Relegation rivals West Ham and Wolves meet for the third time this season.
Returning from hammer blow
West Ham need to bounce straight back after their FA Cup heartache last weekend, and what better way to do it than getting a win which would move them out of the relegation zone – even if it might only be for less than 48 hours.
The good news for the Hammers is that they are facing the bottom side, whose miserable season has meant they were seen as relegation certs well before Christmas.
But the bad news is that Wolves have beaten them twice already in 2025-26, and are enjoying something of a late-season renaissance, losing only four of their past 13 matches.
West Ham will take heart from the manner of their FA Cup fightback against Leeds on Sunday, when they scored twice in stoppage time. Scoring late goals was a feature of their cup run – four of their seven goals came after the 90th minute.
However, that's something of a contrast to their league form, where they have dropped more points than any other side in the final 15 minutes of matches.
Letting in goals has been a big problem for West Ham, whose tally of 57 goals conceded exceeds that of their opponents on Friday and is the second-worst in the top flight.
The Hammers have also conceded a joint-division-high 22 goals from set-pieces – although Wolves have only scored nine goals from set-pieces, the joint-lowest total in the Premier League.
Wolves in revival mode
Wolves kicked off 2026 with a 3-0 victory over West Ham – a repeat of that scoreline would see them move off the foot of the table for the first time since August.
It may prove to be a brief stay but moving off the bottom of the top flight is something that looked unlikely even six weeks ago when they suffered their 20th league defeat of the season, and were nine points adrift and still in danger of eclipsing Derby's record for the fewest points in a Premier League campaign.
Two wins and a draw since then have restored some pride to the Old Gold, and they will hope that the 25-day break since their last match has not stopped their momentum.
Avoiding relegation might be a step too far – Opta’s Supercomputer gives them a 99.93% chance of going down – but they look determined to do it fighting every step of the way.
And with none of their remaining seven fixtures against top eight clubs – and four of them against teams in the bottom six – they could have a big say in who might join them should they end up in the Championship next season.
