West Ham United v Charlton Athletic
With their unbeaten record in London derbies having evaporated with their defeat to Arsenal on Monday, the hype surrounding Charlton's visit to Upton Park is unlikely to focus on their record in the capital. That's a shame - of the six London clubs, the Addicks still have the upper hand in terms of round-robin results.
That may well be a thought on the minds of the Hammers as they bid to increase their own London points tally to 11 in eight matches. Thankfully for Glenn Roeder's side they were not one of the Addicks earlier scalps, although they came close - their 4-4 draw at the Valley back in November is one of the games of the season and certainly could have gone in favour of either team.
But a draw was a fair result in the end, and should the two clubs finish on around the same number of points in mid-table as seems likely it will be no great surprise. Since West Ham won at home to Derby on Boxing Day neither club has been in the bottom six, but neither have been in the top six at any point in the campaign.
West Ham may have the comfort of two extra points in the bag but the Addicks have the tidier record of the two overall. The Hammers have scored four extra goals in the Premiership, having taken a slightly-better-than-Charlton 11% of their chances.
However, the visitors have leaked fewer goals by a margin of nine, and rudimentary mathematics will tell you that this gives Alan Curbishley's side an advantage of five in the 'Goal Difference' column of the league table. But points are what count of course, as any smug Hammer will be happy to tell you.
In terms of points yet to be won neither seems to have any particular advantage, as each have to travel to the homes of two of the Premiership's top four clubs in their remaining matches. Both Charlton and West Ham, for example, face the daunting task of a trip to St James Park.
But perhaps crucially, at least for pride's sake (each of the London clubs wants to finish above the other five, natch), West Ham at present have a game in hand.
In one area the home side may look to press home a statistical plus over their visitors. The Hammers have passed the ball with more precision than Charlton, having found a colleague with 74% of their attempts compared to their opponents' 70%. If they cannot press this home at the weekend it could be a frustrating afternoon for the Boleyn Ground's bubble-blowers.
One thing at least seems certain - a repeat of last year's 5-0 thrashing for Charlton at the hands of their hosts seems unlikely on current form. Indeed, your correspondent's unofficial prediction for this one would be a 9/4 draw - so off to surreySPORTS with you.
Chris Green.
Match referee: M. Riley
Not a man to shy away from the red card side of refereeing, Mike Riley takes charge of this London encounter looking not to increase his tally to 20 in English football since the start of the season. It will be his second visit to Upton Park this term - the first, for the visit of Arsenal, apparently called for the brandishing of seven yellow cards in total.
Referee's Name FoulsPenaltiesYellow CardsRed CardsAve
Disc pointsM. Riley 529 6 66 9 53.27
PLAYER HEAD-TO-HEAD
click below for in-depth comparisonDefoe v Johansson
TEAM NEWS
Veteran left-back Nigel Winterburn is set to return to the Hammers' line-up in place of Vladimir Labant.
The Slovakian jarred his back in the Easter Monday win at Fulham, but he is Glenn Roeder's only injury worry.
Paolo Di Canio is named in the squad despite his much-publicised criticism of Roeder this week following his substitution at Craven Cottage.
MATCH BETTING
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Match Result
West Ham 10/11
Draw 9/4
Charlton 5/2
Correct Score
West Ham 1-0 6/1
West Ham 2-0 7/1
West Ham 2-1 7/1
West Ham 3-0 14/1
West Ham 3-1 14/1
West Ham 3-2 25/1
West Ham 4-0 40/1
West Ham 4-1 33/1
West Ham 4-2 50/1
West Ham 5-0 100/1
West Ham 5-1 100/1
Draw 0-0 8/1
Draw 1-1 11/2
Draw 2-2 14/1
Draw 3-3 50/1
Charlton 1-0 8/1
Charlton 2-0 14/1
Charlton 2-1 12/1
Charlton 3-0 40/1
Charlton 3-1 33/1
Charlton 3-2 33/1
Charlton 4-0 100/1
Charlton 4-1 100/1
Charlton 4-2 100/1
Double Result
West Ham/West Ham 9/4
West Ham/Draw 16/1
West Ham/Charlton 33/1
Draw/West Ham 7/2
Draw/Draw 7/2
Draw/Charlton 13/2
Charlton/West Ham 25/1
Charlton/Draw 16/1
Charlton/Charlton 11/2
First Goalscorer
F Kanoute 9/2
P Di Canio 5/1
J Defoe 5/1
R Garcia 7/1
P Kitson 7/1
T Sinclair 12/1
J Cole 12/1
M Carrick 14/1
L Courtois 16/1
J Moncur 20/1
S Lomas 20/1
I Pearce 33/1
V Labant 33/1
S Schmemel 33/1
C Dailly 40/1
S Minto 40/1
H Foxe 40/1
T Repka 40/1
N Winterburn 50/1
No Goalscorer 8/1
J Johansson 13/2
J Euell 13/2
M Svensson 7/1
S Bartlett 15/2
K Lisbie 8/1
G Stuart 12/1
C Jensen 14/1
C Bart-Williams 14/1
M Kinsella 16/1
S Parker 16/1
J Robinson 20/1
P Konchesky 33/1
L Young 33/1
J Costa 40/1
M Fish 40/1
J Fortune 50/1
S Brown 50/1
C Powell 50/1
R Rufus 66/1
For all these bets + much more go now to surreySPORTS.co.uk
By Road:
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