West Ham v Wigan 15:00
- West Ham led twice against Manchester United in their mid week fixture, with goals from Ricardo Vaz Te and Mohammed Diame cancelled out twice in a 2-2 draw.
- Winston Reid is one of a number of players to have shone at Upton Park this season, and is in the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index’s top ten defenders for tackles won this season, having won 55.
- Diame has also had a fantastic season, and has attracted praise from pundits and managers alike. Diame has three goals to his name this season, but has excelled in the tackle. Diame passed the 100 tackles attempted mark against Manchester United, and has now attempted 102 tackles winning 58% of them.
- Vaz Te’s goal was his second of the season, to add to four assists. Vaz Te has also completed 208 passes in opposition territory and delivered 20 crosses. He’s an industry best price of 11/4 with 888sport.com to score at any time against Wigan.
- Wigan held Manchester City for 85 minutes at the Etihad in their last game, before succumbing to a 1-0 defeat. Franco di Santo had troubled Joe Hart earlier in the game.
- Despite coming out without a point from Manchester City Shaun Maloney completed 49 passes in the opposition half during the game. That was the second highest from the last round of games, and 10 more than the highest of his Manchester City opponent’s Samir Nasri, who completed 39.
- Maynor Figueroa continues to make a name for himself as one of the Premier League’s more attacking minded full backs. Only David Luiz has had more shots at goal than Figueroa, who has had 33 efforts at goal this season. However, with just 10 of those on target while he may be willing he may need to sharpen up on his accuracy before he can score the sort of goals Luiz scored this week.
- West Ham will need to work hard to break down a stoic Wigan defence. The Latics have two of the most effective defenders in the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index in Gary Caldwell and Ivan Ramis. Ramis has made 193 defensive contributions across tackles, interceptions, clearances and blocks, averaging one every 7 minutes 43 seconds. Caldwell has made 256, averaging one every 7 minutes 54 seconds. Only QPR’s Christopher Samba has intervened in opposition play more frequently this season. Wigan are 3/1 with 888sport.com to keep a clean sheet against West Ham.