5. Play Like The Home Side
It might sound like a simple enough point, but West Ham need to play like they are the home side tonight - which is handy, in that they are. Too often, home sides set out to contain their opponents, rather than playing their own game and forcing their opponents to adapt to them: if West Ham set out to try and contain Stoke's physical threat, they may find themselves coming up short, and the teams cancelling one another out. And even more specifically, Stoke are currently suffering an awful run of form away from home - they haven't won in 15 on the road, losing nine of those matches - so it would seem that West Ham have a strong chance tonight based on the lessons of form. So far at home, West Ham have lost just once in the league - to Arsenal - and though that run has only included one particularly testing team in the shape of Man City, who were contained and restricted to a 0-0 draw two weeks ago, Hammers fans should be confident enough that the Boleyn is enough of a fortress so far this term to spur their team onto victory against Stoke.