"Although the Hammers' away record is a mediocre W1 D2 L5, it is worth noting that the vast majority of those games were against top-half teams."
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Back West Ham on Draw No Bet at 2.04Monday 26 December, 15:00
Swansea
With only two wins from his 10 games in charge, Bob Bradley admitted this week that his job could hang on the results of his next two games, first against West Ham and then against Bournemouth on New Year's Eve.
The American coach will be thankful both games are at home after woeful performances by his team on the road, losing 3-1 at West Brom and 3-0 at Middlesbrough in their last two games.
Those results have left them second-bottom, three points from safety, and with only their home form for comfort.
Swansea could have defender Federico Fernandez and midfielder Ki Sung-yueng back from injury after both suffered a broken toe.
The Hammers were overtaken by Swansea and briefly dropped into the relegation zone a fortnight ago, but they have pulled five points clear of danger after a 2-2 draw at Liverpool followed by two hard-fought if not particularly convincing 1-0 home wins over Burnley and Hull.
Slaven Bilic substituted Pedro Obiang and Manuel Lanzini at half-time against Hull, bringing on Edimilson Fernandes and Andre Ayew. With Obiang suspended for this match, he will have to re-jig his starting line-up.
Ayew, purchased from Swansea for £20.5m in the summer, is pushing for a place up front alongside Andy Carroll.
Bilic said several players have knocks but he expects everyone to be available for selection apart from Obiang and Diafra Sakho, who will be out for six to eight weeks after a back operation.
Match OddsSwansea are hanging on thanks to their home form, which has brought back-to-back wins over fellow strugglers Crystal Palace (5-4) and Sunderland (3-0) in their last two games at the Liberty.
Those are the only wins in Bradley's 10 games and there has to be a big doubt over whether they can cope with a better-quality side. Their only other victory this season was away to Burnley on the opening day of the season, which means they have not beaten a team outside the current bottom five.
West Ham are 13th but were in the bottom five not so long ago and the question is whether they are getting back to their true level now, having finished seventh last season, or have merely scraped a couple of narrow wins over struggling teams.
Their performance at Liverpool in their last away match was much more encouraging, especially in the first half, and a repeat of that would cause Swansea problems.
Although the Hammers' away record is a mediocre W1 D2 L5, it is worth noting that the vast majority of those games were against top-half teams. Their only visit to a bottom-half team resulted in a 1-0 win at Crystal Palace in mid-October, which leaves them open to improvement on the road in the second half of the season.
In fact, that improvement may be coming already as the draws on their away record came in their last two games against Manchester United and Liverpool
Draw No BetWest Ham look potential improvers on the road and have a good shot at the win, but the safer way to play at this stage is the Draw No Bet at 2.04.
The lowest-placed team to have beaten them on the road is Everton (ninth) and overall their record against teams below them in the table is W4 D1 L0.
But we have to take into account Swansea's reasonable home form, which has seen them score in six of their eight home games and lose against only one team from outside the top six. That was 0-2 against Hull in their first home match, and before Bradley's arrival.
Over/Under 2.5 GoalsSwansea rank joint-second overall for over 2.5 goals (12 out of 17) and they are in the same position at home (six out of eight). The two lower-scoring games at the Liberty came when the Swans failed to score themselves, so much depends on whether they score.
West Ham are middle-ranking (eight out of 17 over 2.5 goals) but their away games have been higher-scoring (five out of eight over 2.5 goals), which could well be as a result of the strong opponents they have faced.
It is encouraging for the Hammers that they have scored in seven of their eight away games (the only blank was at Everton) and on balance over 2.5 goals looks the best bet at 1.85
Ref WatchAndre Marriner tends towards the higher end of the card count and this season eight of his 12 Premier League games have had 40+ bookings points. His previous game at Swansea this season (the 2-2 draw with Chelsea) had seven yellow cards, while his two matches involving West Ham had four and five.
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