Author: Richard Bennett

Aston Villa visit the London Stadium to face West Ham in the Claret and Blue derby

Before last week’s article I developed a programme to anticipate where West Ham would finish in this season’s Premier League final table. This week I provide an update based upon what happened last weekend, including our unfortunate two points dropped in the 2-2 draw with Burnley at the London Stadium.

There are probably six teams still in the reckoning to finish sixth or seventh in the final table and all now have ten games remaining apart from Chelsea with eleven. I have discounted the top five in the Premier League as I believe they have enough points and decent enough run-ins to maintain those places. The teams from 6th to 11th are now:

  • 6. Manchester United – 47 points (28 games)
  • 7. West Ham – 43 points (28)
  • 8. Brighton – 42 points (28)
  • 9. Wolves – 41 points (28)
  • 10. Newcastle – 40 points (28)
  • 11. Chelsea – 39 points (27)

You may recall that I considered the degree of difficulty in the remaining fixtures for each side based upon the current position in the league table of their remaining opponents. The degree of difficulty factor suggested that Newcastle have the easiest run-in.

I then took it further and predicted the results of each teams remaining games with a formula based upon fixtures remaining, categorised into teams being faced with a current position of 1-3, 4-5, 6-11, 12-17, and 18-20 given different weightings, whether or not the remaining games were home or away, and the results when the sides met earlier in the season. Additional factors included games against the top 5 teams, and games against each other (i.e. the 6 teams being considered).

Some of the results last weekend were as expected, the only ones that were not were West Ham who were expected to beat Burnley, and Newcastle who were expected to draw at Chelsea based on the criteria used. This therefore adjusts the forecast for the final standings at the end of the season which is now:

  • 6. Manchester United – 61 points
  • 7. Newcastle – 56 points
  • 8. Chelsea – 56 points
  • 9. Wolves – 55 points
  • 10. West Ham – 55 points
  • 11. Brighton – 51 points

Chelsea have now risen to a predicted eighth placed finish whilst West Ham have fallen to tenth. As I wrote last time, it’s just a bit of fun, and my gut feeling is that perhaps tenth is just about right. Football matches are notoriously unpredictable to forecast which stems from various factors like team dynamics, player and overall team form, European and FA Cup games to play, the Thursday / Sunday mix which is often an issue, injuries, and even unpredictable events during a game, as well as all sorts of other miscellaneous factors.

I noted this week that the Opta Supercomputer forecast is that West Ham will finish eighth on 55.47 points. (I’m not sure where we’d get the 0.47 points from!). Their programming must have some similarities to mine based on their figures. I will look back at the end of the season to compare The Bennett model versus the Opta Supercomputer at this stage to make a comparison.

This is how Opta see the Premier League ending up…

  • 6. Manchester United – 62.41
  • 7. Newcastle United – 58.35
  • 8. West Ham United – 55.47
  • 9. Chelsea – 54.84
  • 10. Brighton & Hove Albion – 54.61

On Thursday night we gave Freiburg a bit of a thrashing which on the face of it would compare the relative merits of the Premier League versus the Bundesliga. Seventh in the Premier League were shown to be massively superior to eighth in the Bundesliga based upon this last 16 tie. This was also a significant victory for English clubs who are now on course to claim a fifth spot in next season’s Champions League.

Two additional performance places are up for grabs due to the new format in 2024-25. They will go to the countries with the best average performance in all the European competitions this season. Before Thursday night Italy were top with Germany second and England third, but our win meant that England narrowed the gap on Germany.

Coefficient Rankings:

  • 1. Italy – 17.714 (4 teams remaining)
  • 2. Germany – 16.357 (3 teams remaining)
  • 3. England – 16.250 (5 teams remaining)
  • 4. France – 14.750 (3 teams remaining)
  • 5. Spain – 14.437 (3 teams remaining

We’ve now drawn another German side in the quarter finals and this time it will be much tougher as we face the might of Bayer 04 Leverkusen, the runaway leaders in Germany who have won 21 and drawn 4 of their 25 games, being the only side in the top 5 leagues in Europe to still be unbeaten at this stage of the season.

Having said that they came mightily close to being eliminated from the competition on Thursday night when they trailed Karabakh (of Azerbaijan) 2-1 on the night and 4-3 on aggregate as the tie reached the 90th minute of the second leg. Leverkusen then scored twice in the time that was added to ensure progression. That game surely gives us some hope in the quarter final tie doesn’t it?

Also, if England get the second spot in the ‘performance table’ and the FA Cup winners finish in the top seven, then it would appear that England would have five places in next season’s Champions League, two places in the Europa League and the team finishing eighth would take the Europa Conference League spot. All the more reason to continue to push for a high enough spot in the Premier League, apart from the kudos and the prize money on offer of course.

And what about the Kudus goal where he ran from the middle of our half, dribbled through the Freiburg team on an incredible run then clinically finished with his so-called weaker foot? That got me thinking of the best goals I’ve seen us score at the London Stadium. In no particular order it joins Payet’s amazing dribble through the Middlesbrough defence, and Andy Carroll’s wonderful volley against Crystal Palace. There are others to consider I’m sure. What ones have I missed?

Great goals that they were, none of them compare in my eyes to Martin Peters’ goal against Leicester in November 1968, Trevor Sinclair’s goal against Derby on Boxing Day 2001, or Harry Redknapp’s goal v QPR, also in November 1968 (just two weeks before Martin Peters goal).

I’ve written before about the 1968/69 season and a golden period of four consecutive and absolutely brilliant entertaining games at Upton Park in the Autumn of 1968. When we faced Sunderland on October 19th we’d come off the back of a run of nine winless games. We ended that run thrashing Sunderland 8-0 (the game where Geoff Hurst scored six). A fortnight later in a great game we defeated QPR 4-3, which included the Redknapp goal I referred to above, and a magnificent Bobby Moore goal frequently shown on the screens at Upton Park before games. The game with the Martin Peters wonder goal came in a 4-0 win over Leicester two weeks after that. And finally move on another fortnight for a 2-1 win over Manchester City, the first scored by Geoff Hurst, a near post header from a Martin Peters cross, and the second a carbon copy but this time a near post header by Martin Peters from a Geoff Hurst cross. They could do it both ways around and in this match they did. Those were the days. Wonderful memories.

As the game today is against Aston Villa an abiding memory from fixtures against them is a penalty awarded to us in the last minute of the FA Cup quarter final in March 1980. Up stepped Ray Stewart, the perfect penalty taker when under the greatest pressure to score. He slammed it high into the net in front of the South Bank, we won the game 1-0 and went on to win the FA Cup, the last team to do so as a second-tier side. We’ve had some great penalty takers, in no particular order the best ones in my opinion were Ray Stewart, Julian Dicks, Geoff Hurst, Mark Noble, Johnny Byrne, John Bond, and Paolo Di Canio.

Aston Villa are one of those teams that we have beaten more often than been defeated by. The recent record is strongly in our favour. The last 11 meetings (since and including Boxing Day 2015) – West Ham have won six, four have been drawn, and Villa have only won once – that was this season when they won 4-1 last October. The overall record in history shows West Ham with 45 wins, Villa with 39, and 35 draws.

Two worrying statistics: We have won four and drawn four of our last eight home league games against Villa, and Villa have only ever beaten us once both home and away in a single season in the Premier League. How often do impressive runs like that come to an end?

Our record in Sunday games that follow Thursday evening games is not the best but at least this time Villa are in the same boat, as they had a Europa Conference League game on the same night that we put five past Freiburg when they beat Ajax 4-0 to win by that aggregate score and progress into their first European Quarter Final for 25 years. We will be hoping to improve on our record of dropping points in five of the seven Sunday games that have followed a Europa League game.

Villa’s impressive England striker Watkins is always a threat but he is battling to recover from a gashed knee to be fit for the game. Their captain John McGinn is banned following the reckless tackle last weekend that got him sent off against Tottenham. Emerson has been missing for a couple of games but he may be fit to resume at left back. Cornet is the only definite absentee – apparently he has a hamstring injury. Will we miss him? Is he still with us?

I wonder if Danny Ings will get a run out at some stage? If by chance he scores a goal he would become only the third player to score a Premier League goal against four of his former teams – Peter Crouch and Nicolas Anelka are the others. We will hope that Lucas Paqueta starts of course and has calmed down following his substitution in the week – all our 12 league wins this season have come with him in the starting eleven whereas we’ve failed to win any of the seven games where he hasn’t been involved.

Villa are impressive going forward with only Manchester City, Liverpool and Arsenal scoring more goals in the league so far this season. I cannot see them failing to score which will mean that we will need to be positive, and all four of Kudus, Paqueta, Bowen and a fit Antonio will need to be firing at the same level as they were on Thursday night. Can we win the game? I hope so but it won’t be easy. I’ll go for a 2-2 draw for the second weekend in a row.

Three points against Burnley is imperative if West Ham want to maintain the push to have any chance of a finish in the top six or seven.

Two wins in a row after a horrendous winless run has put us back in the picture to be in with a chance of qualifying for European football for a fourth consecutive season as a result of our league finishing position. It looks as though we will need to finish either sixth or seventh to achieve this. We currently sit in seventh place, two points adrift of Manchester United and two ahead of Newcastle. Our goal difference is similar (just a little inferior) to United, but both of us are a long way short of Newcastle, so if it comes down to it, the Geordies difference is likely to be worth an additional point.

There are probably six teams still in the reckoning to finish sixth or seventh in the final table and all have eleven games remaining apart from Chelsea with twelve. I have discounted the top five in the Premier League as I believe they have enough points and decent enough run-ins to maintain those places. The teams from 6th to 11th are therefore:

  • 6. Manchester United 44 points (27 games)
  • 7. West Ham 42 points (27)
  • 8. Newcastle 40 points (27)
  • 9. Brighton 39 points (27)
  • 10. Wolves 38 points (27)
  • 11. Chelsea 36 points (26)

What I have looked at next is the degree of difficulty in the remaining fixtures for each side based upon the current position in the league table of their remaining opponents. The degree of difficulty factor suggests that Newcastle have the easiest run-in with the average positions of opponents as follows:

Newcastle 12.2, Manchester United 11.7, Chelsea 10.6, Wolves 10.0, West Ham 9.5, Brighton 9.0.

I then took it further and predicted the results of each teams remaining games with a formula based upon fixtures remaining, categorised into teams being faced with a current position of 1-3, 4-5, 6-11, 12-17, and 18-20 given different weightings, whether or not the remaining games are home or away, and the results when the sides met earlier in the season. Additional factors included games against the top 5 teams, and games against each other (i.e. the 6 teams being considered).

The formulas I used gave results as follows: Additional points achieved between now and the end of the season – Chelsea 18 points, Manchester United 17 points, Newcastle 17 points, Wolves 17 points, West Ham 15 points, Brighton 12 points.

The final standings would therefore be:

  • 6. Manchester United – 61 points
  • 7. Newcastle – 57 points
  • 8. West Ham – 57 points
  • 9. Wolves – 55 points
  • 10. Chelsea – 54 points
  • 11. Brighton 51 points

Bookmakers agree with my findings and have Manchester United and Newcastle finishing sixth and seventh. But they also have Brighton and Chelsea above us with West Ham just scraping into the top half in tenth.

It’s just a bit of fun, and my gut feeling is that we’ll be fortunate to do as well as this, perhaps tenth is about right. Football matches are notoriously unpredictable to forecast which stems from various factors like team dynamics, player and overall team form, European and FA Cup games to play, the Thursday / Sunday mix which is often an issue, injuries, and even unpredictable events during a game, as well as all sorts of other miscellaneous factors. If it was that easy then we’d all be very wealthy.

I reckon that to get the 15 points that would give us a chance of qualification we need to beat Burnley, Fulham and Luton, and then collect 6 points from the 6 games against Villa, Newcastle, Tottenham, Wolves, Palace and Chelsea. This could be 2 wins, 1 win and 3 draws or even (very unlikely) 6 draws. Anything more than this would be a bonus. I’ve ruled out getting anything against Liverpool and Manchester City. Even then 15 points might not be enough. But 15 or more points from the position we are in would give us a chance, particularly if we can at least avoid defeat against the other teams involved.

We have 6 home games and 5 away, we face four of the top five, two of the bottom three, three of the other contenders for 6th and 7th, plus Fulham and Palace. We need to begin with three points in this round of matches. If we don’t win against Burnley then we will be facing an uphill struggle to qualify. So that’s it – a whole article without mentioning the continuing Moyes In / Moyes Out issue that is still dominating the forums. Can we finish sixth or seventh? What are the chances?

Memories of fixtures against Everton as West Ham visit Goodison Park for the David Moyes derby

Once more an excellent article from Geoff published on Thursday ahead of our trip to Goodison Park this weekend. If you’ve missed it have a read now.

Following Monday night’s welcome victory against a faltering Brentford team I can now stop writing about (record breaking) winless runs. Let’s hope that the game was a sign of things to come in the remaining twelve games of the Premier League. Jarrod Bowen had gone five games without a goal ahead of the game, coinciding with our sequence of eight games in 2024 without a victory, but his well taken hat trick took us back up to eighth in the table. The reality is that we are probably fighting for seventh place and a return once again to the Europa Conference League. To get there I reckon we would need to keep all our key players fit, especially Paqueta, as the records show we can’t win games without him. At this stage it looks like a straight fight between ourselves, Brighton, Wolves, Newcastle and Chelsea for the final European place, but things can change of course.

Do you remember the fanzines that used to be produced and sold outside Upton Park as an alternative to the programmes produced by the club? They began in the 1980s and I remember reading On The Terraces, Home Alone, Fortunes Always Hiding, On A Mission, The Water in Majorca and many more that went by the wayside with the exception of one surviving printed publication that lasted right up to the end of the 2015-16 season. Did you know that Geoff and I used to write for that publication, Over Land and Sea (OLAS – edited by Gary Firmager) right up until the final edition, the last game at Upton Park against Manchester United in 2016? It was a shame that it came to an end and just like West Ham playing at the Boleyn Ground it was the end of an era. From the beginning of the following season after the move to the London Stadium Geoff and I started to write Under The Hammers. I had a look back through and a count up, and this article is the 1,106th.

I also wrote a book in 2016, Goodbye Upton Park, Hello Stratford, my personal story of following West Ham, reminiscing about great games, favourite players, games and goals, the triumphs and disappointments, and concentrated on the progress of the team game by game throughout that last remarkable and emotional season. I have been looking back at some of our old writing. I began in February 2015 and had a smile to myself when looking back at an article I wrote prior to the last game of the penultimate season (2014-15) which coincidentally was against this weekend’s opponents Everton. I’ll repeat one paragraph from the piece written prior to the game on 16 May 2015 – can you spot the similarity with the current situation?

“And when it comes down to the debate regarding the manager then fans continue to be divided. It is a permanent feature of forums. Some say that in terms of the league table he has done exactly what was expected, but others say that in terms of entertainment he hasn’t. We’ve had some good performances, a few superb ones, and many disappointing ones. The club’s stance is that nothing will be decided until the end of the season, but reports coming out this week very strongly suggest that Sam won’t be here next season. I’m sure he’ll get plenty of offers elsewhere. Will we be sorry if he goes? Perhaps today will be the last time we see him as our manager?”

We lost that final game of the season 2-1 with a stoppage time winner from Lukaku – remember how many times he used to score against us? For a time Everton were a real bogey team and at one stage we went around eight years without beating them in 90 minutes (16 league games from 2007 to 2016. That miserable run came to an end in March 2016 when we were trailing 2-0 at Goodison Park around 12 minutes from the end of the game, then scored three times though Antonio, Sakho and Payet). In many ways the 2-1 defeat in 2015 summed up that season in a nutshell. It did turn out to be Big Sam’s final game in charge and Slaven Bilic was appointed to be in charge for the final season at Upton Park. Ironically we qualified for Europe by virtue, not of our league placing (12th), but by coming top of the Premier League’s Fair Play League!

In reminiscing mode I can recall several memorable fixtures against Everton. Our FA Cup replay encounter with them in that penultimate season at Upton Park was one of the most exciting games against them I can remember. The score was 2-2 after extra time and a penalty shootout followed. It was tense as the score reached 8-8 when Adrian stepped up, threw his gloves to the ground and smashed home the winner.

There was also the classic FA Cup semi-final in 1980 when the first game ended 1-1 (Stuart Pearson) and then the replay was at Elland Road four days later. Do you remember Frank Lampard (senior) heading the winner and dancing around the corner flag to take us to Wembley, where, as a second-tier side we defeated Arsenal with Trevor Brooking’s header.

I also remember Trevor Sinclair making his debut for us on a cold January day in 1997 and scoring both goals in a 2-2 draw.

And then in the following year (1998) do you remember the Paolo Di Canio winning a FIFA Fair Play award on his own. At Goodison Park the game was locked at 1-1, the Everton keeper lay prone injured on the ground and the ball was crossed to Paolo who had the simple task of heading it into an empty net. So what did he do? He caught the ball to enable the Everton keeper to be treated. What went through my mind at the time was that the game would have been stopped just as quickly if he had headed it into the goal and we would have won the game, but nonetheless he chose not to and won many plaudits for his action including the Fair Play Award.

I was behind the goal in the Bobby Moore Stand in February 2000 when, with Sasa Ilic in goal (not his finest hour as a goalkeeper in his one and only appearance for us), we lost 4-0 with a terrible defensive performance riddled with errors and a fine game from Everton including a Nicky Barmby hat trick.

Another memory of an Everton game goes back to the 1976/77 season. I was standing on the North Bank (our favourite place to watch the games at Upton Park) when Ronnie Goodlass of Everton scored with a left footed shot past Mervyn Day from (in my memory) near to the dug-out. The game ended 2-2 and I remember it featuring on the Big Match (remember Brian Moore on Sunday afternoons? – those of you of a certain age will). I managed to find Goodlass’ goal on You Tube – it finished fourth in the Big Match Goal of the Season – and it wasn’t quite as far out as I remembered – perhaps about 45 yards.

Some West Ham links in that season’s Goal of the Season competition – an Alan Taylor goal (one of two he scored on the day) at Highbury in a 3-2 win there came third (remember he also scored twice there in our FA Cup quarter final in the cup winning season in 1975). Plus Derek Hales won the goal of the season playing for Charlton following a length of the field move, It was a superb team goal – do you remember he came to us for a short time a season or so later, scoring ten goals in around 20 appearances before being transferred back to Charlton?

Because of their continuing appearance in the top-flight of English football, we have faced them whenever we have been there too. That means that we have probably played games against them more often than most other teams. Looking back at the record books it seems we have played them 150 times in league and cup games – they have won exactly half of them (75), we have come out on top 44 times and 31 have been drawn. In Premier League games they have won more than half, 29 out of 55, we have won 13 and 13 have been drawn. The game earlier in the season at the London Stadium was a drab affair with Calvert-Lewin scoring the only goal of the game. I’m not expecting a goal fest to follow the six goals on Monday night. There has only been one goal in it in six of the last seven fixtures between the two sides. The only exception was our 2-0 victory last season at home when Jarrod Bowen scored two first half goals. While he is in goal-scoring mood perhaps he can nab the winner in this game too. What are the chances?

Were you there the last time West Ham beat Brentford in a league match?

This was how I began last week’s article prior to the game against Nottingham Forest:

“Once again Geoff hit the nail on the head with his article published on Thursday. Week after week we seem to be writing the same thing about the current state of the team, and the ongoing debate concerning the manager. The longer the winless run continues the further the pendulum will swing towards Moyes Out, especially with catastrophic performances like the one we witnessed last Sunday.”

For Sunday read Saturday but otherwise the same applies this week. We are slowly making our way down the Premier League for the second time this season. We began the campaign with ten points from four games and held second place in the table despite three of those four games being played away from home. The first slide began at that point with just one win and one draw in the next seven games seeing a descent into twelfth following the defeat at the hands of Monday’s opponents Brentford.

The revival began then with the next eleven league games producing six wins, four draws and just the solitary defeat (5-0 at Fulham). Somehow, despite some very average performances, we picked up 22 points from 11 games. Can you imagine us keeping that up for a whole season and finishing on 76 points from 38 games? No, nor can I. Of course there have been three defeats to follow that ‘eleven game run’.

At the turn of the year, after 19 games, at the halfway point in the season we sat in sixth. The three draws to begin 2024 meant that we stayed sixth but the teams below were catching up. Week by week we lost a place falling to seventh, eighth and currently ninth. As Geoff pointed out in his article by the time the Brentford game gets underway on Monday evening we will probably be tenth with Wolves likely to go past us (they are at home to Sheffield United on Sunday). If Chelsea had a league game rather than contesting the Carabao Cup Final against Liverpool on Sunday then we might have even been down in the bottom half once again as we were in early November.

Apart from Chelsea and Wolves we have a seven-point cushion above the team in twelfth, Fulham, so we are unlikely to fall any further in the near future. Our winless run since the start of 2024 in the league now stands at six games with three points from three draws in those games. Only one team in the Premier League has a worse record than that – Burnley have only collected two. Even bottom club Sheffield United have four!

The winless run in all competitions to begin the year 2024 has now reached eight after last week’s loss to Forest, equalling the winless record of Redknapp’s team at the beginning of 1997, and that of the team at the start of 1922, more than one hundred years ago. Failure to beat Brentford on Monday will create a new (unwanted) record of nine consecutive winless games.

Our current form doesn’t suggest that we can beat Brentford on Monday. Since they beat Forest 3-2 on 20th January (as we did last November) they have had a tough run of fixtures, losing 3-2 at Tottenham, and also to Liverpool and Manchester City (twice), the last game a narrow 1-0 defeat on Tuesday this week. They did also beat Wolves so they have collected six points in 2024.

Our record against Brentford since they came into the Premier League in 2021 makes for depressing reading. We have faced them five times in league games, two at home and three away losing all five games 2-0, 2-1, 2-0, 2-0, and 3-2. We did beat them 1-0 on their ground in the third round of the FA Cup a little over a year ago. Five defeats, and they scored at least twice in all five games. In the reverse fixture at the Gtech Community Stadium in November we were 1-0 down, led 2-1 (Bowen and Kudus) before losing 3-2.

If we do lose the game then we will equal another record. In the whole history of the top-flight in English football apparently only three teams have a 100% record involving more matches against a single opponent – 6 games. They are Manchester City (v Bournemouth), Arsenal (v Reading), and Nottingham Forest (v Portsmouth). That would be another unwanted record heading our way in this poor run.

Losing our last three games 6-0, 3-0 and 2-0 means it is now over 300 minutes since we scored a league goal (the Ward-Prowse penalty v Bournemouth). We haven’t failed to score and lost the game in four consecutive league games since Alan Pardew was in charge when the run extended to five in September / October 2006. Less than two months later he was gone. In the six winless league games of 2024 we have scored only one goal in open play in 540 minutes (9 hours!) – Cornet’s goal v Sheffield United.

Are you depressed yet? I’ll continue to look for ways that we might possibly win this game. Perhaps the return of Paqueta? Is he fit yet? His wife said he was fit weeks ago. He has started 18 out of our 25 league games this season. All 10 of our wins have come in those games. In the 7 games he has missed we have failed to win any of them. Also we have scored an average of 1.7 goals per game in the games he has started, and 0.7 goals per game in the games he has missed. It seems we can only win when he plays. Surely he has to start even if he is not 100% fit yet?

Do you know when we last beat Brentford in a league game? How far back does your memory go? It was over 30 years ago. It was the very first season of the Premier League but we weren’t in it following relegation at the end of 1991/92. We were in the second tier (ridiculously called Division One at the time!). In April 1993 we beat them 4-0 at Upton Park with goals from Kevin Keen, Trevor Morley, Martin Allen and Peter Butler. I was there on that Saturday afternoon with 16,000 others for that game. Following the match we were third in the league pushing for promotion (only two went up automatically then). We still had three games to play.

The following Saturday (again only 16,000) we beat Bristol Rovers (Julian Dicks penalty and David Speedie). I remember great humour from the Bristol Rovers away fans that day who were singing “we’re going down in a minute” as the match was drawing to a close. They were applauded by the whole stadium. We were still third. A week later we played on the Sunday away at Swindon and won 3-1 (Clive Allen, Kenny Brown and Trevor Morley).

The final game of the season was at home to Cambridge. We needed to win to ensure automatic promotion. Over 27,000 of us were there that day (I should think so too!), a record attendance at Upton Park that season. I can remember the tension being unbearable as we failed to score in the first half and went in 0-0 at the break. Fortunately goals from David Speedie and Clive Allen sealed a 2-0 win and we were in the Premier League for the first time! We were level on 88 points with Portsmouth in second but our goal difference was 40 (81-41) and theirs was 34 (80-46). Great memories and great entertainment too!

To put current attendance levels into perspective the biggest league crowd at Upton Park in in our first season in the Premier League (1993-94) was the 28,832 of us who turned up for the visit of Manchester United. We hardly managed to exceed 21,000 for most games with that figure only exceeded three times with a low of just above 15,000. I mention the Manchester United game specifically as that was played on February 26th1994, exactly thirty years to the day before the game against Brentford on Monday. We drew 2-2 that day (Lee Chapman and Trevor Morley). That season Manchester United finished as Champions and also we saw the end of terraces at Upton Park. We were all-seater for the beginning of the next season.

Can West Ham win at Nottingham Forest to avoid a run of eight winless games at the beginning of a calendar year? 

Once again Geoff hit the nail on the head with his article published on Thursday. Week after week we seem to be writing the same thing about the current state of the team, and the ongoing debate concerning the manager. The longer the winless run continues the further the pendulum will swing towards Moyes Out, especially with catastrophic performances like the one we witnessed last Sunday. There are still a number of fans, although the number must surely be dwindling, who are convinced that he should be offered a new contract, but it is hard to believe that they like what they see from week to week. 

It is mainly pundits, comprising the same ex-players that dominate our screens and airwaves, and journalists who continue to support Moyes and suggest that West Ham fans are giving him an undeserved hard time. One of the latest to join in is Ian Herbert who took a whole page of Wednesday’s Daily Mail to tell us that ‘Moyes deserves a better exit.’ At least he seems to agree that the end is approaching, but suggests that we, as fans, are not giving him a ‘longer credit line and greater appreciation’. 

He suggests that the calls for a manager like De Zerbi, who many feel would provide greater imagination and flair, provides a curious logic, given that ‘the supposed model manager’ has taken Brighton to ninth position in this season’s Premier League while West Ham are …. eighth. As far as the demands for Potter goes amongst the fans, he writes that he is out of work and very much available. But he adds the well-worn line that we, as West Ham fans, get thrown at us every week, should be careful what we wish for in Potter. In his view he is a coach lacking personal charisma who is no more a fit for the club than Moyes. 

His defence of Moyes extends to trying to deconstruct the notion that with him in charge it has all been grey, solid, dull football. He makes the point that in Moyes second spell in charge the club have scored more goals per game than under any manager in the Premier League era, and only Bilic managed more goals per game than Moyes in his first spell in charge. 

And then the heights to which Moyes has taken us are set out, as all his ‘defenders’ do. You know the ones – the club have managed five top seven finishes in the Premier League era and Moyes has been in charge for two of them. And of course the first trophy for 43 years.  

We all know this so why is there a ‘perception’ among the fans that the football is dull? We want to see a team that provides more entertainment. We want to see a squad that can move the club forward, greater depth in all positions, so that when key players are missing, others can come in to do a job. For how long have we been crying out for additions in certain positions where the squad has been depleted? 

We want to see better team selection, not full backs deployed on the left wing. We want to see greater ambition; we don’t want the team to try to hang on the slender leads when we have them, we want to see our team go for the jugular. We want a manager who can make adjustments during the game when it is necessary to do so not just continue to rely on Plan A.  

We want a manager who will play the players in their best positions to get the best out of them. We don’t want four central midfielders lining up at the start of a game. We want a manager who will make less predictable substitutions. Why do we always have to wait until it is seemingly too late to make changes during a game that might affect the outcome? When we are behind we don’t want to see like for like defensive substitutions, we want to have a go.  

We want to see better use of successful Academy players. Don’t throw them all in at once of course, but at least give them a taste when appropriate to do so. We don’t want players picked because they seem to be favourites who, on the odd occasion, because of their height will win the ball in the air, whilst at the same time lacking an inability to control the ball or pass successfully to a team mate. 

We want to be entertained with flair and style. Perhaps we want too much. Be thankful for what we have they say. Be careful what you wish for. The grass isn’t always greener etc. etc. I’ll thank David Moyes for his time at the club, and for his achievements. His record is decent, but as I have written before, I believe that most football managers (with very few exceptions) have a shelf-life that expires. Has the ‘best before’ date already been reached or gone past? 

When was the last time a West Ham team began a calendar year without a win in seven games (all competitions)? I’ve been trawling through the records to try to find out. In 1998/99, a season with Harry Redknapp in charge where we eventually finished fifth, we began the 1999 calendar year poorly, failing to win until the seventh game, ironically against Nottingham Forest on 13th February. 

I’ve now found it. In 1996/97, again in Redknapp’s time, we went winless in the first eight games of 1997 before defeating Tottenham 4-3 at Upton Park. Failure to win at Nottingham Forest this weekend will see us equal that (unwanted) record. 

Out of interest I went all the way back to the 1958/59 season to see if I could find any other winless periods of more than seven games at the start of a calendar year. I couldn’t find any so I went back to when we joined the Football League in 1919. The calendar year 1922 started poorly with a run of eight winless games, but despite that we still finished fourth in Football League Division Two in 1921/22. I did find examples of longer consecutive winless games at other stages of seasons. There are a few odd examples of 8, 9, 10 or 11 games in a row without a win, which not surprisingly included some relegation campaigns.  

The longest consecutive winless runs I found were 12 in the 2002/03 relegation season (Glenn Roeder) – ironically the final 12 games in the calendar year (2002), and the biggest of all was the 13 winless games at the very beginning of the 1973/74 season. In fact that season we only won one of the first 21 games between August 8th and early December. But incredibly we rallied in the second half and lost only 3 league games from the beginning of 1974 to the end of the season and avoided relegation by one point.  

1968/69 was an interesting season during which we had a consecutive run of 9 winless games twice. In the first half of the season the winless run came to an end when we beat Sunderland 8-0 (the Geoff Hurst 6 game), and then we also didn’t win any of the final 9 games but still ended up a creditable eighth.  

With the run of games coming up surely the winless run won’t extend much further to match any of those I’ve referred to above? If it does then perhaps a new manager will be appointed sooner rather than later.  

Can West Ham beat Arsenal for the third time this season?

It has only been a little over three months since we faced Arsenal for the first time this season in the EFL Cup. On the evening of 1st December Arsenal were below par, they left some key players including our old captain on the bench and VAR was on our side by not being there. If it had been in operation the opening goal might have been ruled out for Soucek holding Ramsdale’s shirt. The outcome of the game might have been different.

Arsenal’s domination of possession (72%) meant nothing when Kudus superbly controlled Aguerd’s 50 yard pass and fired home, and then Bowen made it three. Odegaard pulled one back with the final kick in the game but this meant nothing and we were through to the next round.

A little under two months later we travelled to North London to face them in a Premier League game. Once again we won the game. Arsenal’s undoing was their inability to convert possession (up to 74% this time) and domination (30 shots to 6) into goals. Some controversy over the first goal but VAR was unable to confirm whether or not the ball had gone out before Bowen hooked it back for Soucek to score. Mavropanos added a second with an excellent header early in the second half. The score line could have been even worse for the Gunners when Rice gave away a last minute penalty, but Benrahma’s effort was comfortably saved by Raya. That was the halfway point in the season and we were on 33 points, our highest ever total at this stage of a Premier League campaign. 

Six weeks later and we are meeting them for the third time. Two wins, a 5-1 aggregate, how can we go wrong? Well, since that win at the Emirates we haven’t won a game in six attempts, as poor a start to a calendar year as we have made in more than 25 years. We have not been at full strength and unfortunately without our first choice eleven we struggle.

The 3-0 defeat to Manchester United last Sunday was perhaps a slightly improved performance when compared to recent games. We had almost 50 percent possession and 22 shots on goal, but as proved in the Arsenal games, possession and shots counts for nothing in the end, only goals count. Our xg was better than theirs too so do we get consolation points for that? Of course not. The game is full of statistics but until they start tinkering with the points system (and let’s hope they don’t!) it will remain as goals that count and nothing else.

Talking of tinkering have you read this week about the forthcoming trials for blue cards to be introduced alongside the yellow and red ones that currently exist? As I understand it for certain misdemeanours (cynical fouls or dissent) players will be shown a blue card and sent to a sin bin for 10 minutes. I have also read many positive comments by some who want this to happen. Is it me – am I the only person who think the idea is bonkers and will ruin the game? I may be wrong but I can just imagine teams with a player sitting out for 10 minutes attempting to waste time, taking as long as they can get away with to take goal kicks and throw ins, and perhaps trying to keep the ball near the corner flag? Just because they do it in rugby doesn’t mean it would be right for football. But based on what I have read I am in the minority with my view. Or am I?

I’ve also read that the Premier League don’t intend to use semi automated offside technology next season as they don’t think it is accurate enough. Wasn’t it used in the World Cup in Qatar? Don’t they use it in the Champions League? But not good enough for the Premier League eh? They prefer their people in Stockley Park taking an age to draw lines. Mmm.

If you haven’t yet read Geoff’s article published on Friday then take a look now. The Moyes love him or hate him debate continues among our fans. Will he get a new contract? If Paqueta returns soon and we keep a fit first eleven then we might just do enough in the remainder of the season for the board to give him one. I think that would be a mistake. Results wise he has done a good job. Entertainment not so. I don’t believe that the two are mutually exclusive. The two can co-exist. I believe that football managers have a limited shelf life with individual clubs. With few exceptions I believe that both the clubs and the managers themselves benefit from moving on elsewhere. It’s probably true of many jobs.

So can we beat Arsenal for the third time this season? It would put a dent in their chase for the title if we did. Bookmakers don’t give us much of a chance. You can get odds of around 5/1 if you fancy our chances; Arsenal are around 2/1 on. I’d love it if we did win but I just can’t see it based on our recent form since the turn of the year. Seven consecutive winless games certainly won’t help the manager in his contract negotiations! It’s almost twenty years since we did the league double over Arsenal. When did we last beat them three times in a season? In 1924-25 we actually played them six times. We won both league games by an odd goal, we knocked them out of the FA Cup at the third time of asking after two drawn games, and in the London FA Challenge Cup we beat them again. Four times in one season! 

History and current form suggests that West Ham will not win at Old Trafford on Sunday

The Hammers haven’t yet won a match in 2024 in five attempts. They haven’t gone winless in six games at the start of a calendar year for 25 years.

It is difficult to add to Geoff’s excellent article published yesterday. It seems incredible that we are sitting sixth in the Premier League after 22 games of the season, and on current form (the last five matches) we are one of only three teams who haven’t been beaten, the other two being Liverpool and Manchester City. But we haven’t won a single game in 2024 at five attempts either. And not exactly the toughest fixtures.

A goalless draw at home to Brighton to begin the year with the Seagulls being the better team, two games against a mediocre Bristol City team that knocked us tamely out of the FA Cup, outplayed at the bottom club Sheffield United, albeit robbed by some atrocious officiating, and then finally lucky to snatch a draw at home to a Bournemouth side who looked far more dangerous but saved by a mixture of poor finishing and some excellent saves from Areola. The headline writers loved having a go at Phillips for the Bournemouth goal – for me Zouma was far more culpable.

At the same time the entertainment is dire, and despite all the rumours, nobody was added to the squad to boost our attacking options in the transfer window which closed this week. And what was all that nonsense that led to the delayed departures of Benrahma and Fornals? The manager is allegedly on the verge of signing a new two-and-a-half year contract which will delight the Moyes luvvies and the “careful what you wish for brigade” whilst enraging supporters looking for more entertainment who believe that we have players who could achieve so much more with a less cautious approach.

Manchester United are next, and there isn’t a lot of history or current form to suggest that we’ll achieve anything in this game. We haven’t won there in the league for many years, not since the infamous Tevez goal that kept us in the top-flight in 2007. That was the last time we did the double over them too. In fact we beat them in three consecutive league fixtures at that time for the first time since the 1970s. An unlikely win in this game would enable us to match the three wins in a row once again. We have beaten them eight times since 2007, but seven of those have been home fixtures, and our only away win came in the league cup a couple of years ago.

In 55 Premier League meetings they have won 33, 13 have been drawn, and we have won 9, including the last two, both at the London Stadium. They have scored more than 100 goals against us in those games and we haven’t yet scored 50. Late goals from Bowen and Kudus did however enable us to win a fairly drab game just before Christmas.

If we avoid defeat then that would be seven league games in a row, but conversely if we don’t win then that would be six games in all competitions at the beginning of a calendar year without winning a game, something that hasn’t happened for 25 years!

David Moyes time at the helm for Manchester United lasted just 34 league matches, and this will apparently be the 34th Premier League game where he is taking charge against them. When facing them he has never won a league game at Old Trafford.  

You have to go back to the record-breaking season of 1985-86 to find a West Ham victory over Manchester United in the month of February when Cottee and Ward scored the goals in a 2-1 win at Upton Park in front of just 22,000 fans. Our sole February victory in a league game at Old Trafford came in 1929, 95 years ago this week. The attendance that day was a mere 12,000!

So there is very little to suggest that we can win this time. But I’m forever hopeful! What are the chances?

Robbed by the officials at Sheffield United, can West Ham push on in the league when Bournemouth visit on Thursday evening?

The Post Office Horizon scandal is one of the worst miscarriages of justice I can recall. It involved faulty accounting software creating false shortfalls in the accounts of many sub postmasters leading to over 900 convictions of theft, fraud and false accounting, and at the same time destroying thousands of lives. It took a TV series (Mr Burns versus the Post Office) to speed up the system of getting justice to all those who had been wronged.

Whilst not wishing to classify football in the same way, the officiating of our game at Sheffield United, particularly in the latter stages of the match, was in my opinion a scandal in footballing terms, and was one of the worst examples of poor refereeing and lack of use of VAR I’ve seen. Unfortunately, there are far too many recent examples of ineptitude in this respect. How can officials and VAR get so much wrong? It defies belief.

I’ll start by saying that based on our performance in the game I don’t believe we deserved to get more than a point. The lack of depth in the squad when we have injuries and lack of availability of first choice players was highlighted clearly in our failure to dominate against a team at the foot of the table and staring relegation in the face. I’ll also add that I am a fan of VAR too. But I’m not a fan of the clowns who operate the system. However we would have had three points from the game if the officials and VAR had done their job.

I’ll start with the penalty awarded to us about ten minutes before the end of the ninety. This was a straightforward decision for a referee who gave it when Ings (who had a surprisingly good game based on what we’ve seen from him so far in a West Ham shirt) was clearly caught. VAR seemed to take quite a time to ratify that the decision was correct. Why?

As we entered time added on, Brewster launched himself at Emerson, off the floor, out of control at speed, the clearest of sending off tackles you’ll ever see. Incredibly the referee (Salisbury) only showed him a yellow card. At least on this occasion VAR sent him to the monitor and he upgraded the card. We had the correct decision eventually, but how he didn’t give it in the first place was amazing.

We now had a 2-1 lead and 11 v 10. Surely the three points were safe? Coufal continued with his angry mood of recent games and once again seemed to enjoy fouling opponents and looking innocent when penalised. Reacting angrily to the shocking tackle earned him a yellow card and then he unprofessionally stamped on McAtee’s foot and we were 10v10.

The game was well into overtime when a ball was launched into the West Ham area, and as Areola went to punch it clear he had an arm into his face from substitute McBurnie and was left with a bloody lip and had to be treated and leave the field. For me it was a clear free kick to us and yet somehow the referee saw it another way and awarded a penalty. Never mind I thought to myself, thank heavens we’ve got VAR to rectify this nonsensical decision. They keep banging on with the phrase ‘clear and obvious error’ and this was as clear and obvious as it gets. I looked back on the timing afterwards. From the point that the penalty was awarded it was a further 4 minutes and 28 seconds before the kick was taken. How frustrating is it that in all that time that VAR had to look at the incident with all the camera angles and the evidence clearly showing on Areola’s mouth, they stood by the original decision, and didn’t even suggest that the referee had a look on the monitor.

We were now more than 12 minutes overtime when the penalty went in and we thought it was all over. But there was still time for us to kick off and in no time at all yet another astonishing refereeing decision which even capped the one a little earlier was to happen. In an attempt to get to Ben Johnson’s cross Bowen was wrestled to the ground by Ahmedhodzic who wasn’t even looking at the ball coming over. The referee awarded a free kick to Sheffield United. If a referee can honestly believe that McBurnie was fouled and yet the rugby tackle on Bowen wasn’t a foul then something is clearly wrong with the standard of officials and VAR.

Perhaps a TV series, Mr Burns versus referees and VAR would highlight to the nation that something needs to be done? Had the penalty that we should have been awarded been converted, and I’ve no doubt that JWP would have been successful then we would now be sitting on 37 points in sixth place, five clear of seventh place Brighton. In form terms relating to the last five league matches we would have had 13 points, a total that no team in the Premier League can better. The ineptitude of officials and VAR leaves us on 11, still the third best in the league.

Looking at our form I’ve gone back to Wednesday 1st November to see the results of our games in the three months prior to our meeting with Bournemouth coming up on 1st February. It has been a busy three months in which we’ve played 18 games. We’ve won 10 of them, drawn 4 and lost 4.

In the Premier League we have played 11, won 6, drawn 3 and lost 2. In the process we have defeated Burnley, Forest, Tottenham, Wolves, Manchester United and Arsenal. The two defeats were disappointing affairs losing 3-2 at Brentford after leading 2-1 and getting thrashed 5-0 at Fulham.

In the Europa League we won all our three games with 4 goals scored and none conceded to progress to the last 16.

The domestic cups have been disappointing. After a convincing win over Arsenal we surrendered at Liverpool in the EFL Cup, and then failed to beat Bristol City in two attempts in the FA Cup.

With 17 league games to go, the addition of an experienced England international to the squad (Phillips), and players returning from AFCON and injury, then surely we can push on to qualify for Europe once again? We will if we can retain our current league position of course. But can we?

As I write this on Tuesday evening prior to the five games being played tonight we have the usual West Ham situation as the transfer window closure approaches; we are no nearer to knowing if we will add any more new players to the squad. Jota and Osman in, Benrahma and Fornals out are the main rumours but who knows? There are always complications of one sort or another where West Ham are concerned.

This is one of those games that it is important to win if we are to maintain our challenge towards the top of the table. I’m on a roll as I predicted a 2-2 draw at Sheffield United (my first correct West Ham result forecast this season). I’ll go for a 3-1 win. What are the chances?

How much of a surprise was West Ham’s defeat to Bristol City in the FA Cup?

Last Tuesday night the BBC took their cameras to the Ashton Gate stadium. I wonder why they went there? No, in fact I know why they went there. They just love it when a lower division team knocks a team from the Premier League out of the FA Cup and this game was one that stood out as a potential win for the Championship side. I’ve read reports since that described the game as a shock result, a surprising result or an upset. Was it really?

We went into the game without our most influential players Kudus, Paqueta, Alvarez, Aguerd and Bowen. Key fringe players like Antonio and Fornals were missing too. We lined up at the start with a front three of Ings, Cornet and Benrahma, none of whom had scored a goal this season, but all of whom have been capped by their respective nations.

Ings, an international footballer (hard to believe if you’ve seen him in a West Ham shirt) has scored just three times in over 40 games for the Hammers, admittedly many as a substitute. He just does not fit into the West Ham style, and his alleged vast salary seems to make him even more of a target to the Hammers faithful. The early promise of Benrahma when he signed from Brentford has now seemingly totally disappeared. His form is very poor and he was quite rightly sent off for kicking out after he had been fouled, although conversely Taylor Gardner-Hickman was very lucky to escape with only a yellow card for his assault on Cresswell.

Cornet is a mystery to me. An Ivory Coast international with 30 caps he seems to have been frequently injured, but not picked when available, and the nearest he has come to scoring in a claret and blue shirt in East London was hitting the post in one of his early appearances for us against Chelsea when it would have been easier to score. Before the game it looked like we would have difficulty scoring with those three up front, and so it proved. Ings did make a turn and shot from outside the area that went wide, but that was his only real contribution that I can remember.

The game was barely underway when Mavropanos (for the second time this season) tried a suicidal back pass which resulted in an early goal for the opposition. Our Greek defender had a sorry night. His defensive duties (apart from being the culprit for the goal) were OKish but his distribution was woeful. Look back at the game and see how many of his forward passes were successful. He frequently gave the ball to our opponents. Zouma and Cresswell, never the fastest players, seemed to be running in sand all night and were frequently outpaced. Fabianski didn’t have a lot to do as Bristol City weren’t much of an attacking threat either, but he did OK with what he had to save. But was he a little slow off his line for the backpass? Would Areola have been there quicker?

Coufal continued with his angry mood of recent games and once again seemed to enjoy fouling opponents and looking innocent when penalised. Soucek had a frustrating time too, failing to control the ball and passing waywardly far too often.

So that just leaves JWP of the starting eleven who had an OK game I thought, at least his passing generally went to a team-mate. And finally Emerson who was the stand-out performer for us in my opinion (not much to beat though!) who had a good game as a wing back with some probing runs forward, but with not a lot of help from others. Johnson looked surprisingly good going forward too when he replaced Coufal, and our other two substitutes, Marshall and Mubama were given little time to impress. I couldn’t believe how long it took for our two forward substitutes to be introduced given our lack of effectiveness in an attacking sense with less than 10 minutes of the 90 remaining. In the few minutes available Mubama’s control and passing didn’t look too great, but Marshall did enough in that short time to suggest to me he should be given further opportunities.

One set of ratings I saw on BBC Sport had Emerson as the standout player for us with 5.77, followed by Fabianski 4.86, Johnson 4.8, Marshall 4.68, JWP 4.62, Soucek 4.53, Zouma 4.14, Coufal 4.08, Cresswell 3.8, Mubama 3.57, Cornet 3.27, Mavropanos 2.88, Ings 2.8, Benrahma 2.39. The ratings are based on fans giving players marks out of 10 and averaged. I couldn’t disagree too much with the overall findings but they do reflect how poorly we played according to those who bothered to add their scores.

The post-match statistics said that we had two goal attempts on target. A Soucek volley straight at the keeper and … you’ll have to remind me of the other one. Rightly or wrongly that was how I saw the game, and once again the anti-Moyes and pro-Moyes keyboard warriors were out in force after the match. In his post-match summary Moyes highlighted looking forward to the European games and our good position in the league. How convincing was he when he said it was disappointing to go out of the Cup?

An eight-man bench comprising two goalkeepers and five academy players highlighted the need (which many of us fans have known for a long time) for greater depth to be added to the squad. Our first eleven when all fit is a decent side, but beyond that this game demonstrated that we are lacking quality to come into the side when injuries and lack of availability are taken into account.

But how much of a surprise was the result? We have ‘form’ in this respect. A ‘non-scientific’ study of West Ham’s performances in domestic cup competitions in the 65 or so years that I have followed the team suggests that we have ‘probably’ been knocked out of the FA Cup or League Cup more times by lower league opposition than any other team in England.

Beginning in 1960, a list of just some of the teams who have eliminated us reads as follows: Huddersfield, Stoke, Darlington, Plymouth, Rotherham, Blackburn, Swindon, Huddersfield (again), Coventry, Mansfield, Middlesbrough, Blackpool, Huddersfield (yet again), Stockport County, Hull City, Hereford, Swindon (again), Newport County, Wrexham, Watford, Birmingham, Barnsley, QPR, Luton, Norwich, Oldham, Torquay, Oxford, Norwich (again), Sunderland, Crewe, Barnsley (again), Luton (again), Bolton, QPR (again), Grimsby Town, Stockport County (again), Wrexham (again), Northampton Town, Swansea, Tranmere, Sheffield Wednesday, Reading, Oldham (again), Bolton (again), Chesterfield, Watford (again), Middlesbrough, Aldershot, Sheffield Wednesday (again), Nottingham Forest, Sheffield United, Wigan, and now Bristol City. Quite a list.

I have probably missed one or two but the teams listed above were I believe either in a lower division to ourselves, or perhaps relegated (or finished very close to bottom) from the same division in the season in question. Of course, cup upsets happen, but I wonder if there are any other top-flight clubs who can match this record in domestic cup competitions?

After conceding five at Fulham, three clean sheets in a row for West Ham who face the visit of Brighton to begin the New Year

Three defeats in consecutive games have been followed by 19 points from our last eight league games. Meet the unpredictables!

We travelled across London to Brentford on the day before Guy Fawkes. We fell behind, then went in front, then lost the game 3-2 to slip into the bottom half of the Premier League table for the first time after a promising start to the 2023-24 season. What came next in the eight remaining league games of the calendar year wasn’t something that many of us would have predicted.

Four home games against Forest, Palace, Wolves and Manchester United yielded ten points. Not the toughest run of fixtures but nevertheless a good haul and a big improvement on the previous four home league games which had produced just four points. It was disappointing to miss out on the maximum from the four home matches where the Palace equaliser was a gift. Beware Greeks bearing gifts they say.

The four away league games were at Burnley, Fulham, Tottenham and Arsenal. Once again three were won and one was lost. Not just lost, we were slaughtered. Before the games you would have taken nine points wouldn’t you? But if you knew beforehand that three of those games would be won with scores of 2-1, 2-1 and 2-0 and one would be lost 5-0, I don’t think you’d have guessed which one was the defeat.

So there we are, an eight game run in the league with six wins, one draw and one defeat. 15 goals scored and 10 conceded, half of them in one disastrous game. And amazingly three clean sheets to finish off the year. We’d only had one in the 16 previous league games. The halfway point in the season; 19 games, nine at home and ten away, sixth place with 33 points. A year ago after 19 games we had 15 points. That’s one hell of an improvement. But that’s West Ham as all of us long standing supporters will know. We never were, and probably never will be the most consistent team around.

Oh, and in between those last eight league games we all but gifted Liverpool a place in the semi-final of the Carabao Cup, once again conceding five in a 5-1 defeat, but conversely progressed to the last 16 (knock out stage) of the Europa League comfortably beating Freiburg to top the league group for a third year running in Europe.

A European trophy to end last season too, but still the natives (or a proportion – I’m not sure exactly how many) are restless. A trawl through social media sites reveals a continual issue with the manager, the style of play etc. If you’re reading this you know how it goes. There’s quite an unnecessary nastiness among some of the conflicting groups (the Moyes luvvies and the Moyes haters as I’ve seen them called).

Football is a game of opinions and everybody is entitled to their own. Lively debate is good fun and in the end it’s great when people can have their say but then accept that others have opinions that will differ from their own. It’s a pity that some have to resort to personal, often rude remarks rather than debate, but that’s life, and exaggerated throughout social media. Unfortunately there is a culture in football (and life generally) that everything is black or white, love or hate, with no in between.

This is the 32nd season of the Premier League and we’ve been in 28 of them. Fifth is our highest finishing position with 57 points in 1998-99 when we won 16 games but had a negative goal difference for the season. Harry Redknapp was manager and in four of his six seasons in charge we finished in the top half, but we never managed a positive goal difference. In fact we’ve only scored more goals than we’ve conceded three times in those 28 seasons, in the final season 2015/16 at Upton Park when we finished 7th under Slaven Bilic (diff +14), and twice under David Moyes in 2020/21 (6th – diff +15), and in 2021/22 (7th – diff +9).

This season at the halfway stage we have won 10 games, have 33 points and have scored 33 goals. If we can replicate this performance in the second half of the campaign we will end up with 20 wins, 66 points, and 66 goals, all three figures would be new best figures for West Ham in our 28 seasons in the Premier League. The wins and points best figures were both achieved with David Moyes as manager. Having said that we’ve conceded 30 goals so far, so if we don’t improve on that and end up conceding 60 that would be a figure beaten only 5 times in those 28 seasons. The most was 2009/10 under Avram Grant (70) plus the worst goal difference (-27). Incidentally the least goals conceded in a Premier League season was in 2008/09 when just 45 went into our net. Who was the manager then? Gianfranco Zola.

So what will happen when we face Brighton? I haven’t a clue. As always I’m hoping for a win, lots of goals scored and a clean sheet. It would be great to repeat our 3-1 win there in August. But this is West Ham. There can’t be many teams as unpredictable as we are. Happy New Year!