West Ham were unfortunate to only take a point against Man United last time out, as Benjamin Sesko equalised in the 96th minute for the visitors. Prior to that, the Hammers secured a 2-0 win against Burnley, in what was a big result at the bottom of the Premier League table. Credit to them, West Ham have shown a lot more resilience since the start of January, and are looking like they might just escape the bottom three. 

Winter signings have had a notable impact - Axel Disasi was able to see out a clean sheet on his debut, while Valentin Castellanos also bagged his first Premier League goal for West Ham in that game. The former Lazio man was on the scoresheet in the previous round of the FA Cup, as he scored in extra time to secure progression for his side (v QPR). Sitting near the bottom of the pile in League One, it seems like a mammoth task for Burton to keep West Ham at bay.

Nuno Espirito Santo opted for a strong XI in the previous round against QPR, which suggests he could go for something similar this weekend.

On paper, Burton look like an easier matchup, considering they are an entire division below QPR. West Ham should look to press home their advantage and dominate proceedings once again. 

However, the Hammers are averaging 11.0 corners per game on the road this season, with their opponents responsible for 6.93 corners. They haven’t been great at limiting chances, and Burton don’t really have anything to lose coming into this one. They will likely be quite direct in their play, looking to get the ball into the box at every available opportunity, so they are more than capable of contributing to the corner count.

It was that result against QPR that kick-started West Ham’s resurgence. Prior to that, the Hammers had taken just four points from their previous 10 league matches, and their situation was looking dire. However, they have since only lost once in their five league matches. 

Crysencio Summerville was the catalyst in that game against QPR, as he opened the scoring for his side, before then providing the assist for Castellanos to score the winner. Summerville comes into this clash in exceptional form, having scored in five of his last six matches across all competitions, and this matchup against Burton looks like the easiest of the lot. 

The winger found plenty of success against QPR, registering four shots in regular time, with two hitting the target. To highlight his importance, he also played through the entirety of extra time, during which he added another shot on target.

When there is a big disparity between squad quality, strikers for the underdogs are often left feeding on scraps and, therefore, end up making frustrated fouls. Tyrese Shade looks to have a decent enough record to be that striker for us, with his record of 1.06 fouls per 90 across all competitions and 11 offences across his last eight starts.

West Ham may choose to rest players for this fixture; however, Shade is likely to be opposing any two from Max Kilman, Axel Disasi and Konstantinos Mavropanos, all of whom can mix it physically. Across the Hammers’ last six games, opposition strikers have committed eight fouls, and Shade seems to have the data to add more fouls to that list.