Mark Lawrenson has made his prediction for the final Premier League game of the season between West Ham and Leicester at the King Power Stadium.
The Hammers are already safe from the drop but will have one eye on their Europa Conference League final in two weeks’ time, while Leicester must win to have any chance of avoiding relegation.
But while making his predictions for Paddy Power (26 May), Lawrenson questioned whether or not David Moyes would rest players or go with a strong team knowing that their place in the cup final team could be up for grabs.
“West Ham could actually go to 43 points with a win which, after all the ‘David Moyes out’ and European final, isn’t too bad,” he said.
“The pressure is on Leicester to win, nothing else will do. West Ham have a couple of weeks until the Europa Conference League final so I think Moysey will go strong and he’ll say to them, ‘You’re playing for your place in the final’.
“I think this might be a draw. Leicester 1-1 West Ham.”
Momentum
Building momentum ahead of the final against Fiorentina is so important but Moyes has to be sure not to get the balance wrong and risk getting injuries.
The likes of Declan Rice, Lucas Paqueta and Kurt Zouma shouldn’t be risked because we all know their place in the team is secured if they’re fit, while the same can probably be said of Michail Antonio and Jarrod Bowen at this point too.
Some players like Vladimir Coufal, Thilo Kehrer, Emerson Palimier and Aaron Cresswell are all competing for their place while players like Pablo Fornals, Said Benrahma and Flynn Downes will hope that a big performance could put them into the manager’s thoughts.
A defeat is unlikely to affect things too much but it’s not the best preparation for a game or the best way to sign off a season, especially in front of travelling fans.
A draw seems like a perfectly reasonable prediction, but Leicester will be pushing for a win and that could also leave us the opportunity to counter them and sneak a win to head to Prague full of confidence.
