West Ham Vs Ipswich Premier League: Preview, Prediction, Key Players

Julen Lopetegui says he expects to be under pressure after West Ham's recent struggles at home but hopes to put that right against Ipswich Town. (More Football News)

West Ham have won just one of their six Pr༺emier League matches so far, away to Crystal Palace, but have lost all three of their home fixtures, conceding eight goals and scoring twice.

Having failed to win any of their last four in the league, along with a heavy 5-1 defeat to Liverpool in the EFL Cup before lasꦫt week's draw at Brentford, Lopetegui i🔯s coming under a little pressure already.

However, the Spaniard is n🍬ot fazed by that, ex🧔plaining his team are working hard to change their fortunes at the London Stadium.

"Always it's very important to win, and th🍬at's wh🍨y we work hard every day. We want to win for sure," Lopetegui said.

"Ipswich are a good team, and all our though෴ts are on Saturday.

"Our job is to live under pressure, and it is normal because we haven't won at home yet. That's why we are working, to try and win oဣn Saturday again✅st Ipswich."

Meanwhile, the Trac🧔tor Boys are still searching for their firs🎃t win since being promoted back to the top-flight.

There is reason to be optimistic though, as Ipswich have✤🍷 drawn each of their last four outings, including 2-2 against Aston Villa last weekend.

Kieran McKenna is expecting another tough test but꧒ knows his players will sh🅰ow their competitiveness once again.

"I know it is another big gꦜame, another big challenge and one to look forwardﷺ to," McKenna said.

"Let's hope we can make it really competitive. I don't think there [will be] many weeks this year where we are going to blow teams out of the water, so we ne🌟ed to work really, really hard to be competitive.

"We hope we can be really clinical in our execution🧸 when we have our moments and defend their moments well to give ourselves a chance ℱto get a result."

PLAYERS TO WATCH

West Ham – Tomas Soucek

Tomas Souc𝓡ek netted his 29th Premier League goal for West Ham United in their 1-1 draw with Brentford, overtaking Milan Baros (28) into second place for the top Czechia scorers in Premier League𓆉 history.

He is now only behind Patrik ꩲBerger (38 goals), a record he will be keen to start chasing down.

Ipswich Town – Sam Morsy

No player has more Premier League yellow cards this season tha🍬n Ipswich midfielder Sam Morsy (four) and was perhaps lucky not to receive a second against Aston Villa last weekend.

Since his Ipswich league debut in September 2021, only one player has more yellow cards in the league in England's top four tiers than Morsy's total of 40, but given his importance to McKenna's sidไe, the manager will be hoping he can avoid anoth▨er.

MATCH PREDICTION: WEST HAM WIN

West Ham ꦐhave lost just one of their eight Premier League meetings with Ipswich (W3 D4), a 1-0 home loss in March 2001. Their last such meeting was a 3-1 victory for the Hammers in Ma🍌rch 2002.

However, Ipswich won their last two league meetings with West Ham, beating them 1-0 away and🍬 5-1 at home in the 2011-12 Championship ca༒mpaign.

West Ham have lost their three home Premier League games this season, the first time th💙ey have started a season with three home defeats. The Hammers♛ have not suffered four defeats in a row in the top-flight at the London Stadium since the final four home matches of Manuel Pellegrini's reign in November-December 2019.

Indeed, West Hamꦑ have won just five points in their opening six Pr🅺emier League matches this season (W1 D2 L3), the fifth time in the last nine seasons they have had five or fewer points at this stage of the campaign.

Meanwhile, Ipswich are winless in all six Premier League games this season (D2 L4), only once starting a top-🔯flight season with a longer winless start, in 1969-70 (seven games).

OPTA WIN PROBABILITY

West Ham – 51.3%

Draw – 23.8%

Ipswich Town – 24.9%