Fulham vs. West Ham United – EPL, February 6, 2021

It’s west versus east in the EPL on Saturday as West Ham makes the short trip across London to take on Fulham at Craven Cottage.

Although the home team has improved recently, the results haven’t really – and it is West Ham that is one of the league’s form teams at the moment.

The bookmakers have West Ham down as the favorite to win this one, but I think I would have probably priced the Hammers as odds on if I were the bookmaker. David Moyes’ side has been playing incredibly well and looks much better than Fulham on the basis of recent results.

Fulham faced a Leicester side in the week that was missing Jamie Vardy, and Scott Parker must have been hoping that the Foxes’ bite would have been nullified by that absence. But his Cottagers had no answer for the invention of James Maddison in midfield and never looked like getting anything from the game.

A big problem was the lack of power up front, where even that particular skillset of Aleksandr Mitrovic went unused. Parker has brought in Josh Maja on loan from Bordeaux for the rest of the season, and he really needs the young French striker to be able to hit the ground running to save Fulham’s season.

But even if Maja does feature on Saturday, West Ham could well be able to deal with him as it has done with a number of top EPL strikers lately. The Hammers were very worthy winners against Aston Villa in midweek and were able to stop the majority of the home side’s attacking moves.

There was also the dream debut performance from Jesse Lingard, who has joined from Manchester United on loan and scored twice in the 3-1 win. If he can contribute as much on a regular basis, it might mean that Michail Antonio will be allowed to concentrate on scoring goals rather than doing everything else for his team.

It seems as though the only reason West Ham is not odds on to win this one is that it is not playing at home on Saturday. But David Moyes’ team has actually won more away from the London Stadium than in it this season – and should be able to add three more points to the total with relative ease at the weekend.