Head-to-head: West Ham United vs Wolverhampton Wanderers

West ham and Wolves will go to battle this Sunday in our pick for matchday 27's feature game. Both sides will be looking for the win as both are well in the fight for fourth place.

West Ham United vs Wolverhampton Wanderers is the pick for the headline game for the weekend. It's a big six-pointer, with both sides wanting the win to keep pushing for the fourth and final guaranteed Champions League spot in the table.

West Ham are in sixth place on 42 points, while Wolves are one place behind on 40 points. So, a win for Wolves would move them ahead of West Ham by one point. But a win for West Ham would push them ahead by five points and would also see them take fifth place from Arsenal, as they both will be on 45 points, but West Ham will have a superior goal difference.

Picking a winner from the two is a challenging task. But to aid it, we have here a list of seven stats that should help aid the decision. This list will also help if you’re picking out some markets for the game if you’re interested in making some money.

Goals scored 

West Ham: 45 

Wolves: 24 

West Ham take a big win in this category, with almost double the number of goals scored this season than Wolves.

The Hammers have been strong this year, beating Liverpool and Chelsea earlier in the season. They were on attack mode for much of the first half of the season, which saw them pick up good wins and had them solidly sitting fourth some time. Some people even had them as dark horse title contenders.

Wolves, on the other hand, have been happy with more reserved, lower-scoring games. The most goals they have scored in a game this year so far has been three, doing so on only two occasions.

However, they have been one of the best defensive teams this season. They rank number three for least goals conceded and are fifth for most tackles plus interceptions.

West Ham’s top scorers are Michael Antonio and Jarrod Bowen on eight goals each. For Wolves, their top scorers are Hwang Hee-chan and Raul Jiminez on five goals.

Expected goals per 90 mins 

West Ham: 1.36 

Wolves: 0.99 

Again, this stat displays the difference between the two sides this season.

West Ham rank eighth in the league for expected goals per 90 minutes, while Wolves are much further down in 17th.

What's more, West Ham actually exceed their expected goals per 90 minutes. They’re rate for actual goals per 90 minutes is at 1.65, which is joint fourth best in the league.

For Wolves, it's even worse reading, as their actual goals per 90 minutes is 0.92, which then lowers them to 18th in the league for that stat.

Shots total per 90 mins 

West Ham: 12.58 

Wolves: 10.24 

Another stat to show how unremarkable Wolves have been offensively this year, their 10.24 total shots per game is only better than one team - Norwich, who are at the bottom of the table.

It's a different story yet again for West Ham, who are eighth in the league for this stat. Their total shots taken this year has them in seventh, too.

Shots on target per 90 mins 

West Ham: 4.00 

Wolves: 3.40 

And once more with the open-play shooting. While it doesn’t seem like that big a gap, West Ham are six places above Wolves in the rankings for this stat.

West Ham are dead centre in the middle this time, sitting at 10th. While Wolves are once again towards the bottom at 16th.

With their offensive stats ranking them towards the bottom each time, you’d think they would be fighting the relegation battle this year. But you can’t sleep on their defensive efforts.

Penalties attempted & made 

West Ham: 5 attempts, 3 made 

Wolves: 1 attempt, 1 made 

Wolves joins Newcastle United as the only two teams to have only been given one penalty so far this season. It's not the worst, though. Burnley haven’t been given a single one yet. 

And this is the first time they boast a better record than West Ham, because they have at least converted all their penalties.

Yellow & red cards 

West Ham: 37 yellows, 2 reds 

Wolves: 45 yellows, 1 red 

Sometimes, a yellow card or two is needed. Maybe it's to stop an attack, or maybe you’re wasting time to get the result.

Both sides aren’t among the worst offenders for yellow cards this season. Wolves are 10th in the league rankings, while West Ham rank 17th, with only Manchester City, Liverpool and Leicester City with less than them.

Red cards are a different story. You’ve got to do something bad for one of them.

Both sides have seen red from two yellow cards in a game. But unfortunately for West ham, this time they do rank amongst the worst offenders.

Three teams have been given two red cards this season; West Ham, Arsenal, and Watford.

Corners per game 

West Ham: 5.54 

Wolves: 4.44 

The final stat to help tell the story, this one has been worked out by taking the number of corners each team has won this year and dividing it with the amount of games played to figure out their number of corners per game.

West Ham have won the fourth-most corners in the league this season, with 144. Wolves again rank towards the bottom with 111 corners won. 

But don’t forget, Wolves are a strong defensive team but not-so-strong attacking. You’d be better off looking at West Ham on the most corners market.