Sports Blog 13/01/2015: Match Preview – West Ham vs Everton, Tuesday 13th January 2015

After the first attempt led to a 1-1 draw at Goodison Park, West Ham and Everton will be at it again tonight in their FA Cup 3rd round replay at Upton Park.

It’s been a week since these two teams met, and neither saw a reversal of form at the weekend, with the Hammers drawing at Swansea whilst Everton fared slightly better by holding Manchester City 1-1. With the Christmas period seeing West Ham slip to 7th in the league, they are still performing better than the Toffees, who are stuck at 12th after only 1 win in their last 11 games. West Ham, on the other hand, are winless in 5, with three draws on the trot halting the Hammers' fine run of form at the start of the season. 



Despite Sam Allardyce’s comments that he will be playing his strongest XI tonight, both sides will be without key men. A back injury continues to side-line West Ham top scorer Diafra Sakho, whilst Cheikhou Kouyate is in the Senegal squad for the African Cup of Nations, which begins this weekend. Sadly for Robert Martinez, Everton’s list of absentees is a lot longer: Tim Howard, Sylvain Distin, Tony Hibbert, Leon Osman, Darron Gibson and Steven Pienaar are all missing through injury, which has helped contribute to the dismal form the Toffees have found themselves in. 

The victor will face either Doncaster or Bristol City, decided tonight, for what on paper should be an easy path to the next round for one of these two Premier League sides. Andy Carroll has begun to find his feet again in the absence of Sakho, and with 4 goals this season his is fixed odds favourite to score first at 5/1; Stewart Downing is also on 4 at 12/1, whilst Enner Valencia is at 13/2 on 3 goals. Like Carroll, Roman Lukaku has recently regained his form, and Martinez will be keen for him to continue to try and justify his £28 million transfer fee. With 8 goals he is 13/2 to score first, with Kevin Mirallas on 7 and Steven Naismith on 6 both at 17/2.

Considering how disappointing both sides have been recently, due to their marginally better form, and shorter list of injuries, here at Spreadex we have seen movement around a minor Hammers win at a West Ham/Everton Goal Supremacy spread betting quote of 0.1-0.3. And with Carroll and Lukaku both finding form for their respective teams, we are offering a Total Goals spread betting quote 2.6-2.8. Yet if last week’s match is anything to go by, the tonight’s game is going to be tight, and Spreadex is offering a 25-0 spread betting market with a spread of 0.9-2.4 on both West Ham and Everton to win on penalties (makes up at 25 if named team wins on penalties or 0 if named team doesn’t win on penalties).