Fixtures and last season say West Ham too short to beat Southampton

West Ham may look the strongest of the three promoted teams this season so far, but it is a slight surprise that they are odds-on to win at home to Southampton.

The Hammers are 10/11 to secure victory and they are currently seven points better off than their fellow Premier League newcomers.

But nobody can argue that the fixture list has been far kinder to the Hammers, as five of their seven games so far have been against teams currently in the bottom half of the table, with the other two both at home.

This is compared to Southampton, who have only played twice against fellow bottom-half clubs and have already played three of the current top four, alongside Arsenal.

Therefore, Saints may not be as bad as their present league position suggests, with the table masking the easier encounters West Ham have experienced.

Given that Southampton also finished above West Ham last year and took four points off Sam Allardyce’s men, the prices do seem a little skewed.

The fact that West Ham conceded four at home to Wigan in the Capital One Cup and have been held at home by a goal-shy Sunderland, offer further belief that backing the away side may be the smartest move.

Southampton are 3/1 to triumph, while the draw no bet market has the visitors at a tempting 7/4, with stakes refunded if the scores finish level.

It seems that it will be a battle of the target men in the scoring stakes, as both Andy Carroll and Rickie Lambert will be favoured to find the target.

Carroll is the 5/1 favourite to break the deadlock, with Lambert tempting at not only the 6/1 to strike first, but additionally the 2/1 to grab a goal at any time in the 90 minutes.

The big frustration for the Saints is that record signing and obvious playmaker Gaston Ramires has been ruled out by injury.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.