West Ham v Stoke Tip

Two managers who are often maligned for the style their teams play in can point to excellent defensive records as justification for their approaches. With five clean sheets apiece from 11 league outings, that’s the joint-highest in the top flight, prior to this round of fixtures.

A goal-fest looks unlikely and we could cash in by taking a best price 12/5 (StanJames) on there being under 1.5 goals in the match. A closer look at Stoke in particular provides us with a good deal of trend value.

There has been one goal or fewer in six of the Potters’ 11 league games to date. That equates to 54.5% of the time and suggests anything better than evens would be a reasonable price. But the case gets even more compelling because four of the last five Stoke matches would have won us this bet and the evidence is that things are only getting tighter where they are concerned.

The net has hardly been disturbed in recent West Ham fixtures either. Allardyce’s boys come in off a 1-0 victory at Newcastle and a 0-0 with Man City. The hosts will clearly fancy their chances here but Pulis will ensure that his side make it a slog. It could be a 0-0 stalemate, or even the odd goal one way or the other. Either way, the odds look too good to turn down.