Match Preview: West Ham United v Brentford | OneFootball

Brentford return to Premier League action with a trip across the capital to face West Ham United on Saturday 15 February (3pm kick-off GMT).

The Bees lost 2-0 to Tottenham Hotspur at Gtech Community Stadium last time out, while Graham Potter's side were narrowly beaten 2-1 at Chelsea, despite some improved performances under the new Hammers boss.

Analysis, team news, match officials and more. Here's everything you need to know ahead of the Bees’ latest test.

Pre-Match Analysis

Stephen Gillett, Playmaker Stats: The contrasting attacking output of Bees and Hammers

Currently 11th, Brentford travel to London rivals West Ham this Saturday looking to widen the four-point gap that currently separates the Bees from the 15th-placed Hammers in the Premier League table.

With 42 goals scored and the same number conceded, Thomas Frank's side enter the contest as the only team in the top flight with a neutral goal difference.

After a period of relative stability and success under David Moyes during the Scot's second spell at the club, West Ham struggled for results under former Real Madrid boss Julen Lopetegui and they will host the Bees this Saturday with Graham Potter in the dugout.

Potter will be looking to work his magic in east London and, despite winning one of his five games in charge to date, the early signs are that a talented West Ham squad have responded positively since the former Brighton and Chelsea manager was appointed last month.

It is early days in the 49-year-old's West Ham career, but Potter will be looking for improvements across the board from his squad, particularly in attack.

West Ham are currently among the lowest scorers in the Premier League, with 29 goals, and a number of their 2024/25 stats contrast starkly with Brentford's efficiency in front of goal.

The Bees currently have the best shot-on-target percentage (42 per cent) in the top flight, while the Hammers have the lowest (29 per cent), and the two sides' Expected Goals stats are also at loggerheads; there is no Premier League side with a better xG-per-shot than Brentford (0.15) or a worse xG-per-shot than West Ham (0.11).

With Michail Antonio and Niclas Füllkrug recovering from long-term injuries, the Hammers have been reliant on Jarrod Bowen finding the back of the net this season, and the England international (six goals, four assists) is the only West Ham player to reach double figures for Premier League goal involvements this term.

Since joining West Ham, Bowen has been impressively consistent and the forward will take to the stage this Saturday hungry to score his 50th Premier League goal, given he is currently just one short of that milestone.

Some much-needed support for Bowen has arrived in the form of new loan signing Evan Ferguson, who is in line to make his debut against the Bees.

The young Irishman has been unable to establish himself at Brighton this season, but he will be keen to rediscover the form that saw him average a Premier League goal every 158 minutes for his parent club - under Potter - back in the 2022/23 season.

Also available for selection for the Hammers this weekend, after his loan at Nottingham Forest was terminated, is midfielder James Ward-Prowse, whose prowess from free-kicks borders on legendary.

Now 30, the ex-Southampton man has scored the second-highest number of goals from free-kicks in Premier League history, behind only David Beckham!

Currently on 17, Ward-Prowse is just one adrift of the 18 free-kicks scored by Beckham during his time at Manchester United - and the Bees will certainly be aware of the danger the midfield technician poses from set-pieces should he feature.

However, arguably the biggest attacking weapon in West Ham's ranks is forward Mohammed Kudus. The 24-year-old possesses genuine X factor and his fantastic ability in 1v1 situations is underlined by the fact he tops the Premier League this season for successful dribbles, with 59.

Scout Report

Dan Long, Sky Sports: Potter's opportunity to get Hammers supporters on side

After a season when West Ham had secured a third top-half finish in the last four campaigns and allowed David Moyes to leave after the expiry of his contract, whichever side of the Moyes debate Hammers fans were on, most would have expected to see improvement across the board when Julen Lopetegui took over in east London on a two-year contact.

The Spaniard had unfinished business in the Premier League after a 27-game spell at Wolves was ended by mutual consent on 8 August 2023.

"My ambition as a coach is always to be better and better, to achieve more and bigger aims," he said after his appointment at the London Stadium.

The words were impressive and encouraging - as were the signings, which included Max Kilman, Crysencio Summerville and Niclas Füllkrug. But, as it turned out, there was little to back those words up on the pitch.

They lost five of the first 10 - including against Aston Villa, Tottenham and Nottingham Forest, who they would have been hoping to compete with in a bid to return to the top seven positions in the table - and had drifted to just above the relegation zone by December, earning just enough points to get by, but little else.

Having been beaten 5-2 at home by Arsenal on 30 November, West Ham lost 3-1 to struggling Leicester in the following game.

"Today is a day where we deserved much more," Lopetegui told Amazon Prime. "The next will be the most important, we must be focused."

A win against Wolves, successive 1-1 draws against Bournemouth and Brighton, and a 1-0 victory at Southampton followed, but a pair of chastening defeats after Christmas - 5-0 at home to Liverpool and 4-1 away at Man City - forced the hierarchy's hand and, on 8 January, Lopetegui was sacked after just 22 games, seven of which he won.

The club statement that followed was very matter-of-fact. "The first half of the 2024/25 season has not aligned with the club's ambitions and the club has therefore taken action in line with its objectives," it read. "The process of appointing a replacement is underway."

That process was concluded the following day, 9 January, when Graham Potter - who had already been heavily linked with the job - was appointed as his successor on a two-and-a-half-year contract.

"It's a bit like Christmas for adults," the former Chelsea boss said when speaking about his excitement for taking on the new role.

Potter oversaw his first game the next day - a 2-1 FA Cup third-round defeat to Aston Villa - and won his first Premier League game in charge on 14 January, when the Hammers beat Fulham 3-2.

They have since lost to Crystal Palace and Chelsea, as well as drawing away at Villa in between those two games. There is a healthy 10-point cushion between his side and the relegation zone at present, but that could soon narrow without improvement.

The new Hammers boss utilised his contacts at former club Brighton to bring Evan Ferguson in on loan during the January transfer window, which has remedied the issues in attack; with Michail Antonio out for the season and Füllkrug's season disrupted by injury, Danny Ings - who has scored just twice in 44 games since the start of last season - was the only fit recognised no.9 at the club.

There is now little more to play for than league position, but there is an opportunity for Potter to garner favour with the supporters who will be hoping for something greatly contrasting to what they have endured this season in 2025/26.

In The Dugout

Graham Potter

Solihull-born Graham Potter started out at nearby Birmingham and was playing for the Blues' first team by the age of 17 in 1992.

After a loan in the Third Division with Wycombe the following campaign, he moved on to Stoke, but it was not until the 1995/96 season that he earned a regular spot in the Potters' first team.

That year, he helped the club to a fourth-placed finish in the First Division, but they lost 1-0 on aggregate to Leicester in the play-off semi-finals.

Potter's performances at Stoke led to a transfer to Southampton and the Premier League for the first time, where he played on eight occasions.

His time at The Dell was short-lived and, next, he returned to the Midlands to join West Brom, for whom he played 47 times over three-and-a-half seasons.

It was at York that Potter played his most regular football, though, and, between 2000 and 2003, he featured over 100 times for the Minstermen in the Third Division.

Following retirement after a season with Mansfield in 2004/05, Potter explored various avenues within football to expand his knowledge of the game, including completing a degree in social sciences and a master's in leadership, as well as working with the Ghana Women's and the England Universities teams.

He then managed Leeds Carnegie for three years, before taking on the head coach role at Swedish club Östersund.

ÖFK were a fourth-division club when Potter took over but, by the time he left in June 2018, they were in the top flight - and had been for three seasons.

He returned to the UK as Swansea's new manager and, 11 months later, Brighton took him to the Amex as Chris Hughton's successor.

He took the Seagulls up a level and, in his last full season in 2021/22, they set new club records for most Premier League games won, fewest lost, most goals scored, fewest conceded, points earned, as well as finishing in the top half for the first time.

Early on in the 2022/23 season, Potter and his backroom staff moved to Stamford Bridge but, after just over seven months and only 31 games at Chelsea, he was sacked in April 2023

Potter did not return to management until January 9 2025, when he replaced Julen Lopetegui at West Ham.

The Gameplan

With Will Pugh, Sun Sport and co-founder of We Are West Ham podcast

Will Pugh, Sun Sport and co-founder of We Are West Ham podcast, explains how Graham Potter is likely to set up his side against Brentford on Saturday.

"With their strongest team, it is a real coin toss between Łukasz Fabiański and Alphonse Areola," said Pugh.

"They are both really good goalkeepers and they have both been in and out at various points this season, so it is hard to say which one of them will play.

"I imagine it will be Wan-Bissaka, Jean-Clair Todibo, Max Kilman and Emerson if he plays four at the back, then it will be Edson Álvarez if he is fit - he was injured for the last game – and Tomáš Souček in midfield.

"Then I would like to think it would be Jarrod Bowen, probably Mohammed Kudus and Lucas Paquetá - if they are both fit - and then Evan Ferguson up front in a 4-2-3-1.

"I would personally like to see Crysencio Summerville play instead of Kudus, but I do not think he will."

Read the full interview with Will Pugh here.

Match officials

England in charge at London Stadium

Referee: Darren England

Assistants: James Mainwaring and Akil Howson

Fourth Official: Stephen Martin

Video Assistant Referee: Graham Scott

Saturday afternoon's game at London Stadium will be the 12th Premier League fixture that Darren England has taken charge of this term.

The Doncaster-born official - who has also been the man in the middle for four further matches across UEFA Champions League qualifying, Championship, FA Cup and Carabao Cup - last had the whistle for Liverpool's 2-0 win at Bournemouth earlier this month.

He has issued 78 yellows and three reds in 20 games this term.

England is yet to referee Brentford this term, however, he was on VAR duties for the Bees' 2-1 loss at Manchester City in September and away victory over Crystal Palace by the same scoreline last month, the latter of which saw a Bryan Mbeumo penalty retaken due to encroaching from Marc Guéhi.

Memorable Meeting

West Ham 1 Brentford 2 (Premier League, 3 October 2021)

Brentford marked their first-ever visit to London Stadium with a dramatic 2-1 win against West Ham.

Bryan Mbeumo, who had earlier clipped the top of the crossbar with an effort from the edge of the area and headed narrowly wide from the middle of the box, put the west Londoners in front when he slid in on the rebound after Łukasz Fabiański had parried a low shot from Sergi Canós.

Jarrod Bowen drilled home a half-volley with 10 minutes remaining to seemingly snatch a point for the hosts, before Yoane Wissa struck a 95th-minute winner to spark wild scenes amongst the travelling Bees fans.