Sky Sports pundit Paul Merson has predicted that West Ham United’s poor away form will continue on Saturday when they face West Bromwich Albion at the Hawthorns.
The Irons played their first three Premier League fixtures of the season away from home due to the 2017 World Athletics Championships being held at their London Stadium home, and they lost all three.
A 4-0 defeat against Manchester United was followed up with 3-2 and 3-0 reverses against Southampton and Newcastle United respectively to increase the pressure on manager Slaven Bilic.
However, they responded in the best possible fashion in east London when they hosted newly-promoted Huddersfield Town on Monday night, sealing a 2-0 win with Pedro Obiang and Andre Ayew scoring the goals.
Andy Carroll made his first appearance of the campaign against the Terries after recovering from injury and he proved to be a thorn in the side of the visitors’ defence throughout.
Meanwhile, it has been a mixed start to the season for the Baggies as they followed up successive 1-0 wins against Bournemouth and Burnley with a 1-1 draw against Stoke City and a 3-1 defeat to Brighton and Hove Albion last time out.
Tony Pulis would have been particularly disappointed with the latter seeing as his teams are known for their defensive nous, and Merson believes that the likes of Jonny Evans, Ahmed Hegazi and Craig Dawson will cope with the aerial threat that Carroll will bring for the visitors.
The 49-year-old said: “West Brom were poor against Brighton, it was like they thought they would just turn up and not lose, but they were bad until they went 3-0 down, then they had a go.
“West Ham got a good result on Monday, but a lot for them depends on Andy Carroll. I think West Brom have the players who could cope with him.”
