West Ham Faces QPR as Dortmund Targets Another Win

West Ham will host Queens Park Rangers at the London Stadium in a Championship London derby on Friday, October 9, as domestic league action resumes following the extended international break. Borussia Dortmund also faces Werder Bremen, while matches involving Malaga, Espanyol, Lens, Lyon, Sporting and Braga feature among the weekend's European football fixtures highlighted by talkSPORT. West Ham's attacking performances have strengthened expectations that the club can challenge for the Championship title.

The team recorded a 4-2 victory over Wolves, defeated Derby 3-0 and beat Wrexham 6-0, according to talkSPORT's match preview. Jarrod Bowen, Joel Piroe and Valentin Castellanos give manager Nuno Espirito Santo several attacking options. However, West Ham's defensive record remains a concern, with only two clean sheets across 11 matches in all competitions and 11 goals conceded in eight second-tier league games.

QPR enters the derby unbeaten in four away league matches this season. Rumarn Burrell, Richard Kone, Koki Saito and Kwame Poku provide attacking options for the west London club as it prepares for the short trip to the London Stadium.

Borussia Dortmund will seek to extend its winning run against Werder Bremen after recording six consecutive victories. Niko Kovac's side has beaten Hamburg, Hoffenheim, Paderborn and Stuttgart in the Bundesliga and defeated HEBC Hamburg 5-0 in the German Cup, according to the preview. Dortmund also recorded a 3-2 Champions League victory over Villarreal. Summer arrivals Joey Veerman, Giannis Konstantelias, Konstantinos Karetsas and Ethan Nwaneri have joined a squad that has continued to produce strong results.

Werder Bremen has struggled in its away Bundesliga matches, losing 4-1 to Freiburg before drawing 0-0 against Cologne. The team conceded expected-goals figures of 2.37 and 1.65 in those matches, respectively, according to talkSPORT's analysis. In Spain, Malaga faces pressure to improve after failing to win any of its opening seven La Liga matches. The team generated an expected-goals figure of 0.52 in a 1-0 defeat at Getafe and conceded an expected-goals figure of 3.20 in a 3-1 home loss to Villarreal.

Espanyol is also featured in the Spanish league outlook, with talkSPORT identifying the Barcelona-based club as a potential winner against Malaga. The preview cited Malaga's recent results and limited attacking production as key factors in its assessment. In France, Lens is looking to turn strong performances into results after a series of narrow defeats in Ligue 1.

Lyon has won only one of its previous seven matches against Lens, with the upcoming meeting scheduled for Stade Bollaert-Delelis. In Portugal, Sporting faces an away challenge against Braga as the title race continues. Braga managed only one shot on target in a 0-0 draw against Santa Clara in its most recent match, while Sporting aims to recover points dropped in the domestic championship.