West Ham are set to be part of an enthralling match against Crystal Palace this afternoon.

Both West Ham and Crystal Palace were part of disappointing 2-1 defeats in their opening games of the Premier League season. The Hammers were, on the whole, a bit lacklustre against Aston Villa, but they still could have walked away with a result if they had taken their chances, whereas Palace probably should have beat Brentford but were let down by poor officiating.

With that being said, their matchup today is a really difficult game to predict, both are likely to have changes to their starting XI and both will be looking to build off the positives of their last match.

Usually, the London derby is an entertaining one. Both teams have scored in all of the last 14 encounters between the two sides, with there being a total of 24 goals in the last 4 meetings at Selhurst Park.

Obviously, the Eagles have been an incredible force since Oliver Glasner took over as manager, while West Ham are still waiting for Julen Lopetegui’s style of play to click. In particular, Jean-Phillipe Mateta has thrived as of late, scoring in each of Glasner’s 7 home games.

Unfortunately, there’s plenty of reasons for neither side to be particularly confident about a win. The South Londoners have only won 5 of their past 25 games in August and 1 of their last 15 opening home fixtures of a Premier League campaign.

From an East London perspective, things aren’t much better. They’ve won just 4 of their 20 matches this calendar year, they’ve conceded at least 5 goals in half of their last 8 London derbies, and they have not kept a clean sheet in 19 games – that’s their longest run since 2008. If they do suffer defeat against Palace, they’d break the record for the most times a Premier League side has lost their first 2 games of a season.

However, aside from the fact that they’re usually entertaining encounters, there are a couple of reasons for the Cockneys to be positive ahead of kickoff. Both Jordan Ayew and Joachim Andersen have left Crystal Palace, with Will Hughes also being a doubt. West Ham’s only major concern is Edson Alvarez, although he could very well be back in the squad today.

Hopefully our Irons can take advantage of these Palace absentees and put in a performance that will give themselves, as well as the fans, confidence. Julen Lopetegui has a lot to live up to being the man to replace David Moyes, looking at the fixtures he’s got coming up he could really do with getting some points on the board today.