West Ham v Bournemouth: Take on the short-priced hosts

• West Ham shouldn't be so short
• Laying the hosts at odds-on is the way to go
• Good Bet Builder involving corners and goals at 3.5

Hammers gaining momentum

The Hammers started the season really poorly, but things have really picked up over the last few weeks.

Since losing to a struggling Everton away from home, they beat Wolves and Fulham at home, secured a decent draw away at Southampton and beat Anderlecht both home and away in Europe, both times by the single goal. For those keen on an easy home win, the Betfair Exchange offers best value on a 2-0 home win.

West Ham are, however, fresh from losing 1-0 away at Anfield in midweek, though on another day, they could have got a point from the game.

Key to their improvement has been the form of the man who is arguably their most important player in attack, Jarrod Bowen. He did admittedly miss a penalty in that loss at Liverpool but he's been in fine form other than that.

Gianluca Scamacca has also started scoring after taking some time to adapt to a new league and has six goals for the season.

Midfielder Paqueta is out injured.

Cherries much improved after Parker sacking

Bournemouth are another side who have recovered well after a poor start.

They're currently 13th which is a far cry from where they were in the first few weeks of the campaign.

That 9-0 loss at Anfield and the sacking of Scott Parker as manager seem a long way away now.

Since then they've beaten Forest away, beat Leicester at home and drawn with Brentford, Wolves and Fulham.

They were on a six-game unbeaten run until losing to Southampton last week but in addition to improved results, look a far more organised side.

Former Liverpool man Dominic Solanke has been leading the attack well and has come up with goals while Philip Billing is enjoying a more advanced role and has scored three goals of his own.

Hammers way too short

West Ham are 1.68/13 to win the match.

There are good reasons to think that's a price worth opposing.

For starters, Bournemouth enjoy playing West Ham. In their first spell in the Premier League (2015 to 2020) they won more points against them than anyone else, a total of 15. Stat from Opta.

Opta also tell us that Bournemouth are now unbeaten in their last three away matches.

For those who like quirky stats, here's one: West Ham have won their last five Premier League games on a Monday. Never have they achieved that feat on any other day of the week before.

But that little quirk isn't enough to put us off laying the Hammers.

It's worth remembering that the Cherries are actually two points better off than the hosts and as we always say, you need to be a pretty good and highly consistent side to justify an odds-on quote of any description, let alone 1.68/13. So, a lay of West Ham it is.

Unders a tempting prospect

It's quite surprising that under 2.5 goals is as big as 1.910/11.

Just one of West Ham's five home games has gone 'overs' so far this season, that last one against Fulham, which they won 3-1.

It's true that it's a very different story for Bournemouth away games with four out of five going overs but that included matches at Man City and Liverpool, who tend to score a fair few at home.

A further reason why unders rates a decent bet is that Bournemouth are pretty goal-shy. With just 86 shots on goal all season, no-one has had less.

3.5 Bet Builder a good option

Over in the world of Bet Builders, we'll try and find a good one.

We'll kick things off with that 'unders' bet, which in the Sportsbook is a slightly shorter price at 5/6 than on the Exchange, but there really isn't much in it.

And we'll turn to the corners market for the second part of it.

West Ham have only had more corners than their opponents in two of their five home games so far, getting the better of Brighton and Fulham in this regard but getting less corner kicks than Man City, Tottenham and Wolves.

Given Bournemouth have managed more corners in two of their five away matches and you could well argue there's very decent value about the 7/2 the visitors win the market outright.

But this being a Bet Builder, it could pay to go with a more conservative approach. Bournemouth with a +3 handicap is 5/6.

So a straight Bournemouth win on corners, a draw or West Ham getting two more than them would be a winner on this leg in all of those three outcomes.

The double comes to 3.5.