Staff Predictions – Sunderland v West Ham

West Ham United won a game of football last week, a real cause for celebration! For the first time in seven games the Hammers were victorious as they edged Swansea City 1-0 in a slightly unconvincing win.

Beggars can’t be choosers and that victory has silenced a lot of doubt about the manager and any lingering relegation concerns. West Ham have moved up to 14^th in the Premier League, just one point away from 10^th position. It’s all very tight in the lower mid-table and a win today would do wonders for our final standing in the table.

This week’s opponents are Sunderland, who remain rock-bottom, a team who haven’t scored since 4^th February. Naturally they haven’t won a single game in this stretch. Their players have given up and each week phone-in lazy and lethargic performances.

Make no mistake, this is a must win game for West Ham. A glance at the Hammers’ remaining fixtures rams home the significance of today’s game. I’d much rather go into this stretch of difficult games fresh from back-to-back wins. Dropping points against a soon-to-be-Championship side is unacceptable. West Ham need a convincing win and strong performance to build up confidence ahead of Everton’s visit to London Stadium next week.

With all the writers correctly predicting West Ham’s win against Swansea last week, we have some big changes in the prediction league. It’s starting to heat up at the top in the hunt for the Mystery Prize:

As always, 3 points for a correct scoreline prediction and 1 point for a correct outcome predicted.

Let’s get into this week’s picks:

Tom Atherton

Sunderland 1 - 2 West Ham

Sunderland haven't scored in a handful of games / weeks - cue the West Ham United show.

We played well at the weekend against Swansea, now it's time to continue that momentum into this weekend and bury any thoughts of relegation to the back of our minds.

I think Sunderland will score (Jermaine Defoe) but I'm hoping with the promise Calleri showed last weekend, he'll steal the show in Sunderland.

Andrew Jones

2-1 for West Ham for me

Brian Tenerowicz

2-0 to the Irons.

Sunderland have to have given up hope, and the win over Swansea gives us momentum

Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images

Geo Mackie

2-1 to West Ham

No frills, but a better of two poor sides

Gerry Physio

Score draw - 1 -1

Wallace Milner

West Ham 3-1 Sunderland

West Ham have the upper hand, if only just. After a decent performance against Swansea, and facing a horrific Sunderland side, victory is expected. Anything less than three points would be a severe disappointment.

Shourjya Mookerjee

West Ham 2-1 Sunderland

Photo by Bryn Lennon/Getty Images

Pete Schlenker (HammerPete)

Sunderland are going down and the players don't seem particularly motivated to stop the slide into the Championship. While a road game against teams below them in the table recently has been a challenge for West Ham, this game hopefully sees the team perform more like they did against Southampton and Middlesbrough rather than AFC Bournemouth or Hull City.

West Ham should be flying after the vital win against Swansea, although injury issues may hold the team back.

I'll go with 2-1 Hammers.

With all of the talk of Sunderland being a terrible defensive team, it is worth noting that they have allowed fewer goals than the Hammers have this season. West Ham, believe it or not, is just better at scoring goals than some of the other teams near the bottom of the table.

Me!

3-1 to West Ham

Regardless of the Hammers’ woes, scoring goals hasn’t been an issue, I predict that the team will have some confidence from last week’s win and knock a few past Sunderland.

Having said that, I strongly believe that the Black Cats will end their goal drought, Jermain Defoe loves scoring against West Ham and I expect him to have a good game.