Desperation meets ambition at the London Stadium in the early Saturday kick-off as West Ham fight for survival and Sunderland chase European dreams. The match is crucial for both sides; West Ham are fighting to escape the relegation zone, while Sunderland, newly promoted, are pushing for European qualification.
West Ham sit in 18th place in the league on 17 points, five points adrift of safety, which effectively could be six with our inferior goal difference. With just 16 games of the season left, closing the gap on 17th place quickly is important if we are to have any chance of avoiding the drop.
We ended a 10-game winless run with a 2-1 victory at Tottenham last weekend and also won against QPR in the FA Cup. But we have only one win in the last six home games; and we have conceded in 16 consecutive league home matches (going back into last season) and have no clean sheet in the last 19 Premier League games, conceding 44 goals this season, the worst defensive record in the Premier League.
In fact if you had visited the London Stadium to watch every game for the last one and a half seasons you would have only seen two games where the opposition failed to score a goal, a 0-0 draw against Everton in November 2024 and a 2-0 win over Leicester in February 2025 (our last home league clean sheet!). Surely we cannot go a whole year without keeping a clean sheet at home!
If you go back to the campaign before last (2023-24) we actually kept four clean sheets in the season! If you are looking for any kind of omen in that season we kept three clean sheets in a row either side of Christmas at the London Stadium just a few days after a 2-1 victory at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Do you think we can do it again? No, nor do I. But can our defence finally lock the door, or will Sunderland find the spare key?
Sunderland have defied pre-season expectations and currently sit in 9th place on 33 points. They beat Crystal Palace 2-1 last weekend, ending a five-match winless run, and also progressed in the FA Cup. However they are winless in their last six away games and have struggled to score on the road. They have been solid defensively with the third-fewest goals conceded in the league, but they have not kept a clean sheet in four games.
We are desperate for points to escape the relegation zone. Our recent last minute win at Spurs has lifted spirits, but defensive frailties remain a major concern. Newly promoted Sunderland have exceeded expectations and are pushing for European qualification. However, their away form is a worry for them.
We can expect a tense, hard-fought encounter with goals at both ends. The most likely outcomes are a draw or a narrow win for either side, with Sunderland’s away struggles and West Ham’s defensive issues perhaps balancing the scales. Head to head we have lost just one of our last 12 Premier League home games against Sunderland, winning nine and drawing two, going down 3-0 in May 2011. We’ve won our last three all by the same 1-0 scoreline. But a fourth in a row would seem unlikely as we don’t keep clean sheets. But I’m hoping …. I’ve made a big play on our inability to not concede in this article and I’m desperately hoping to be proved wrong.
Sunderland are looking to complete the Premier League double over us for just the second time, previously doing so in 2010-11 when we were relegated. But our record at the London Stadium against promoted sides is very good, winning 16 of the last 21, drawing four. We haven’t actually lost at home to a promoted side for over four years, the last one was a 2-1 loss to Brentford in October 2021.
I’ve just got a feeling that maybe, just maybe, we are going to pick up three points again with a 1-0 or 2-0 victory. What are the chances of a Black Cat-astrophe for our visitors?
Under The Hammers 