West Ham United vs. Southampton – English Premier League, May 23, 2021

West Ham will definitely qualify for Europe and finish in sixth if it manages anything but a defeat against Southampton on Sunday.

The Saints will have nothing to play for, so David Moyes will hope that his players can do the business one more time.

West Ham is the odds on favorite to win on Sunday, and, in all honesty, the pricing for this game could be even further apart.

Southampton has rallied since an awful middle part of the season, but West Ham needs the result this weekend.

Although West Ham had lost keeper Lukasz Fabianski in the warm-up for its game against West Brom in the week, it was awarded a penalty within the first minute to give it the best chance of picking up three more valuable points. Declan Rice went on to miss the spot-kick, but the Hammers scored twice in the last ten minutes to keep the European qualification plan on track.

Michail Antonio scored the third in that game and has been a handful for Premier League defenses all season. With Southampton appearing very brittle at the back at times this year, he will eagerly look forward to this fixture. There is a very good midfield unit backing him up as well, so it bodes well for West Ham’s chances.

Southampton could not keep out Leeds on Tuesday and eventually conceded two goals in the last quarter of an hour of the game. But it was an improved effort from the Saints, and at times it had looked as though they might be able to sneak a point against a very impressive opponent.

Ralph Hasenhuttl’s side had actually won its two previous games against Crystal Palace and Fulham by the same 3-1 margin. So he can be happy with the way his team has played in the last month of a season with some very dark days. Che Adams will be the only injury concern for this one after only managing half of the Leeds game.

Southampton has had to deal with a lot this season and almost paid the ultimate price as the campaign went on. There is enough talent in the squad to do much better, although I don’t think it will be a match for West Ham on Sunday.

The Hammers need at least a draw to make sure of European soccer next season; I think they will get easily achieve that.