Prediction & odds for the game: West Ham (21/10) v Aston Villa (23/20)

When: Sunday, 26th July @ 4pm K.O

Where: London Stadium

The race for survival comes down to the final day as Aston Villa prepare to take on West Ham United with their top flight status at stake.

West Ham

While David Moyes is hardly considered to be the messiah in East London, he has been able to help guide this club away from the relegation battle for another year. The big question now will be whether or not he’s given the chance to build a squad in his own vision this summer, especially when you consider the quick turnaround before we dive straight back into another campaign in September. Either way, Hammers fans can sit back and relax on the final day – which is a commodity they probably didn’t think they’d have just a few weeks ago.

They may have lost to Tottenham back in late June and Burnley in early July, aside from that, West Ham have secured the results they needed to drag themselves away from the relegation battle. They beat Chelsea, Norwich and Watford in a two-week period, whilst also securing a vital point against Newcastle United.

Aston Villa

For a long time it seemed as if Aston Villa were dead and buried in the push for Premier League safety, but now, they know what they have to do in order to stay in the dance. Dean Smith has overseen a difficult period for the club in recent months, but through the shadows comes hope – and heading into this game, many will believe they have no real reason to be fearful. If they can pick up the three points at London Stadium, they’ll have kept up their side of the deal, and that’s all you can really ask for.

Losing to Wolves, Liverpool and Manchester United, without even scoring a single goal, was rough for Villa fans – but against Crystal Palace, they bounced back with crucial 2-0 win. They proceeded to pick up a point against Everton after conceding a late equaliser before securing their biggest win of the season so far against Arsenal.

Conclusion

This is going to be an incredibly tense game of football, and while West Ham will be far more relaxed, we don’t think that’s going to give them all too much of an advantage. These two teams aren’t all that far apart in terms of quality, and on their day, they’re capable of putting in either a great performance or a shoddy one. We think it’s probably going to be the latter, with both clubs going through the motions before a draw confirms Villa’s survival – as long as Watford don’t beat Arsenal.

Courtesy of our description of how we think the game will play out, we’re going to be backing the under 2.5 goals market.

Verdict: Back the draw at odds of 13/5 and the under 2.5 goals scored at odds of 6/5. (All odds are taken from bet365).

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You can bet on the highly anticipated West Ham vs Aston Villa clash at the betting page, or you could choose one of the other games this week on the soccer predictions page.