Mark Lawrenson has once again predicted a defeat for West Ham this weekend as the Hammers travel to Burnley on Bank Holiday Monday night.
Despite defying the odds for much of the campaign, by his own admission previously Lawrenson has been one of the detractors of David Moyes‘ side – regularly predicted an alarming bursting of a bubble.
Instead, for the most part, the Irons have proven the former Liverpool defender to be wildly inaccurate, albeit a recent prediction that West Ham would lose to Newcastle United proved to be on the money.
This time in his BBC Sport column, Lawrenson has predicted Moyes’ men to go down 2-0 at the hands of Sean Dyche’s Burnley at Turf Moor, in that would be a crushing blow to the Hammers’ top-four chances.
What a fabulous result Burnley got last weekend, beating Wolves 4-0. The Clarets were never going to get relegated but they needed a response after losing three in a row and it was typical of their manager Sean Dyche to deliver one like that. West Ham, meanwhile, are just starting to falter after losing their past two games. Without injured duo Declan Rice and Michail Antonio, I think they might struggle to get back on track at Turf Moor.
The last time the two sides met it was West Ham who came away with all three points thanks to an early goal from the now-absence Antonio.
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Moyes will know only wins from here on in will suffice as the battle to finish fourth intensifies.
Third-placed Leicester City could all but secure their place inside the top-four with a win at Southampton tonight, whilst Liverpool face a difficult trip to Manchester United and Chelsea take on a relegation-doomed Fulham.
Whilst West Ham’s season moreover would lend itself to a win on Monday – fitness concerns over Antonio, Rice, Cresswell and Jesse Lingard will mean it’s no straight forward task.
