Millwall Match Preview

West Ham United only won two London derbies last season but on Saturday afternoon, the team face the one that really matters to the fans as they travel to The New Den to take on bitter rivals Millwall.

Since the defeat to Charlton Athletic in their first home league game back on 22 August, the Hammers have gone seven games unbeaten which has lifted them to the top of the table and thanks to Millwall’s ability to lose a two-goal advantage away at Middlesbrough on Tuesday night, they remain in top spot ahead of this game. How the ever-loyal fan base would love to go into the first international break of the season having gone clear at the top, as well as beating their fierce rivals.

Having finished the 2025/26 campaign so strongly in third position, only to subsequently miss out on a place in the play-off final, Alex Neil’s side have had mixed results at the start of the new term, hence why they go into this game occupying eleventh place in the current Sky Bet Championship standings and after the Irons inflicted a first away defeat of the season on Wrexham in their last league outing eight days earlier, then those who have followed their team here would love to take maximum points back to Stratford with them.

The two teams will be able to take a well-earned break after this clash, as both have played a remarkable six games this month ahead of the extended break for internationals.

Following that emphatic triumph at home to Phil Parkinson’s side, the West Ham fans returned to Stratford on Tuesday to see their team narrowly beaten 3-2 by Premier League outfit Fulham to end their run in this season’s Carabao Cup.

Due to the Irons and the Lions having played earlier this week, both teams have had the same amount of preparation time so it will be interesting to see who has the mental strength to win out here.

Nuno Espírito Santo made five changes for the game against Álvaro Arbeloa’s Cottagers and is likely to rotate again here. Oliver Scarles, Joël Piroe, Manor Solomon and Valentín Castellanos are all set to return to the starting line-up. Mads Hermansen is also likely to return to goal in place of Finlay Herrick.

The match is a 12:30pm kick-off and there are two television channels providing coverage of the game as it will be shown live by both Sky Sports and ITV. Coverage on Sky starts at 11:30am, whereas terrestrial viewers will be tuning in from midday. The referee is Paul Tierney.