Overview
West Ham's journey to find a ticket to the FA Cup semi-finals for the first time in two decades ended bitterly last weekend. Despite efforts to equalize 2-2 after extra time at the London stadium, Nuno Espirito Santo's team still had to stop before Leeds United after a dramatic penalty shootout.
West Ham also just lost 0-2 to Aston Villa in the most recent round of the Premier League before the international break. This result caused them to drop to 18th place in the standings, just one point behind Tottenham Hotspur in the safe position. Therefore, the upcoming match is of particular importance in the relegation race for them.
John McGinn's opening goal against Aston Villa was West Ham's 17th goal this season conceded from set pieces (excluding penalties) - the worst record in the league. They only conceded more goals in this way in a single season, which was the 2002-2003 season with 18 goals.
However, West Ham's home form has shown signs of improvement. They have only lost 1 of their last 6 matches at London Stadium in the Premier League (1 win, 4 draws), winning 7 points - more than the 9 home matches at the beginning of the season (6 points).
Notably, West Ham is on a 5-match winning streak at home against Wolves in the Premier League. In history, they only have a longer winning streak against Blackburn Rovers, Middlesbrough and Sunderland.
In the opposite direction, Wolves have significantly improved their form after a series of 11 consecutive defeats from mid-October to the end of December. In the last 13 matches, they have only lost 4 (3 wins, 6 draws), and conceded 15 goals - much less than top teams such as Arsenal, Manchester City or Brighton in the same period.
The "Wolves" are currently ranked 9th in terms of form in the last 6 rounds (2 wins, 3 draws, 1 loss), with impressive results such as defeating Aston Villa 2-0, Liverpool 2-1 and drawing Brentford 2-2 away from home.
However, this revival may come too late. Wolves are still at the bottom of the table and are 13 points behind the safe group when the season is only 7 rounds away. However, the schedule is somewhat favorable as they will face many opponents in the bottom half of the table.
Wolves' attack is also showing signs of improvement when scoring 2 goals in each of the last 3 matches in the Premier League (2 wins, 1 draw). In total, these 6 goals are almost equal to the number of goals they scored in the previous 8 matches combined (7 goals). The last time they maintained similar scoring efficiency was from November 2024 with a 5-match streak.
Wolves entered this match with the goal of completing a double victory against West Ham in a season for the first time since the 2019-2020 season. Since 2018, only Southampton (9 matches) has lost to West Ham more than Wolves (8 matches) in the Premier League.
Expected lineup:
West Ham: Hermansen, Wan-Bissaka, Mavropanos, Disasi, Diouf, Fernandes, Magassa, Soucek, Bowen, Pablo, Castellanos.
Sa, Mosquera, S. Bueno, Krejci, Tchatchoua, J. Gomes, Andre, Mane, H. Bueno, Armstrong, Arokodare.
The match between West Ham and Wolves takes place at 2:00 AM on April 11 (Vietnam time).
