West Ham prepare to host Brighton in WSL clash

West Ham host Brighton at 12pm on Sunday 8^th February with hopes of stretching away from the relegation zone of which they currently sit only one point above. The match will be broadcasted on Sky Sports+ as well was the WSL YouTube account for fans to watch. 

📸via brightonandhovealbion.com

Form analysis: 

The home team come into this fixture with only two wins from their last five, the same form as the away team, Brighton. West Ham’s most recent loss came against Tottenham, after the Hammers lose their early 1-0 lead to two goals from Spurs in the second half. Brighton’s latest lost also was the result of two second half goals from the opposition (London City Lionesses) after Brighton went 1- up within the first 25 minutes. For West Ham, they have conceded 13 goals in their last five matches, compared to Brighton conceding only seven in the same amount of fixtures.

Despite having the same amount of wins and loses in this time period the amount o goals conceded make it hard to miss that West Ham have some defensive issues and struggled, especially against top teams like Chelsea and Manchester City where they lost 5-0 ad 5-1 respectively (with Brighton losing to Chelsea 3-0 in comparison). Although struggling with conceding goals, West Ham have scored seven goals in their last five games, two more than Brighton, suggesting a potentially stronger line of attack than the Seagulls.

Despite this, West Ham will have to up their attacking threat, with Brighton goalkeeper Nnadozie ranked 3^rd in saves per match in the WSL with an average of 3.7 [Source: FotMob].  

Head to head: 

In the WSL, Brighton have nine wins over West Ham, with West Ham taking five wins (and one draw). Their most recent matchup in the WSL was at the start of the season where Brighton beat West Ham 4-1, despite the possession being 48/52% in favour of Brighton. However, when West Ham hosted Brighton in the Women’s League Cup in October, they beat the coastal team 2-1, demonstrating the power of the home turf and increased fan support, as the Hammers also beat Brighton 3-1 at home in February last season.

Despite Brighton being just under ten points ahead of West Ham, this game could still go either way with West Ham fighting to say in the league and Brighton hoping to take sixth place.