Burnley v West Ham: Championship – live
Nuno too makes just the one change from the Carabao Cup, in which West Ham fared better, beating Portsmouth 3-1. Manor Solomon, newly signed from Spurs, comes in to replace Edson Alvarez.
Max Alleyne, who arrived on loan from Man City on Friday, goes straight into the starting line-up as the man in the middle of Burnley’s back three. That’s the only change Nicky Hayen makes from the XI who laboured against Notts County in the Carabao Cup before squeezing through on penalties.
Afternoon everyone and welcome to the Maxwel Cornet derby. Burnley and West Ham have a few other things in common too: a famous old name, a claret-and-blue strip, and a recent fall from grace. Today they meet in the Championship for the first time in 14 years.
West Ham are widely tipped to finish first in the second tier, while Burnley, according to the Opta prediction machine, are more likely to come sixth. But Burnley are the ones who know how to win automatic promotion: they’ve done it the last four times they’ve been in the Championship. And they seem the more stable of the two clubs, with no battles raging in the boardroom.
Then again, West Ham have a manager, Nuno Espirito Santo, who has already marched a team to the top of this arduous division. That was Wolves in 2017-18, and they had spent the previous two seasons languishing in 14th and 15th place.
Burnley’s manager, Nicky Hayen, has spent only six months in British football – in the Cymru Premier with Haverfordwest County (though he has won a league title in Belgium, with Club Brugge). As well as getting used to English football, he needs to end a dismal sequence. If Burnley have a bogey team, it’s West Ham, who have won five and drawn three of the past eight meetings between the sides.
So the Hammers are the favourites today, but not by much, with Burnley on their home Turf. I’ll be back soon with the teams. In the meantime, do join Rob Smyth for the match that may just keep this one off the back pages.
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