West Ham are like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are gonna get

This isn’t the first time I’ve used a slight distortion of a famous quote from Forrest Gump ‘My mama always said life was like a box of chocolates’. The same is true if you follow West Ham. You never know what you are going to get from one season to the next, from one game to the next, and even from the first half of a game to the second half.

We came into the EFL Cup game on Wednesday night on the back of a three match losing run, and were tamely beaten by lowly Everton last Sunday. What a contrast when we faced high-flying Arsenal, albeit with some of their star players such as Saka, Odegaard, Martinelli, and of course the returning Rice warming the bench.

It was not the return to the London Stadium that our last captain would have imagined for his first time back. The Arsenal manager Arteta paid the price of believing that some of his fringe players would be too good for West Ham. Perhaps he’d been lulled into a false sense of security by watching our woeful performance against the Toffeemen just three days beforehand. He, and the 62,000 in the stadium and those watching at home, didn’t expect a Hammers performance that would be a night to remember. We’ve had lost of memorable games in the League Cup in the past, perhaps the 7-0 demolition of a strong Leeds side in 1966 being the pick, but this was most enjoyable too.

Personally I was saddened a little by the booing of our former captain, but everyone is entitled to express their opinion, even if there may have been an element of sheep mentality. The £105 million that we received from Arsenal has enabled us to add some excellent players to the ranks in Kudus, Alvarez and Ward Prowse. In addition to Paqueta and Bowen we have a group of footballers who excite me. I love to watch them, and all apart from the former Southampton captain, who was given a rest until the final 10 minutes of the game, turned it on against the Gunners. It was a far cry form the boring spectacle we had witnessed against Everton.

Kudus was my man of the match, closely followed by Paqueta, Alvarez and Bowen, all worthy of at least 8 out of 10 on the night. In fact I thought that the whole team had good games. In some ways I was surprised by the selection of Paqueta and Alvarez given that they are suspended for the game at Brentford.

We were perhaps fortunate that there was no VAR to intervene when White headed the ball into his own net after quarter of an hour, as Soucek could be clearly seen pulling Ramsdale’s shirt. But I guess so much of that goes on in penalty areas week in and week out.

The move and goal of the night involved an exquisite diagonal long range crossfield pass from Aguerd to Kudus, followed by excellent control before firing the ball into the bottom corner. Bowen added a third and even West Ham fans could then begin to relax a little (but not entirely given our history – remember the game against Arsenal a couple of seasons ago?). Odegaard pulled one back in the 96^th minute but by then it didn’t matter.

With just a couple of days rest the attention turns to a visit to the Brentford Community Stadium on Saturday. Brentford are now in their third season in the Premier League, with an excellent manager in Thomas Frank leading them to 13^th and 9^th placed finishes in their first two campaigns. In a way they are a bit like Brighton in that they seem to be a bogey team in recent times. We finally beat Brighton this season at the eleventh attempt in the league and hopefully it won’t take us that long to secure a victory over Brentford.

We did win there in the FA Cup last season, but the four Premier League matches between the two sides have resulted in four Brentford wins. In each of the four games they scored two goals, whereas we have only managed to score once (in the four games combined) when Jarrod Bowen scored in the 2-1 defeat, the first time we played them in the Premier League in October 2021.

In two of those victories the Brentford goals were scored by Mbuemo and Wissa, two mainstays of my Fantasy Football team this season, who continue to be a threat. In fact Mbuemo has scored three goals against us in those four games so he enjoys playing against West Ham it would seem. Let’s hope he doesn’t do a Calvert-Lewin this weekend.

Both ourselves and Brentford have made similar starts to the season; we are ninth on 14 points whereas Brentford are tenth on 13. Both teams have scored 16 goals in the ten games played, but Brentford have only conceded 12 compared to our 17.

If the pattern of recent meetings is followed then Brentford will score twice and win the game. But a lot will depend on what West Ham team turns up. If we perform like we did against Everton then a defeat will be the most likely outcome. If we can replicate the Arsenal performance then the outcome might be different. West Ham are definitely like a box of chocolates; you never know what you are going to get. That is so often the case from one game to the next. But despite the absence of Alvarez and Paqueta perhaps we can put an end to our dismal run against Brentford on Saturday?.

We’ve been involved in six matches this season that have ended 3-1. Three were wins and three were defeats. Will the Brentford hoodoo continue or (as in the case of Brighton) will it come to an end? Will the final score be 3-1? But to who?