coyle and Bolton as ‘winnable’ away fixtures don’t crop up all that often and while this will seem a difficult task it remains one that is plausible. It would take some effort mind to overhaul West Ham on their own turf, and considering Bolton haven’t won an away fixture since the end of September, perhaps we’re giving Bolton far too much credits as they don’t stand a chance in hell judging by the form book.

While the Bolton fans are getting the pretty football they demanded, results, good ones anyway, have been few and far between in Coyle’s brief tenure at the club. However, perhaps their latest victory over Wolves, a 1-0 win at The Reebok, will be the turning point as Bolton aim to drive full-throttle out of the relegation mixer and into Premiership dry land. The problem, however, is Bolton simply don’t know nor remember how to string a set of decent results together and, were they to have the audacity to win on Saturday, Bolton would actually have completed their very first set of back-to-back league wins for the season. In fact, you have to stretch back just over a year for the last time Bolton won back-to-back games in the Premiership, almost a year to the day ironically.

Some would claim Bolton were clinical in their last fixture when winning 1-0 at The Reebok against Wolves. They didn’t create too many clear openings but took the clearest one of them all via a Zak Knight four-yard prod bang on half-time. However, we would claim them as fortunate as their opponents, despite not boasting home support, were slightly the better side in our eyes and created the better chances and should of at least taken one of them. Bolton rode their luck though, something they haven’t had a whole lot of in recent weeks it must be said, but now it’s a time for building so can they go on to secure their first set of back-to-back wins, or will they crumble under this unusual pressure for them.

We would be more inclined to say the latter as Bolton have been nothing short of awful on the road this season. After thirteen away fixtures, Bolton’s away record for the season currently stands in at 2-3-8 with their last away victory coming way back in September. Not only does that feel like decades away but it was also eleven away games ago meaning Bolton haven’t managed an away victory in any of their previous ten away outings. To add to our concern, Bolton haven’t even managed an away goal since the middle of January, a run of four games (365 minutes of away action) without a goal. The tip of the iceberg is they’re facing a West Ham side that hasn’t conceded a goal at home in roughly the same amount of time, so the task arguably no longer feels plausible but more missions impossible.

Match Verdict: West Ham United to WIN – 1.83 Coral

It’s so important that Zola and Clarke get the utmost out of this buoyed West Ham while they’re slap bang in the middle of this solid run of form. We feel they will do so at home to struggling Bolton on Saturday, with the victory for the home side our prediction, one that would be the Hammers third on the trot at Upton Park and enable them to go six home games without defeat. Bolton’s recent league win over lowly Wolves may have lifted the spirit in camp but we seriously doubt whether or not that victory will be enough to drag Bolton out of their away slumber against a West Ham side that has been immense at home in recent games.

Match Odds:

West Ham United – 1.83 Coral

Draw – 3.50 Boylesports

Bolton Wanderers – 5.00 Bet365

SoccerBetting Value Pick: West Ham to Score 3 or More – 3/1 PaddyPower