As 2014 begins to come to a close, the first half of the season is quickly looking like it belongs to the overachievers.

It’s been mentioned a few times on this blog that Southampton have caught everyone by surprise this season. However, they are not alone: West Ham and Swansea have both outshone the likelier candidates to sit in the top seven. As both look to continue their unlikely runs, the two teams clash at Upton Park this Sunday.

In previous years, the thought of a West Ham/Swansea match-up would not have exactly left the neutral’s mouth watering. However, as both of these teams chase Europa League places, they have become a more attractive prospect for football fans. For West Ham manager Sam Allarydyce this is a great relief; calls for him to be sacked in April have been thoroughly answered by West Ham’s current position. Sitting in 5th, the Hammers have scored in 13 of their last 14 games, causing a lot of money from Spreadex clients buying on a Total Goals spread betting quote of 2.4-2.6 for Sunday’s game.

A large part of their forward firepower has come from Diafra Sakho, who has been a revelation for the Hammer’s this season, scoring 7 in 7 before the international break. However since then, a mysterious injury has prevented Sakho playing for West Ham, much to the ire of Big Sam, with West Ham considering action against the Senegalese FA for misconduct. Despite this injury, there is a chance Sakho will play this Sunday, and if he does he could be the difference between the two teams.



With West Ham in 5th, and Swansea in 7th, they are above many teams that are a lot stronger on paper. However, the strong start to the season for both teams has been ignored by our traders at Spreadex, who still fancy the usual suspects to finish in the top 6. West Ham and Swansea are at 8/1 fixed odds betting, whilst Liverpool (4/9), Tottenham (5/4) and Everton (9/4) are still all favoured by our sports traders.

In terms of the game on Sunday, our traders fancy Sakho as favourite to score first at 5/1 on the fixed odds betting, despite the uncertainty of whether he will play. With West Ham going into the game on the back of two wins, the Hammers have the slightly better form, and this has been reflected in our clients placing lot of spread betting Supremacy bets on West Ham/Swansea at a quote of 0.1-0.3. As the betting suggests, if Diafra Sakho plays, he may just give West Ham the edge over the Swans.