Brentford Match Preview

West Ham United begin another big week with successive away games, starting this afternoon with a trip to The Gtech Community Stadium to face Brentford in the last London derby of the campaign.

After winning the first-leg of their UEFA Europa Conference League semi-final against AZ Alkmaar just three days ago, the Hammers will want to get a result to make absolutely certain of playing Premier League football next season.

The first game after the Qatar World Cup for the East Londoners was a home encounter against Thomas Frank’s side back on 30 December and although the home fans saw their team fall to a 2-0 defeat, the Irons didn’t have to wait too long to atone for it, as the two teams met again for an Emirates FA Cup third-round tie here just eight days later and the visitors did get their revenge, knocking the Bees out with a 1-0 win.

However, David Moyes’ men have yet to taste top-flight success over Brentford and will be looking for their fourth away win of the season, following triumphs at Aston Villa, as well as newly-promoted Fulham and AFC Bournemouth. Three points here would also be great preparation for the trip to Holland next week.

Moyes may decide to make changes for this game in order to enable him to name a stronger side, as the team look to finish the job in Holland and make it to the UEFA Europa Conference League final.

Michail Antonio sustained a minor injury against AZ Alkmaar on Thursday, meaning that Danny Ings may replace him in the starting line-up should he fail a fitness test. Angelo Ogbonna will also be assessed.

Łukasz Fabiański will return in goal, while names such as Ben Johnson, Flynn Downes, Pablo Fornals, Manuel Lanzini, Maxwel Cornet and Emmerson Palmieri may be handed starts. After scoring in both of his team’s recent matches, Saïd Benrahma will hope to retain his place against his former club, as he looks to continue an impressive individual goalscoring record here.

The match is a 2pm kick-off and the referee is Michael Oliver.