Southampton v West Ham: Noble the sinner against the Saints

As the seconds ticked by it looked increasingly likely that West Ham would pick up a much deserved win over Manchester United at the Boleyn Ground. Then up popped Daley Blind.

With the spectre of ‘Fergie-time’ lingering over the Red Devils, nearly two years since he departed, Louis Van Gaal’s men clawed back a point, to extend the Hammers poor run of one Premier League win in seven games.

Meanwhile, Southampton have been quietly going about their business, a single goal defeat to Swansea their only league loss since mid-December.

But with the hosts fairly short at 3/4 and Sam Allardyce’s 18/5 shots lacking consistency, there are three bets more worthy of your investment.

Both teams to score @ 10/11

Meetings between these two seem to bring out the goalscoring instinct in both sets of players.

Five of the last six head-to-heads have seen both sides find the back of the net, and with the Hammers now failing to keep a clean sheet on the road all season, the main burden will be pinned on the likes of Diafra Sakho and Enner Valencia to keep up their side of the bargain.

• 0-0 at Half-time @ 7/4

While we expect goals in this contest, it’s likely we will be waiting until the second half for the deadlock to be broken.

Only two teams (Chelsea and Manchester United) have scored in the opening 45 minutes at St Mary’s in the Premier League this campaign, Ronald Koeman’s men looking tight at the back.

The east Londoners have also weathered early storms recently, keeping seven straight first-half clean sheets, six of those matches going in at the break goalless.

Mark Noble to score anytime @ 6/1

Although the potency of the aforementioned Sakho and Valencia will shoulder the brunt of the Irons’ attacking threat, history suggests their midfield general is the man to back to get on the scoresheet.

Four of Mark Nobles’s last 10 goals have come against the south coast club, with those coming in his last five matches against them.

He netted in the reverse fixture this campaign and with him likely to be on penalty duty, should the opportunity arise, he’s a big price to strike.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.

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