Author: Richard Bennett

Wouldn’t It Be Good If West Ham could renew their acquaintance with Eintracht Frankfurt? But Tottenham first on Sunday and then Lyon in April.

Since I first went to Upton Park in November 1958 I have seen many great games of football where West Ham have been playing. And Thursday night’s great win over Seville is yet another of the superb matches. The Europa League experts who had never previously been eliminated by an English club in the competition were beaten in extra time with the second emotional winner scored in a week by our Ukrainian Andriy Yarmolenko. But there were great performances all around the field, from the magnificent save by Areola when the score was 0-0 to the tireless Antonio up front, and all the players in between.

Great credit to David Moyes and his coaching staff for the past two seasons, but one area that has been improved immeasurably is the fitness of the whole squad of players. While the Spaniards were making every substitution available to them, we kept almost every player from the starting eleven on the pitch for virtually 120 minutes. And which team were by far the stronger in extra time? Which team wanted to win the game without resorting to penalties? Undoubtedly it was West Ham.

In the last 63 years my favourite ever West Ham game remains the 1976 European Cup Winners Cup semi final second leg that I watched from the North Bank at Upton Park on a night of torrential rain on April 14th 1976. A packed 39,000 plus crowd witnessed a great comeback when we overcame a 2-1 deficit from the first leg in Germany with goals from Keith Robson and two from a majestic performance from the brilliant Sir Trev. There was an electric atmosphere that night and it was repeated with 60,000 in the London Stadium on Thursday.

Friday’s draw gave us the intriguing and enticing possibility of a repeat semi-final against those same opponents from 1976. But first we must overcome Lyon of France, whilst the Germans must beat the tournament favourites Barcelona in the quarter finals. The French team have been disappointing in their domestic league and are currently tenth in mid-table, although their European performances have been much better.

Today’s game against Tottenham comes up very quickly after the extra time exertions of Thursday night and winning will be a difficult task. Friday night’s surprise win by Leeds at Molyneux strengthens our potential to finish in the top seven, although at the moment my understanding is that only the top six will qualify for European competition next season. But if one of the top 4 wins the FA Cup then qualification could fall as low as seventh place, so we are hoping that Manchester City, Chelsea or Liverpool lift that trophy in May. Of course we can ensure qualification if we win the Europa League!

We have a decent record against Tottenham in recent times having won our last two Premier League games against them, but both of those were at the London Stadium. At White Hart Lane we have only won two of the 19 encounters the last one being three years ago when Michail Antonio scored the only goal to inflict Spurs first home defeat at their new stadium. Antonio has scored six Premier League goals against Tottenham, more than he has netted against any other opponents. But it remains to be seen how fit he is after 120 minutes on Thursday night when he was a doubt for that game. Those of you who remember when they used to publish an unofficial London championship in the programme many years ago might like to know that in this season to date Tottenham are currently bottom, having lost five of their seven games.

Tottenham have had a bit of an up and down time so far this season, and it would be great to beat them in this game, but they are understandably the bookies odds-on favourites to win. A draw wouldn’t be the worst result for us looking at the remaining fixtures this season, perhaps 2-2? What are the chances?

Can West Ham rediscover their scoring touch when in-form Villa visit the London Stadium on Sunday?

Here we are, two weeks on from my last review prior to the Wolves game and just 10 games to go in the Premier League this season for West Ham. In view of the (mainly Covid) interruptions to the season that happened a few weeks ago some of the other teams competing at the top of the table have either 11, 12 or even 13 games left prior to this weekend’s fixtures. It makes comparisons difficult. 

As I wrote only a fortnight ago am I the only one who would have liked to see players recruited in the winter window stopped from playing in games that are rescheduled following postponements? A blatant example of the point I am making was demonstrated in the Southampton v Newcastle game on Thursday night. Eddie Howe fielded six players who were not available when the game was scheduled to be played in January before it was postponed due to Newcastle’s COVID / injury situation at the time. 

How convenient for the Geordies that Chris Wood, a £25 million signing from Burnley in the winter transfer window, scored his first goal for the Tynesiders to equalise Southampton’s opening goal. And then Guimaraes, a £40 million signing, scored the winner with an outrageous back-heeled volley. The winning goal was assisted by Burn who headed a Targett corner back across goal. Both of those were January recruits too. Newcastle have benefitted enormously, not just from the injection of funds following the takeover, but also from the postponements. Surely the Premier League should have acted to prevent this unfair situation arising?

We currently sit in sixth place still, in touch and challenging for a top four place, although our recent indifferent performances and results of others means that it would take a number of wins in the run-in to achieve this. Perhaps 5th, 6th, 7th or even 8th looks our most likely finishing position as it stands but a lot can change. At this stage it is impossible to know where we would need to finish to qualify for Europe, as this depends on winners of cup competitions.

Our 1-0 defeat to Sevilla leaves the tie still wide open but we should not underestimate how difficult it might be to overturn even just a one goal deficit. If we want to advance into the last eight we will need to become the first team from England to overcome these Europa League specialists. Tottenham, Wolves and Manchester United have all tried and failed in the past. 

And for a team with the fourth highest number of goals scored in the Premier League this season so far we have suddenly lost our ability to convert chances into goals. In the past week against both Liverpool and Sevilla how many golden opportunities to score were spurned? This will need to be improved if we are to stand a chance of progressing in the Europa League and continuing our challenge in the domestic league.

The current league table – top 10
Man City 69 from 28 games
Liverpool 63 from 27 games
Chelsea 56 from 27 games
Arsenal 48 from 25 games
Man Utd 47 from 28 games
West Ham 45 from 28 games
Tottenham 45 from 26 games
Wolves 43 from 28 games
Villa 36 from 27 games
Southampton 35 from 28 games

The form table (last 5 games of the top 10 in the current league table)
Liverpool 15
Chelsea 13
Arsenal 13
Man City 12
Tottenham 9
Villa 9
West Ham 8
Man Utd 8
Southampton 7
Wolves 6

Our opponents this weekend have climbed into the top half of the table in the past fortnight. They have looked very impressive in recent games when beating Southampton and Leeds and will be a difficult proposition on Sunday. Coutinho seems to have regained his Liverpool form after his difficult time abroad. They will visit the London Stadium full of confidence. We haven’t managed to score more than one goal in any of our last five games in all competitions. I reckon that we will need to do so on Sunday if we are to collect the three points that we need to maintain our challenge in the Premier League. What are the chances?

A remarkable two years as we look back on West Ham’s progress in that time.

Tonight West Ham face Southampton in the fifth round of the FA Cup hoping to take another step towards winning a trophy

It has been quite an amazing couple of years for West Ham. Just two years ago as coronavirus (we didn’t call it COVID 19 then I don’t think) was beginning to attract more attention and we were all washing our hands more regularly (no lockdown or social distancing at that early stage) there we were battling relegation. We had already been dumped out of the FA Cup by Championship side West Brom, as well as on the end of a 4-0 thrashing in the EFL Cup by lowly Oxford United.

Our last home game before the (2019-20) season was suspended on 13th March was on 29th February 2020 was against Southampton, almost two years to the day before we meet them again in the fifth round of the FA Cup this evening. We beat them 3-1 that day, climbing out of the bottom three in the process, and rising to 16th in the league. We only played once more (a 1-0 defeat at Arsenal) before the season resumed on the 19th June (we lost to Wolves on that day too).

On that Leap Year’s Day two years ago, Jarrod Bowen put us in front, scoring his first Premier League goal on his full debut when he lifted the ball over McCarthy in the Saints goal from Pablo Fornals’ fine through ball. Southampton equalised with a goal from Obafemi but we restored our lead before half-time when Sebastien Haller beat McCarthy to Antonio’s cross that hung in the air and scored from close range. Antonio then increased our lead to 3-1 early in the second half, gathering Fornals’ pass and sliding the ball past McCarthy. It was our first win in eight matches. As we sat in the cold February sunshine little did we realise how long it would be before we could return to the London Stadium to see our team again. In front of empty stadiums we picked up 12 points from our final seven games to avoid relegation.

Football continued to be played in front of empty stadiums in 2020-21 and after losing our opening two games, we began to see a new West Ham. By 27 February 2021 (just one year ago) we had only lost a handful of games and sat proudly in 4th place in the Premier League table. I was one of the lucky ones in the ballot to be among the crowd of 10,000 to witness our final home game of the season when we comfortably beat Southampton 3-0, Pablo Fornals once again having a big influence on the game, scoring twice in the first half before Declan Rice wrapped up the scoring late in the game. That meant we finished 6th at the season’s end, narrowly missing out on the top four but qualifying for a place in the Europa League.

Fast forward another year and we sit in fifth place in the Premier League with just eleven games of the league season to go. We are also in the Europa League knockout stages, where we have been paired with La Liga side Sevilla, as well as the Fifth Round of the FA Cup tonight. What a transformation in just two years! None of us can honestly say we saw this coming when we went into lockdown two years ago.

It will not be easy for us tonight. Southampton have been in excellent form lately, and their 11 points from their last 5 league games is bettered by only two teams (Liverpool with 15, and Newcastle with 13). In fact they have only lost once in their last ten league games (3-1 at Wolves), a run (5 wins and 4 draws) which has seen them climb from 16th (just above the relegation places) to 9th, sitting vary comfortably in mid-table.

They needed extra time to knock out both Swansea and Coventry in the last two rounds, but now we’ve reached the stage where the winners of this tie will progress into the last eight, I would expect both teams to field close to first choice sides. They certainly should because at this stage we are only three wins away from a place in the FA Cup final and the chance to lift a trophy. Of course we remember the last round very well, only just surviving to get past Kidderminster thanks in the main to Declan Rice.

Ron Greenwood Taking Home The FA Cup in 1964. Will This Be David Moyes in 2022?

Southampton’s fine recent form sees them installed as favourites to win the tie by the bookmakers at around 13/10. The odds on a West Ham win are around 2/1 with 12/5 on a draw in 90 minutes. Betting on cup games is always a precarious business as you can never be sure how strong the teams will be. You’d like to think that being this close to a Wembley final would mean that teams are at full strength but that is not always the case.

In the next 19 days, starting with tonight’s last 16 game at Southampton we will play 6 matches, including home and away ties against Sevilla in the Europa League last 16, as well as three league games with visits to Anfield and White Hart Lane plus a home game against Aston Villa.

I wonder where we’ll be in three weeks’ time? We could be in the Quarter Finals of the FA Cup and the Europa League and still challenging towards the top of the Premier League. Or perhaps we might only have eight league games left of our season having gone out of both cups? Or perhaps even somewhere in between?

With the relatively thin squad available to choose from it is remarkable that we are where we are considering where we were looking back to just two years ago. But whatever happens in the next two weeks and then in the final weeks of the season it is interesting to hear David Moyes’ thoughts. At the Press Conference prior to tonight’s game these are some of his quotes:

“Every manager wants to win a trophy.” “We’re on a good track but the next couple of years will be an important time. We’re trying to build a team that’s getting stronger.” “I look more at how we’re going to continue to try to build the club and keep getting closer to winning trophies.” “We’ve made a swift move towards the top end of the Premier League. We’re involved in Europe, had a decent run in the Carabao Cup and we’re trying to get a good run in the FA Cup if we can as well”

Well done David Moyes and his coaching team. What a fantastic turnaround in our fortunes in just two years.

West Ham United face Wolves with both teams believing that a place in the top four is achievable

Here we are, the final game in February and just 12 games to go in the Premier League this season for West Ham. In view of the (mainly Covid) interruptions to the season that happened a few weeks ago some of the other teams competing for a place in the top four have either 13 or 14 games left prior to this weekend’s fixtures. I may be wrong but I can’t recall many (if any) Premier League postponements due to Covid since the transfer window closed. Interesting. No doubt someone will tell me if I am under a misapprehension here. Am I the only one who would have liked to see players recruited in the winter window stopped from playing in games that are rescheduled following postponements? Perhaps it is just because I am a West Ham fan and we didn’t have any additions to our squad? The only game I can remember being called off involving us was against Norwich and that was postponed at the request of our opponents and was quickly rearranged and played.

We currently sit in sixth place, still in touch and challenging for a top four place, although our recent indifferent performances mean that it would take a strong set of results in the run-in to achieve this. In many ways it is still in our own hands as we have to face seven of the top ten teams in our remaining 12 fixtures. Those seven teams are starred in the league table below.

The current league table – top 10 (games played in brackets)

Man City 63 (26) *
Liverpool 60 (26) *
Chelsea 50 (25) *
Man Utd 46 (26)
Arsenal 45 (24) *
West Ham 42 (26)
Wolves 40 (25) *
Tottenham 39 (24) *
Southampton 35 (26)
Brighton 33 (25) *

The form table (last 5 games of the top 10 in the current league table)

Liverpool 15
Man Utd 11
Southampton 11
Man City 10
Arsenal 10
Wolves 9
Chelsea 8
West Ham 5
Brighton 5
Tottenham 3

In addition to facing the seven teams in the top ten as outlined above, we also face five games against teams in the bottom half, and they too can be tricky fixtures with clubs fighting to retain their position in the top flight. Those games are against Villa (13th), Brentford (14th), Everton (16th), Burnley (18th) and Norwich (20th).

The form table, where I have collated the points for the last 5 Premier League games played by the teams speaks for itself to some extent. A few minutes from the end of their midweek game against Arsenal our opponents this weekend looked as though they would be recording their fourth win in the last five games and relegating us to seventh in the league. The Arsenal equaliser (had the game finished at 1-1) would possibly have been the best result for us but it wasn’t to be, and the Gunners very late winner puts them in the driving seat at this stage for the fourth spot but (as they say) there is still a lot of football to be played.

Unlike ourselves Wolves had a poor start to the season losing their first three games and finding themselves in 18th place in the table. But four wins in their next five league games turned it round, and by the time they beat us 1-0 in Matchweek 12 they had climbed to sixth place in the table, and they have remained comfortably in the top half ever since.

They have a mean defence and the 20 goals conceded in their 25 league games is bettered only (slightly) by Manchester City and Chelsea. But only Burnley and Norwich have scored fewer than Wolves (less than one goal a game) have scored – 24. Sa has been a revelation in goal and one of the mainstays of my Fantasy Football team.

I am hoping that the week’s rest (as opposed to Wolves game in the week against Arsenal) will work in our favour. I think that maybe we need a different approach, a change in personnel and formation perhaps, to try to recapture some of our early season form. No doubt the manager and his staff have been working on this, and I won’t try to guess what they have come up with. There is certainly plenty of conjecture on social media amongst our fans as to what this might entail. Or perhaps it will be more of the same, hoping that out of form players will regain their early season form.

Wolves games this season have been low scoring affairs and I doubt that this will be any different. It’s not a must win, but certainly a do not lose, if we are to stay in the hunt. I am hoping (as always) for a win but a draw is not out of the question. 0-0 or 1-1 perhaps? No, I reckon we’ll sneak a narrow win, 1-0 or 2-1.

But where will we finish come the end of the season? Top 3 is out of the question. 4th or 5th is possible although the odds are stacked against it at the moment. It could be 6th, 7th, 8th or possibly even lower. Surely not. I’ll go for 6th – the same as last season. I’ve noted the Europa draw. Sevilla could potentially be the best team in the competition. 2nd in the Spanish league, chasing Real Madrid at the top, and only two league defeats all season. We’ll certainly need to be at our best for that tie.

West Ham United face wealthy Newcastle United – the Hammers hoping to reverse recent form in this fixture

You don’t have to be too old to remember the days towards the end of the twentieth century when Manchester City were in the third tier of English football around 25 years ago. They climbed back into the top tier by early in this century but they weren’t exactly pulling up trees with mid-table finishes for four seasons from the time they moved into their new stadium in 2003.  

However in August 2008, the club was purchased by the Abu Dhabi United Group. The takeover was immediately followed by many bids for high-profile players. There wasn’t a massive improvement in performance compared to the previous season despite the influx of money however, with the team finishing tenth, although they did reach the quarter-finals of the UEFA Cup. During the summer of 2009, the club took transfer spending to an unprecedented level, with an outlay of over £100 million on players. Mark Hughes was replaced as manager by Roberto Mancini and City finished the season in fifth position in the Premier League, narrowly missing out on a place in the Champions League, and competed in the UEFA Europa League in season 2010–11.

Continued investment in players followed in successive seasons, and results began to match the improvement in player quality. City reached the 2011 FA Cup Final, their first major final in over 30 years, where they beat Stoke City 1–0, the club’s first major trophy since winning the 1976 League Cup. In the same week, the club qualified for the UEFA Champions League for the first time. Strong performances continued to follow in the 2011–12 season with the club scoring two goals in injury time to complete a last-minute title victory to deny their city rivals, City’s first in 44 years.

And just look where City are now. After that title success they have since been Premier League champions four times, and runners-up on three occasions. A further win in the FA Cup, six League Cup titles, and runners-up in the Champions League last season. They are strong favourites to win the Champions League this time around, and their 5-0 win over the Portuguese champions away from home this week put them virtually into the last eight.

In October 2021, Newcastle United, precariously placed near the foot of the Premier League, was bought by a group led by the Saudi Arabian government’s sovereign wealth fund. It is widely reported that the purchase made Newcastle the richest club in the world. So are Newcastle about to become the new Manchester City in the next decade or so?

Spending in the winter transfer window has been the spark that has lifted them out of the relegation zone. They are now four points clear of Norwich (who are 18th) as a result of 11 points from their last (unbeaten) five games, a record bettered in the top flight by only Manchester City (13), Liverpool (13) and Wolves (12). That’s impressive considering their opening 18 games this season yielded only 10 points. In comparison we have 7 points from our last 5 games.

They visit the London Stadium with an impressive record here too, where they have won 75% of their visits in the Premier League, and are aiming for their third consecutive away win at our ground. In fact Newcastle’s most wins in away games in the Premier League have come against us with 10, which is more than they have achieved against any other club.

Our season has been going in the opposite direction although we are still clinging on to fifth place with just 13 games to go (7 at home and 6 away). Arsenal, Wolves and Tottenham in 6th, 7th and 8th can all go past us with success in their games in hand so it is imperative that we start to pick up more wins to retain any chance of emulating last season’s sixth place finish or even better it.

We won 7 of the first 11 league games this season but have picked up the three points for a win in only 5 of the last 14. We have at least scored a goal in every one of the 12 league games we have played at the London Stadium this season, a feat we haven’t achieved before. And Newcastle on the other hand haven’t scored more than one goal in any of their away league games this season. So if this statistic were maintained we won’t lose!

We have scored 44 league goals so far giving us a ranking of 4th, but the 33 goals conceded puts us at 10th in that category – even bottom of the table Burnley have conceded fewer than we have, but on the other hand they are 19th when it comes to goals scored. The return of Zouma should help our defensive record, although Diop, so out of touch in some recent games, had perhaps his best performance of the season at Leicester, and both he and Dawson had sound performances. It would be harsh to leave either of them out. It was in the full back department (on both sides) where our weakness was found out in that game.

In Jarrod Bowen we have a player in superb form in both scoring and creating goals, but so many others appear to be out of form, or at least not at their best in recent games. Declan Rice has been his usual consistent impressive self but these two can’t win games on their own (as hard as they try!) and some of the others must step up to the plate.

David Moyes needs to turn the tide in home games against Newcastle where he has lost the last three. I think he will. It’s about time that Newcastle’s impressive recent run came to an end, and wearing my optimistic hat I forecast a 3-1 win that will lift us back into the top four. Hopefully we can stay there if Manchester United fail to win at Leeds on Sunday. It’s games like this one where three points will go a long way in us maintaining our challenge at the top. What are the chances?

West Ham United – That Was The Week That Was

What a week this has been for West Ham, and not really for the right reasons. Last weekend we faced Kidderminster at the Aggborough Stadium in the FA Cup Fourth Round – a game that should have been relatively comfortable given the fact that we are one of the top sides in the Premier League, and they are one of the top sides in the Vanarama National League North which is effectively the sixth tier in England.

But in typical West Ham fashion in the FA Cup where there have been far too many occasions when we have been eliminated from the competition by teams from a lower division we contrived to make hard work of progression to Round Five coming within a couple of minutes from going out, and then within seconds of facing a penalty shootout at the end of extra time. That is exactly why we were prime candidates for a TV slot and didn’t the pundits enjoy watching us squirm? Their disappointment at our equaliser was so noticeable. How they would have loved the upset to have actually happened.

The fact that it didn’t was almost entirely down to one player. Declan Rice. If ever there was a one man performance in a game of football then he provided it in this one, both inspiring the team forward in the second half, and then scoring the last gasp equaliser himself. Where would we be without him? The fringe players that had performed so admirably in the European games and in the League Cup just didn’t perform in this game. And quite how Yarmolenko was still on the pitch after we had made five substitutions is beyond me!

But somehow we scraped through and face an away tie at Southampton in Round Five in one of only two ties that will be contested by two teams from the top tier. Most of the Premier League teams face a game against a team from a lower division and Liverpool are at home to Norwich so we definitely have one of the tougher tasks to progress to the Quarter-Finals. I suppose it could have been worse; we could have faced an away trip to Boreham Wood!

The dust had barely settled on our fortunate cup victory and before our Tuesday night game at home to lowly Watford when we were not only headlines on the back pages but on the front pages too. Kurt Zouma hit the headlines by mistreatment of one of his cats. Three things totally baffled me about this. Firstly, the fact that anyone could treat an animal in such a horrible way, secondly that his brother decided to video it happening, and then perhaps even more incredibly decided to post it on social media!

I was surprised that David Moyes selected him for the Watford game but he did, and as a result our centre back was jeered throughout the game, not only by the away fans but by many of the home supporters too. It was another poor game but we picked up the three points thanks to Jarrod Bowen’s deflected strike to move us back into the top four. The teams below can overhaul us with success in their games in hand but we have the points in the bag and march on despite not playing well – the sign of a good team as Joe Cole said.

One of the things that struck me about the week’s events was reading the varied opinions of West Ham fans who write on social media. Regarding the Kidderminster game I read calls for Moyes to be sacked, much criticism of the players and the performance, and others who hated the fact that some fans were critical and suggested that they weren’t true fans if they dared to criticise in any way. Fans were turning on each other, sometimes in an abusive manner using obscene language. Why can’t people accept that there are varying opinions and everyone is entitled to air theirs without resorting to some of the abuse that I read?

The same is true of “Zoumagate”. There are varying opinions as to how this should move forward from leaving it as it stands regarding the £250,000 fine that has been donated to animal charities, to sacking him. There are fans who, whilst not condoning Zouma’s actions, just want to move on and others who claim they will no longer watch the team while Zouma remains at the club.

I noted that we have lost a couple of club sponsors as a result of this, one of which is Experience Kissimmee. I also read Martin Samuel’s column in the Daily Mail where he wrote that they (Experience Kissimmee) continue to promote tickets for Sea World on their website, despite what would appear to be some allegedly awful treatment of animals by them (Sea World). But they are making a big deal of the Zouma cat affair. I guess that is their prerogative. I also assume that there could be further sponsor ramifications going forward depending on how it moves forward and is handled from here?

Most of us are horrified by the whole thing, but should someone’s career be ended by it? That is totally different I think, although some believe that all misdeeds, transgressions, misdemeanours, or crimes (call it as you see it) should result in the sack. We haven’t heard the last of this and however it resolves in the coming weeks, Kurt Zouma will forever be remembered and tainted by his actions, as will his brother for his amazing decision to broadcast it to the world.

Another headline to come out of all this is the reporting of an alleged mutiny by the West Ham players, who despite providing some support to Zouma believing that the public backlash is over the top, were seemingly unaware of his £125,000 per week wages. Apparently they are dissatisfied that he is the top earner at the club (just exceeding Yarmolenko), and they are ready to confront the club over this. I find the reporting of an upcoming mutiny hard to believe but the media seem to enjoy kicking players or clubs who are down, and this would appear to be another example?

So that was the week that was. For anyone of my age or older you might remember a late-night Saturday TV programme – That Was The Week That Was. The programme was a significant element of the satire boom in the UK in the early 1960s (it ran for a couple of years, 1962/3), breaking ground in comedy by lampooning political figures. Millicent Martin sang the theme which went “That Was The Week That Was, It’s Over Let It Go”.

But I suspect we haven’t heard the last of this week’s headlines, and that there are people who will not let it go. Quite how it affects our season moving forward remains to be seen. And by the way, as an interruption to all this we are playing football at Leicester on Sunday in the TV game that kicks off at 4.30.

The lowest ranked club, Kidderminster Harriers, face one of the highest ranked teams, West Ham in a televised Round Four FA Cup tie

In my article previewing the FA Cup Third Round tie against Leeds last month I wrote a brief history of West Ham in the FA Cup covering the last 60 years. It didn’t make for particularly good reading apart from the three occasions when we lifted the trophy or reached the final and the odd season when we went some distance before falling to a top-flight opponent. There have been far too many occasions when we have been eliminated from the competition by teams from a lower division or even by sides from our own division who were performing poorly in the league and about to be relegated that season. And that is exactly why we were prime candidates for a TV slot this weekend.

We breezed past Leeds into the fourth round relatively comfortably but were unable to repeat the feat in the Premier League game at the London Stadium seven days later. The draw for Round Four has paired us with the lowest ranked club still left in the competition, Kidderminster Harriers, and a trip to the West Midlands where the average crowd of under 2000 will be increased four-fold for a visit from a team challenging at the top of the Premier League.

Our opponents are currently in the sixth tier of the English football pyramid and play at the Aggborough Stadium in the (Vanarama) National League North. They are currently enjoying an excellent season and sit in third place in their table just four points off the top and well placed to challenge for promotion into the (Vanarama) National League, which is the level immediately below the Football League. They attracted over 5000 spectators to their third round tie where they disposed of Championship side Reading.

They haven’t always been a non-league side; they won the Conference (as the National League was called previously) in 1999/2000 with Jan Molby (remember him from Liverpool?) as their manager and were promoted into the Football League where they remained for five seasons. Their highest finishing position was tenth in 2001/02, but they were relegated from the League three seasons later and have never returned, falling still further in the pyramid following relegation in 2015/16. They have reached the play-offs twice since then but didn’t manage to achieve promotion either time.

If you are old enough you’ll remember that we have faced them before in the FA Cup when they had their best ever run in the competition. It was Round Five in 1993/4 when we travelled to Worcestershire and came away with a 1-0 win. We then went out to (lower league side) Luton after a replay in the Quarter Final!

Kidderminster were a formidable non-league side at the time and were crowned the Conference champions that season. However they were denied a place in the Football League due to the Aggborough Stadium facilities being deemed not up to the standard required. After being champions again six years later they did successfully go up.

In that Round Five tie 28 years ago we scraped through thanks to a Lee Chapman header around 20 minutes from the end of the game. The West Ham line-up that day was Miklosko; Breacker, Potts, Martin, Rowland; (Martin) Allen, Bishop, Holmes, Marsh; Chapman, (Clive) Allen (sub Morley). After a poor start to that season our fortunes improved after Julian Dicks joined Liverpool in September in a swap deal that involved full back David Burrows and midfielder Mike Marsh coming to West Ham. To add more forward power Lee Chapman was bought from Portsmouth. It was a very different Premier League at the time with Blackburn, Newcastle, Leeds, Wimbledon, Sheffield Wednesday, QPR, Coventry and Norwich all finishing higher in the table than our 13th, with Chelsea, Tottenham and Manchester City all below us.

Of course none of our new recruits from this transfer window will be appearing because we didn’t sign anybody! My colleague Geoff covered our failure to improve the squad very clearly in his recent article. The FA Cup competition is almost certainly our best chance of winning a trophy this season so I hope that the manager puts out a strong side and takes it more than seriously. A lot of negative things have been written about West Ham in this transfer window and failure to beat Kidderminster will increase the levels of disappointment amongst the fans for a season that was going so well. But I’m sure we’ll be fine. We are not the West Ham of old and I’m confident that we’ll overcome our National League opponents comfortably and our ball will be in the cloth bag when the draw is made for Round Five.     

Can West Ham return to winning ways with the visit to Old Trafford?

After three successive wins in the Premier League game number 22 proved to be a copy of game number 18 from just three weeks before. 3-2 home defeats to teams in the lower half of the table (Southampton and then Leeds) may prove to be costly in the final reckoning next May in our quest once again to infiltrate the top four. Of course there is still a long way to go, but the results this week from the teams chasing us has moved them ominously closer to our current points total and they have games in hand. But if a Premier League season was the London Marathon then we have only just crossed Tower Bridge. There is still a long way to go to reach the Mall.

Although we have retained fourth place for now with 37 points from 22 games, the chasing pack have had games postponed and, as a result will be able to play those with refreshed teams, perhaps even bolstered by recruits in the transfer window later in the season. We, on the other hand have fulfilled our fixtures without resorting to asking for games to be called off. I do wonder if some of the teams have pulled a bit of a fast one here? I reckon they’ve got away with it too. But what can you do? We’ve just got to get on with it.

The top of the table now has three distinct sections. Manchester City are already virtually assured of being champions with an almost unassailable 11 point lead over Liverpool, who are jockeying with a Chelsea team that have faltered in recent weeks for second place. Then another gap before us in fourth but Tottenham now only trail us by one point and have three games in hand, Arsenal are a further point away with two games in hand, as are Manchester United with one game in hand. Perhaps even Wolves in eighth place will feel they are in contention as they trail us by six points but have played two games fewer. The games where this cluster of five clubs play each other take on added significance beginning with this Saturday’s game at Old Trafford. We face Wolves at the London Stadium before the end of February too.

Our points per game average still has us on course to reach 64 points by the end of the campaign (just one fewer than last season). The disappointment of home defeats to Brentford, Southampton and Leeds are water under the bridge now, and we need to look ahead, get players back from injury and COVID (especially Zouma and Soucek), Benrahma back from AFCON, and perhaps there is a chance for the players to regroup, take a breath, and perhaps regain a little of form that has been lost through tiredness or whatever? It’s good to see academy players on the bench. Wouldn’t it be good to see them on the pitch when (late) substitutions are made rather than the predictable Yarmolenko or Masuaku who (to me) add very little when they are introduced?

I wonder if there will be any recruitment before the end of the window to add a little freshness to the squad? I won’t hold my breath on that one – we’ll just have to wait and see. There’s an industry that has built up on social media and you can read about so many players that we are apparently interested in. 99 per cent of it is total rubbish. I am just hoping for a last day surprise or two that will add to the mix of very good players that we already have.

After the Manchester United game we don’t face league opposition again until Tuesday 8th February when Watford are the visitors to the London Stadium (It’s Round 4 of the FA Cup next weekend at Kidderminster). It would be great to come away from Old Trafford with a win but avoiding defeat and picking up a point against one of our rivals near the top would be a more than useful result.

As one might expect we are the outsiders with the bookmakers with the home side slightly odds on to win the game. The draw is priced around 14/5, and an away win at around 3/1. I’ll go for a 1-1 draw. What are the chances?  

Can West Ham extend their winning sequence when Leeds visit the London Stadium for the second time in a week?

When I write these articles for Under The Hammers I often refer to current form and relate this to the last five league games played by the sides in the Premier League. The positions in the league table don’t always reflect the latest five games, but at the moment they are a very good guide, although Chelsea’s recent glut of draws (4 in the last 5 games) puts them at the bottom in respect of the current form of the top 7 in the league, despite remaining unbeaten in those matches.

What I’ve done is divided the league table into three sections; the top 7, the middle 7, and the bottom 6, and looked at the points that each team has accrued in the last 5 fixtures. The present position in the league appears in brackets, although this can be a little misleading in view of the disparity in numbers of games played following the postponements for COVID in the last few weeks.

Top 7: Manchester City 15 (1); Arsenal 12 (5); Tottenham 11 (6); Manchester United 10 (7); West Ham 9 (4); Liverpool 8 (3); Chelsea 7 (2)

Middle 7: Brighton 8 (9); Southampton 8 (11); Wolves 7 (8); Leicester 7 (10); Palace 7 (12); Brentford 6 (13); Villa 6 (14)

Bottom 6: Everton 4 (15); Leeds 4 (16); Newcastle 4 (19); Burnley 2 (18); Watford 0 (17); Norwich 0 (20)

The situation can change of course, but at the moment it looks as though the top 7 will fill the top 7 places at the end of the season, the ‘middle’ seven will finish between 8th and 14th, and the bottom 6 will stay there. Current form doesn’t indicate a great deal of change from that.

Leeds are the visitors for the second weekend running after we comfortably beat them 2-0 in the FA Cup third round last Sunday. We followed this up with a fairly straightforward 2-0 win over bottom club Norwich in midweek to make it three league wins in a row, to keep up our challenge at the top. We’ve now won four games in a row in all competitions since the unfortunate 2-3 reverse against Southampton on Boxing Day, and Leeds didn’t show too much last week to suggest that they can stop us making it five if we are anywhere near our best. The interesting thing is that I don’t believe that we have been playing that well in those games, but we have still been winning. That’s the sign of a good team I reckon.

If Zouma has recovered from his injury I would expect him to take his place in the team straight away, replacing Diop, who to me has looked half a yard off the pace in recent games. Assuming Soucek is still out I would expect the starting eleven to be Fabianski; Coufal, Dawson, Zouma, Cresswell; Rice, Lanzini; Bowen, Fornals, Vlasic; Antonio.

If Soucek returns then who would miss out? Vlasic has impressed me in recent games and I would expect him to retain his place. Similarly Lanzini who appears rejuvenated as of late, and of course Bowen is the man of the moment, so perhaps Fornals would be the one to drop out, although he, like Johnson at full back has done little wrong to be out of the starting eleven.

The transfer rumour mill continues apace but nothing concrete yet, and I don’t tend to believe anything until I see the incoming player holding up the claret and blue shirt and crossing his arms. We all know what areas need strengthening if we are to maintain our challenge in the Premier League, the FA Cup and Europe. David Moyes knows and the board do too, and I believe (hope) that they will support him if the right players are identified.

We’ve scored 13 goals (2,4,3,2,2) and conceded 6 (3,1,2,0,0) in our five games played since Christmas, an average of almost four goals scored by the two teams in every game in that period. I see little reason why our recent record cannot be maintained and look forward to our third 2-0 win in a week in this game.

The West Ham games to follow Sunday’s game against Leeds are:

Saturday 22 January – Away v Manchester United

Saturday 5 February – Away v Kidderminster (FA Cup Round 4)

Tuesday 8 February – Home v Watford

Sunday 13 February – Away v Leicester

Saturday 19 February – Home v Newcastle

Saturday 26 February – Home v Wolves  

I wonder how well we will do, and what position we will be in at the end of February with the European fixtures kicking in again in March? The game at Old Trafford is an important one against one of our key rivals at the top, and then three of our next four league games are at home. Those league games are all winnable but who knows how we will do?

The FA Cup game at Kidderminster comes 50 years to the day after that famous giant killing with John Motson’s Match of the Day commentary recorded for posterity when Hereford upset Newcastle 2-1 on Saturday 5th February 1972. Of course we put paid to the giant killers in the next round when we beat them (but only after a replay), but 2 years later Hereford were once again giant killers when they knocked us out of the FA Cup in 1974! I wonder if they will wheel John Motson out of retirement to commentate on our game at Kidderminster?

It’s interesting to note that all English Premier League clubs will have a week off at the end of January (despite the backlog in fixtures) for a new national team break that FIFA has created specially to help clear the backlog of World Cup qualifying games outside Europe. There will be no Premier League games after the weekend of January 22/23 until they resume with midweek games on February 8. This pause in fixtures is being taken despite European national teams not playing. The Premier League have confirmed that they will not allow league games to take place during the break despite the domestic backlog. Surely this will increase the backlog later on in the season? Or am I missing something?

A Very Brief History of West Ham in the FA Cup in the last 62 years, as Leeds visit the London Stadium today

The Third Round of the FA Cup was one of the great footballing days when I was a boy. But that was some time ago (when I was a boy that is). Of course it was (and still is) the day when the minnows who have battled through the qualifying rounds and the two proper rounds join the teams from the top two tiers hoping to perform a giant killing act. As a West Ham fan for many years I have witnessed plenty of those but unfortunately in the majority of cases we have been on the wrong end of them.

My first FA Cup memory was in season 1958-59. The third round in early January 1959 saw me approaching my fifth birthday. We were riding high in the top half of the table in our first season in Division One following promotion (we eventually finished 6th) whilst Tottenham were languishing near the bottom (eventually finishing 18th). They beat us 2-0. The following season we met Huddersfield of Division 2 and drew the away game in Yorkshire 1-1, taking them back to Upton Park where they thrashed us 5-1! In 1961 (again in Round 3) we drew 2-2 at home to 2nd Division Stoke, and then lost 1-0 in the replay. In 1962 (round 3 yet again), despite being a top half Division One team, we crashed out 3-0 at lowly Plymouth. At this time I’d never known us play an FA Cup game beyond 13th January! After 4 seasons I knew what giant killing was all about. We had been humbled on every occasion by inferior opponents.

But in 1963 we reached the quarter final (disposing of Fulham, Swansea and Everton) before losing 1-0 at Anfield. We were really getting the hang of the FA Cup by now and the following season (aged 10) I witnessed the first of what I expected to be many trophies when we beat Second Division Preston 3-2 to lift the cup. I wasn’t there on that day, but the win took us into Europe and I was at Wembley the following May when we won our second trophy, lifting the European Cup Winners Cup beating Munich 1860 in the final. But in that year we reverted to type in the FA Cup losing 1-0 at Stamford Bridge in Round 4.

In 1966 we lost 4-1 in a 4th round replay to Blackburn (who finished bottom that season), and the following year we got no further than the third round losing 3-1 away at 3rd Division Swindon in a replay. In 1968 we got to round 5 where we lost 2-1 at home to Sheffield United who were relegated that season. In 1969 we had progressed to round 5 before we were unceremoniously dumped out 3-0 by lowly Mansfield, and in 1970, once again in the third round we were beaten by a team from a lower level going down 2-1 at Middlesbrough.

It’s not making great reading so far (1964 excepted) so surely it would only get better you would think. Wrong! 1971 was the year of the famous Blackpool night club incident (Google it if you don’t know the detail) when we went out 4-0 in round 3 to the team who were to finish bottom that season. Huddersfield finished bottom in 1972 but that didn’t stop them knocking us out in the third round (4-2), and in 1973 we went out in round 4 to lowly Hull City. 1974 was no better when we lost to third division Hereford in a third round replay.

But, lo and behold come 1975, and we were once again FA Cup winners beating second division Fulham in the final, thanks to a brace from Alan Taylor in the quarters, semis and final itself. But for the remainder of the 1970s, it was back to despair in the FA Cup losing 2-0 at home to Liverpool (round 3 1976), 3-0 at Aston Villa (round 4 1977), 6-1 (!) at QPR (4th round replay 1978), and (how low can you get!) 2-1 at 4th division Newport County – by now we were a second division side ourselves for the first time since I had started watching in 1958.

Incredibly, as a second division team we battled through to the final in 1980 where we won the FA Cup for the third time beating Division One Arsenal 1-0 with Trevor Brooking’s famous header. And for most (but not all of the next decade) our FA Cup performances were generally better than I had experienced before. In 1981 we lost in a third round second replay to lowly Wrexham (1-0), and in 1982 it was round 4 to another team from a lower division Watford (2-0). In 1983 it was 2-0 at Old Trafford in round 3, but the following year we reached the fifth round before losing 3-0 to (eventually relegated) Birmingham.

For the next two seasons we lost in round 6 to Manchester United and Sheffield Wednesday, and in 1987 it was Wednesday again in a fifth round replay. In 1988 we lost 3-1 to QPR in round 4 and the following year it was a sixth round replay where we went out 3-1 to Norwich. So, a slight improvement in the 1980s?

In 1990 we lost 1-0 in Round 3 to lowly (I keep using that word!) Torquay but the following year we reached the semi-final at Villa Park where thanks mainly to Keith Hackett we were denied a place at Wembley. The following seasons were not too great losing 3-2 at home to Sunderland (round 5 replay 1992), 4-1 to Barnsley (round 4 1993), 3-2 at Luton (round 6 replay 1994), 1-0 at QPR (round 4 1995), 3-0 at Grimsby (!) (round 4 replay 1996), 1-0 at home to Wrexham (!) (round 3 replay 1997), on penalties at home to Arsenal  (round 6 1998), 1-0 at Swansea (round 3 replay 1999).

We have done better in the 21st century (in not being the victims of giant killing!) going out to Tottenham, Chelsea, Manchester United (4 times), Manchester City twice), and Arsenal. But there have still been some less than impressive performances losing to Fulham, Sheffield United, Watford, Middlesbrough, Stoke, Sheffield Wednesday, Nottingham Forest, West Brom (twice), Wigan, and AFC Wimbledon. The best performance was, of course, in 2006 when we unluckily lost the final in Cardiff to Liverpool on penalties after drawing 3-3 after extra time and conceding the late equaliser in normal time to Steven Gerrard when the ball should have been planted into the stands in the last minute!

Without carrying out a study of every club I am quite confident that we have probably lost in the FA Cup to “lesser” teams (that is those lower than us in the same division or from a lower division) on more occasions than any other team in the top tier of English football. And our record in the League Cup is equally poor. Nonetheless I am confident we will dispose of Leeds on our way to our 4th FA Cup win in 63 years next May. What are the chances?