Gianfranco Zola was finally able to add some new striking talent to his squad on the last day of the transfer window as Mido, Benni McCarthy and the little known Brazilian Ilan arrived. These new additions will improve both the morale and options the present West Ham squad have and I expect the new boys to be out to impress at Turf Moor. While the optimism of both the takeover and the new signings spreads around the Hammers fans, the opposite can be said of Burnley’s.

The Clarets enjoyed some excellent results at Turf Moor at the start of the season as their players led by their ambitious young manager Owen Coyle took the step up to the Premier League in style. However, with Coyle now departed, their away form abysmal and the home wins drying up, things are looking desperate for Burnley.

Burnley have now gone 12 league games without a win (7 defeats). They’ve also lost the last four in a row including three under new manager Brian Laws. Poor Brian must be forgetting what it is like to be in charge of a winning side as he has not won a match as a manager in the last 13 attempts.

The Clarets begun the season with four successive home wins but despite only losing two matches at Turf Moor this season, they’ve haven’t won any of their last five (4 draws). If teams don’t pick up points away as Burnley haven’t, then the pressure to win at home grows. If that home form dips then you will soon slide down the table, unfortunately for Burnley that’s exactly what has happened. This weekend offers Burnley a chance to grab three points in what has to be viewed as a relegation 6-pointer.

ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW

West Ham are not in the best of form themselves after winning just one of their last nine (4 defeats). However, they have drawn their last three and with Burnley’s recent home record, this match may well end up the same way. Neither the Clarets nor the Hammers have shown enough in the last few games to suggest they will do enough to take all three points this weekend and I’m confident there won’t be a repeat of the 5-3 goal-fest between these two at Upton Park back in November.

I expect this match to be extremely tight as neither side will want to lose this one as this stage of the season. Both teams will try and play football but with nerves affecting both teams, I am backing a low-scoring draw on Premier 10 with an estimated jackpot of £30,000 to be won this weekend.

Tags: Alan Hansen, Burnley, Football Pools, Premier 10, Premier League, West Ham

This entry was posted on Friday, February 5th, 2010 at 16:17 and is filed under Blog, Home Blogs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.