West Ham
- West Ham have won one of their last five Premier League games (D2, L2).
- West Ham are 18th in the Premier League with 29 points from 31 games and Wolverhampton are in 20th with 17 points from the same number of matches heading into the early kick-off in Friday’s relegation six-pointer at the London Stadium.
- West Ham are a team in progress after Nuno Espirito Santo took over in late September 2025.
- He has made some recent tweaks to his preferred 4-2-3-1 or 3-4-2-1 shape to add more structure and selective pressing to his team’s play, resulting in a hard-fought 1-1 draw with Manchester City and a narrow 0-1 away win at Fulham.
Wolverhampton
- Wolverhampton have won two, drawn two and lost one of their last five Premier League matches.
- Wolves are a different team now to the one that struggled to string a sequence of positive results together prior to the appointment of Rob Edwards in November 2025.
- Edwards has brought a greater sense of discipline and compactness to the team and set them up to be a tough nut to crack when they defend in a mid-to-low block.
- Matheus Cunha and Pedro Neto add dynamism to the forward line and can be very dangerous in the transition while Rodrigo Gomes, who has scored three times in 15 league appearances, offers pace and a target man’s ability to hold the ball up.
Head-to-Head
- Wolves have never won away at West Ham and this may play on their minds as they look to repeat their recent results against the Irons.
- they head to the home of the side they thumped 3-0 at Molineux three months ago.
West Ham
- Bowen, who has either scored or assisted in all but one of the Londoners’ last four goals, is their talisman with eight goals and three assists in the Premier League this term.
- Lucas Paquetá and James Ward-Prowse bring additional quality and set-piece threat.
Wolverhampton
- Matheus Cunha and Pedro Neto add dynamism to the forward line and can be very dangerous in the transition.
- Rodrigo Gomes, who has scored three times in 15 league appearances, offers pace and a target man’s ability to hold the ball up.
Betting Insights
- Backing both teams to score at 1.73 seems the way to go in this game as Edwards’ team will have to open up at some point against Nuno’s team, which thrives on creating overloads in wide areas and getting their full-backs forward.
- A West Ham win is priced generously at 1.77 and we will take it with both hands.
- Over 2.5 goals is 1.83.
Prediction
- so our belief is that the hosts will edge it in front of their fans, who are fully behind them again.
- but we feel this will be a chess match in midfield and the flanks as Wolves try to control the tempo and keep the ball in the wide areas where they can be dangerous on the counter.
