Match – Page 83 – Under The Hammers

West Ham down @ the Riverside

Can the long trip north to face the ‘smoggies’ end with another breath of fresh air for the Irons?

Boro West Ham Owners, managers and players may come and go but there are certain characteristics of following West Ham that appear eternal; excursions ‘oop’ north being rarely fruitful, complacency rather confidence flowing from an encouraging performance and any team or player on a long run of misfortune seeing it come to an end it against the Hammers. So a long trek to the frozen and inhospitable north-east, off the back of a solid win against Palace to play a team that has only scored once in their last four league games ticks all the boxes marked disappointment.

[Andy Carroll]’s got a whiplash injury. He then trained Tuesday very hard, he was brilliant in training, but then reported some neck pain. But as I say, hopefully he will be okay. We have a few with knocks – Winston Reid has a painful one and Sam Byram has a knock on his knee, it was swollen and he missed training on Wednesday. Also Sofiane Feghouli missed training on Wednesday because of a minor problem with his Achilles. But I’m very optimistic that all of them are going to be fit for the game on Saturday.

– Slaven Bilic on injuries

Middlesbrough have been a member of the football league since 1899 and their haul of one League Cup and one Anglo-Scottish Cup makes our own trophy cabinet look cluttered by comparison. The most notable things that I can recall about Boro are: that they paid the first £1,000 transfer fee, to buy Alf Common, in 1905 (£110,000 in today’s money); that Brian Clough scored an incredible 197 goals in 213 appearances for them; that they were once relegated after having a points deduction for failing to fulfil a fixture against Blackburn Rovers; and that the most interesting game on their home soil was when North Korea beat Italy at Ayresome Park in a 1966 world cup group match. Despite their lack of success I believe most football supporters will acknowledge the excellent job done by Steve Gibson during his time as board member and chairman of the club; an associated that commenced in 1986.

The challenge for West Ham today is to show that the togetherness shown last weekend was not just a one-off reaction to the Payet palaver and can be harnessed once more against the parsimonious Teesiders.

Head to Head

West Ham’s record against Middlesbrough is one of those that reflects a mirror home versus away image. Overall we have had a few more wins while they have scored more goals; but on the whole it is very even. Our last visit to the Riverside Stadium in November 2011 ended in a 2-0 victory with a goal apiece from lethal strikers Piquionne and Cole. Mark Noble is the sole survivor from the 13 players that featured for West Ham that day.

In the last 12 league encounters there have been 5 West Ham wins, 4 draws and 3 defeats.

	P	W	D	L	F	A	Sequence
Home	30	17	6	7	47	30	DDWDWW
Away	31	8	7	16	30	53	WLDWLL
	61	25	13	23	77	83

Team News

No new long term injuries are reported for the Hammers and the three players with knocks (Reid, Byram and Feghouli) should all be available as should Andy Carroll who had suffered an unusual whiplash injury either in scoring his memorable bicycle kick goal or celebrating it afterwards. We can but hope that common sense prevails today and that we start with Byram at right back and with Antonio just behind Carroll in a sort of 4-4-1-1 formation. It is possible to get too hung up about formations and a good team needs to be adaptable and retain a degree of fluidity; we were close to showing that in the second half performance against Palace.

“He [Andy Carroll] is a player you always have to be careful of – but if we are just looking at him, [Michail] Antonio can score or [Sofiane] Feghouli can score or [Manuel] Lanzini can score… or anyone,”

– Aitor Karanka talking up our chances

Typically our first transfer signing of the latest window came too late to feature this afternoon. Jose Fonte had not played for Saints since the game against Everton on 2 January (in his last two games they conceded 7 goals). In West Ham terms this means a minimum of four weeks to get match fit before picking up a serious injury in training. The Fonte signing is rather underwhelming to me for although Fonte is a decent player he is the wrong age profile for a club that is, at the same time, ambitious and prone to counting the pennies. A possible mitigation to the transfer is the rumour that one of our centre-backs is carrying an injury that requires immediate surgery. If that is the case then we should hope it is Ogbonna rather than Reid.

For Middlesbrough, Gaston Ramirez and Antonio Barragan are injured and Daniel Ayala is suspended but new signing Patrick Bamford is available to play.

As often happens I will allow hope to triumph over expectation and will go for a narrow West Ham win.

Man in the Middle

Martin Atkinson from West Yorkshire is the referee today. Previously this season he was in charge when we lost at home to Watford and when we won away at Palace, famously sending off Aaron Cresswell for two harsh/ incorrect yellow card offences in one minute. In 20 games this season (all competitions) he has administered 83 Yellow cards plus that single, solitary, spurious Red.

Middlesbrough Preview

Can we continue where we left off in the second half against Palace?

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After the euphoria of our magnificent second half performance against Palace last week, we head to the North-East to face what I believe to be one of the most uninteresting teams in the Premier League, Middlesbrough. They certainly do not seem to play in games where there are many goals, and they are the only team in the League where the average goals per game (for both sides playing) is less than 2. With just 39 goals scored by them and their opponents combined in 21 games, I guess (although I haven’t checked), that they usually feature later on Match of the Day than we do.

They have scored a paltry 17 goals in 21 games, the least in the league, with only one goal in their last four games. Southampton are the next lowest on 19. Defensively, though, they are one of the top teams in the division, having conceded only 22 goals, a figure bettered by only Tottenham, Chelsea, and Manchester United. So on past performance this season we shouldn’t expect a lot of goals in the game.

They currently sit in 16^th place in the table, just four points above the relegation zone, and will no doubt be hoping that their excellent defensive record will keep them out of the bottom three. They will certainly hope that they are clear of the drop zone as the season nears the end, as in four of their final six matches they face Arsenal, Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool.

In the season to date they are the draw specialists of the Premier League, having drawn eight of the 21 games (they have won four and lost nine). Their draws included a 1-1 draw in the reverse fixture at the London Stadium at the beginning of October, when a wonderful individual effort from a French international player who doesn’t want to play for us anymore rescued a point. The four teams they have beaten are their North-East neighbours, Sunderland, plus Bournemouth, Hull and Swansea. Of course we have beaten the same four teams plus Burnley and Palace (twice).

One player we need to watch out for is Middlesbrough’s leading scorer, Negredo, who is on a season-long loan from Valencia, having previously been at Manchester City in recent times. Negredo has only scored (I believe) 14 goals in all the time he has spent in England, but five of them have come against West Ham! Another one of the opposition who we know well is Stewart Downing, although he appears to have fallen out of favour in recent times. They paid a lot of money to buy Jordan Rhodes from Blackburn on transfer deadline day a year ago (the fee was undisclosed, although Blackburn had previously rejected an offer of £10 million for him), but he barely gets a look in and hasn’t scored in his rare appearances this season. On 18 January they completed the transfer of Patrick Bamford from Chelsea for £6million. When he was on loan there previously in 2014-15 he scored 19 goals in 44 appearances, so he has been bought to improve their poor scoring record. I wonder if he will be in the team?

Changing the subject, I have another statistic for those people who are interested in the effect on our results of our move to the London Stadium. So far this season we have played 11 games at home in the league and have accrued 17 points. Last season we had one of our best ever seasons in recent years, and our highest points total ever achieved in the Premier League era. So how many points do you think that we picked up at “fortress” Upton Park in the first 11 games there in that last record breaking season? Yes, you are right – 17!

Our failing this season has really come away from home. Last season we collected 16 points in our first 10 away games of the season, whereas this time around we have only picked up 8 from the same number of games. The difference in points accrued for the season to date can be accounted for solely by our away form; our home form (in terms of points picked up, if not level of performance) is identical.

The transfer window continues to let in a draught, if not any players, at the time of writing. Are we waiting on Payet’s potential exit to free up money to buy players and pay salaries within the Financial Fair Play limits? I’m afraid that the Profitability and Sustainability rules within Financial Fair Play leave me cold, and I fail to understand how they work. At first glance they appear to be totally in favour of helping big clubs get bigger, and making it virtually impossible for other clubs to close the gap. But what do I know?

I keep reading about Hogan, Snodgrass, Defoe and others but I guess we’ll have to keep on waiting until the window is about to slam shut to see if anything happens. Our position in the table is looking more comfortable now, and I hope we don’t just throw good money after short-term fixes to appease the fans who are desperate to see new players. Of course we need a right back and a goalscorer, but let’s hope that any incoming players are ones that can actually improve the team as opposed to the squad. Geoff summed up the situation well in his article Sliding Through The Transfer Window on January 18, so I’ll add no more here.

Back to the game, I would guess that there won’t be too many goals, but I am hoping for us to continue where we left off against Palace and record our third away win of the season. I’ll go for 2-1.

As I write this at 9pm on the eve of the game I note that Fonte has finally put pen to paper. No news yet re Hogan, or any other signings, and conflicting reports regarding the exit of Payet. Fonte is a surprise signing in some respects, although having seen some Southampton games, I am convinced that he is a signing that will add to the quality of the actual team, as opposed to just the squad. He is obviously not a long term acquisition, but I guess fewer and fewer players are these days. Is it me, or are our transfer dealings more protracted than those of other clubs?

West Ham 3 v 0 Palace

What constitutes a great goal?

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When I wrote my book, Goodbye Upton Park, Hello Stratford, I posed this very question in Chapter 23, where I wrote about my 60 favourite West Ham goals. Goals can be scored in a variety of ways. A spectacular volley, a long range screamer, a team goal scored as a culmination of a number of passes, a deflection, an element of luck, a tap in, a goal which requires superb technique. These are just some of the ways that a goal can be scored. A goal can seem greater, and hence remembered more, if it is a critical goal in a close match, as opposed to say, one of the goals scored in a one-sided game. But however it is scored doesn’t really matter because in the final analysis, every one counts as a goal; you don’t get anything extra based on the degree of difficulty.

I think that my colleague, and co-weblogger, Geoff, is particularly fond of team goals, and I like those too, although my absolute favourites tend to be those that require great technique. My favourite goal of all time was scored by Martin Peters against Leicester in November 1968. This was a team move that went from one end of the pitch to the other, culminating in Peters’ superb technique in hitting a volley from a ball that came over his shoulder, and his thunderous shot that almost decapitated Shilton in the opposition goal as it sped into the roof of the North Bank net.

My second favourite (in 2001) came from a corner taken by Schemmel, who played the ball in the air to Joe Cole who was standing near the corner of the penalty area. With a couple of touches and masterful ball control, without the ball touching the ground, Joe volleyed the ball to the opposite side, where Trevor Sinclair took off, and with an acrobatic scissor kick blasted the ball into the corner of the Derby net.

Number 3 was a volley scored by Harry Redknapp of all people, the winning goal in a 4-3 victory over QPR. Once again this was a great team move ending in a stunning volley from Harry. This goal had almost everything, a superb build up, pin-point cross, brilliant finish, and winning goal, all in one.

On Saturday we were treated to another goal that will live long in the memory from Andy Carroll. A good move was ended when Antonio’s cross, perhaps a couple of yards behind where he was aiming, was met by a stunning overhead scissor kick, with great technique, and unstoppable power. The goal put us two ahead, which was an important time in the match. It reminded me, for both technique and power, of a stunning goal scored by Trevor Sinclair before he joined us, for QPR against Barnsley which was goal of the season in 1997, although I only saw it on TV.

Our first goal wasn’t bad either. Antonio, when put through rounded the keeper, who did a good impression of Adrian (or David James, perhaps) in coming out for a ball when he shouldn’t have, and his ball across the goal (probably an attempt to score) was finished off by Feghouli. The first goal in a game is always important, and this came at a time when our improved second half performance needed a goal.

And our third goal which finally sealed the victory was another counter attack, a length of the pitch move, with a perfectly released ball from Antonio that still left Lanzini which half of the pitch to cover, before once again, excellent technique in dinking the ball over the keeper who left his goal to narrow the angle.

All in all, a very satisfying victory over our old manager who, incredibly seemed to suggest that his team were better than us. After the week of being in the news, thanks to a Frenchman (who has scored some excellent goals himself for us in the past year) who apparently doesn’t want to play for us any more, it was an excellent second half performance (the first half was certainly forgettable). Andy Carroll summed it up nicely when he declared in his post-match interview that no individual is more important than the club, and the support from the stands for the manager was noisy and emotional.

The win took us up to twelfth in the table, nine points clear of the relegation zone, and just one win away from the top half of the table. In my pre-match preview I expressed the hope that the events of the past week would have a galvanising effect on the team, and that was most certainly the case. Some excellent individual performances from Byram, on as a second half substitute, Reid, Obiang (as always), Antonio, and Carroll were important, but the spirit of the team as a whole shone through, even though some of our players have not been at their best this season.

I’m not sure when “assists” started to be recorded, but I wonder when was the last time one of our players contributed with three assists in a game? Great credit to Antonio, who apparently spent all day Friday in bed with the flu, but still insisted that he was fit enough to play the next day. His attitude and commitment put a certain French footballer to shame.

5 Observations from the Palace

The stereotypical game of two halves as West Ham react to dismiss Fat Sam’s Palace

First Half Drab…..

Before our game kicked off I had watched that team from north London demolish a shell-shocked West Bromwich Albion with a scintillating and clinical brand of stylish football. At half time in our own game I was imagining writing a downbeat review of how far behind our near neighbours we had fallen. If we are ever to drag ourselves away from the also-ran pack then they are the team we need to target, being the next significant step up on the money ladder from us. It is distressing to see them performing so well but it would be churlish not to admire their style, organisation and effort. The sooner that someone comes in to poach Pochettino the better or there is a real danger that they could actually win something and how insufferable would that be? The first half of the West Ham v Palace game was totally forgettable in comparison. A smart volley just over from Andy Carroll at one end and a glaring James Tomkins miss at the other after Michail Antonio had gone to sleep (Ogbonna style) were about as interesting as it got. West Ham were lacking in confidence and ideas and Fat Sam was too busy respecting the point to capitalise.

Second Half Fab!

The game changed completely at half time and it was no coincidence that the introduction of a proper right back and changing to a back four was the catalyst. Antonio was released from his wasted wing back berth to play up with (or just behind) Carroll and the team looked more balanced and threatening as a result. Fat Sam claimed that his side were the better team for 70 minutes and defeat was the result of gifting West Ham all 3 goals but that is nonsense. The reason Palace lost was that they lacked the enterprise to take advantage of a vulnerable West Ham side in the first half and were then totally outplayed in the second. Apart from a little late flurry they were never at the races. In the end a lot of credit to the players, fans and coaching staff for putting the distractions of the week behind them and putting some swagger back into their play. As predicted the most name checked player on the TV commentary was Dimitri Payet although the emphasis changed from bemoaning the absence of his creative assist generating genius in the first half to praising the response of the team to his absence in the second. Time to take this new found togetherness and build on it at Middlesbrough next weekend.

Right Back Where We Started From

I was hoping that we would see Sam Byram feature at some stage during the game but it still came as a (positive) surprise that he was introduced as early as half time and that it was Angelo Ogbonna who was replaced. James Collins has his flaws but you cannot fault his commitment and he is as good as anyone when up against a lump such as Benteke. I didn’t hear any suggestion that Ogbonna was injured so assume it was just a very good decision; or else Ogbonna had fallen asleep in the dressing room during the interval. Having Byram back from injury is a major boost and I believe he is certainly good enough to be trusted as a regular starter. He defends robustly but also gets forward well and provides a far better option than a converted winger or centre back in that position. Backup is still required during the transfer window, however, as with Byram there is always the danger of another injury (given his record) and the certainty of a suspension (given his record). In 9 starts and 5 substitute appearances since moving to West Ham he has accumulated an impressive 8 yellow cards. Elsewhere in defence there were steady performances from Winston Reid and Collins with Aaron Cresswell rather subdued once more.

The Middle Men

The change of formation at half time theoretically gave Palace a numerical advantage in midfield but you would never have known it as West Ham dominated the second period of the game. It was encouraging, in fact, to note that there was a less obvious separation between midfield and strikers than we normally see with both Carroll and Antonio dropping back to provide extra bodies in the middle and Manuel Lanzini and Sofiane Feghouli pushing further forward when required. Mark Noble had an uneven game and was guilty of giving the ball away cheaply on many occasions and yet did extremely well to create our only chance of the first half and in putting Antonio through in the lead up to our first goal. There are still far too many backwards triangles with Noble particularly involving Collins which are often pointless and serve to limit momentum. Lanzini showed his usual enthusiasm and was always available and willing to run with the ball. It was great to see him maintain his goal-scoring record against Palace, with his final kick of the game, and it was a great reaction from Fernandes who was waiting to come on as his replacement. My personal jury is still out regarding Feghouli. Fantastic that he scored his first goal and that appeared to give him a massive lift; but I would still need to be convinced about his strength, speed and stamina to perform at this level. He has earned the right to prove that he can do it and looks a better option at the moment than Ayew. It will be interesting to know whether the stories about him leaving during the transfer window have any substance.

Men of the Match

The two stand-out performers in the game were Carroll and Antonio. Touching as much wood as I can lay my hands on it looks like Andy could be on a decent injury free streak and he certainly looks to be full of energy and commitment at the moment. My reservation with Carroll is not so much about his own abilities but that having someone in the team whose main attribute is strength in the air tends to have too great an influence on the way the team plays overall. This didn’t happen yesterday and Carroll showed several neat touches with the ball at his feet. His goal was nothing less than spectacular and featured a strike that requires tremendous technique to execute. You could argue that the defending was poor but ironically I believe that Antonio’s cross was slightly misplaced; the intended target being Carroll’s head. This is what everyone was expecting and it is to Carroll’s great credit that he was able to react, adjust and connect in the way that he did. Antonio ended the day with 3 assist and for someone who had been ill in bed the day before with flu (OK so it may only have been man flu) he performed exceptionally well. Now that’s what I call commitment, Dimi! The wonder of the Carroll strike overshadowed another delightful goal rounded off by Lanzini’s run and dink over the keeper from Antonio’s pass. Overall a most satisfactory outcome to the afternoon’s entertainment.

Ratings: Randolph (6), Collins (6), Reid (7), Ogbonna (5), Antonio (8), Noble (6), Obiang (7), Feghouli (6), Lanzini (7), Cresswell (6), Carroll (8). Subs: Byram (7)

Palace Preview

The return of Big Sam (again) and James Tompkins, as we look for three points to further cement our mid-table position and pull further away from the relegation zone

Pardew Allardyce

He has only been gone for a season and a half, but our previous manager is back for the second time. Last season Big Sam did the Red Adair job at Sunderland, and now he has been employed in the same capacity by Palace to try to turn their season around. In between he managed England for a game, before a newspaper sting caught him out and forced him out of a role that he had coveted for his whole career.

His start has not been an auspicious one, and in their last game they lost at home to Swansea. That meant that Swansea did the double over them, winning 5-4 in an extraordinary game at the end of November, before a late goal gave them a 2-1 victory at Selhurst Park.

Now we have the chance to complete our first double of the season (we only did the double over one team in the Premier League last season – Liverpool). A first half Lanzini goal was enough to take the spoils at Palace, although the day was marred slightly by another ridiculous sending off when Cresswell was dismissed by Martin Atkinson, after picking up two yellow cards within a minute. The first was for a dive that wasn’t a dive, the second was for a foul that was barely a foul!

Palace actually started the season well and by the end of September were seven points ahead of us. As they now trail us by six points, and we haven’t had the best of seasons, it goes to show what an alarming slump they have had. Of course that resulted in the sack for another of our old managers, Alan Pardew, who once again demonstrated that he can have have a good effect at a club for a while, and then everything goes wrong. He’d done it before for us, and at Newcastle.

After picking up just one point in their opening three fixtures, three wins on the bounce with a convincing 4-1 victory at home to Stoke sandwiched between away victories in the North-East over Middlesbrough and Sunderland, left them in the top half of the table. But they have only won once since, a 3-0 victory at home to Southampton early in December. They now sit just one point and one place above the drop zone in seventeenth place.

They made three big signings in the summer with Bentecke, Townsend, and our own James Tompkins costing them around £50 million. Their net spend wasn’t so big though, as they recouped around £43 million with the sales of Bolasie, Gayle, McCarthy and Jedinak. Speaking to some Palace supporters, they are not too impressed with Tompkins, although you can’t help thinking he would have got a decent amount of playing time had he remained with us, especially after we fell into the three at the back system. He would have been ideally suited to play on the right side of that. Many fans could not understand why we let him go, but I’m not sure he is good enough to take us to the next level. But supporters often have a greater affinity with “one of our own”.

Palace is one of those fixtures where we must look for three points to cement our mid-table position and hopefully push on in the remainder of the season. The major talking point surrounding the game will be the Payet revelation that he doesn’t want to play for us anymore. I am hoping for a galvanising effect on the team as a whole, and as a result I fully expect us to win, but I feel like that for most games. Perhaps 2-1?

West Ham 0 v 5 Manchester City

Calm down, calm down (part two)

Calm Down Image

I find it interesting to read fans views which say that the current performance of the team is the worst ever, this manager is the worst ever, we have the worst board ever, and the stadium is the sole reason for our current position. Even fans who have been supporting the club for many years claim to hold some of these views. I beg to differ.

Despite our exit from the three cup competitions in which we took part, which is certainly not satisfactory, we still sit in 13^th place in the Premier League at the turn of the year, roughly midway through the season. On the other hand we are just one win away from being in the top half of the table, but seven points clear of the relegation places. In our last ten seasons in the top tier our position on January 1 each season was as follows:

2015-16 (8), 2014-15 (6), 2013-14 (19), 2012-13 (12), 2010-11 (19), 2009-10 (17), 2008-09 (10), 2007-08 (9), 2006-07 (18), 2005-06 (10). Average of the last 10 = 13^th!

So Slaven Bilic is the worst manager ever? There are some short memories I believe. Where shall I start? Who remembers Macari, Roeder, Grant, Allardyce, Pardew, Zola? Even John Lyall, who is revered by many, and who took us to our best ever league position when we finished third in 1985-86, took us down twice.

This is the worst board ever? Really? Yes they need to learn to keep their mouths shut at times. I’d love to play cards with them – I reckon they reveal their hand too easily. But who remembers Brown (the Bond scheme debacle), or the Icelandics (who almost bankrupted us)? Yes there were some poor signings in the summer, and they must take their share of the blame for that, but was it all their doing? How much say does the manager have?

Some write that the stadium is to blame; if only we could go back to Upton Park they say. Look back at the statistics. Was the Boleyn Ground really a fortress? No it wasn’t. The board and many others believe it was the only chance of trying to move to the next level. It hasn’t happened, yet, but it might. But there is no going back now. We can’t continue to harp on about it, and hide behind it for some poor performances. Yes, sure, there are a few tourists; that will happen, there will always be a handful, but we haven’t got 20,000 people sitting down eating popcorn, or asking who the players are. In my opinion such a lot is out of proportion to reality.

Another theory I’ve heard bandied about is the size of the pitch. Well the pitch at the London Stadium is 105 metres x 68 metres, exactly meeting the standard that the Premier League want all clubs to have. More than half of them do. If the stadium doesn’t allow it then a smaller pitch is permissible. Upton Park was one of those examples. The pitch there was 68 metres wide too, but was just over 4 metres shorter in length than the London Stadium. Does size matter? Do the extra two metres in each half of the field really make a difference? When we played so well against Chelsea, did we reduce the pitch size?

In reality I believe there are a number of reasons for a season that, to date, is just an average one in the history of our football club. The summer transfer dealings didn’t improve the team as many hoped they would. The board haven’t succeeded in attracting the right players for us to move upwards. The manager doesn’t appear to have a clear strategy with the players at his disposal. The players have not performed as they did last season for whatever reason. We have had, not for the first time, more than our fair share of injuries to key players. We are in transition stadium-wise. Many other clubs found it hard at first, but they adapted and became used to new surroundings.

But let’s get it all into perspective. It is not the worst season ever. It is certainly not the best either. It is just another average season in the history of West Ham United Football Club. Our average finishing league position in the last fifty years in the top flight is around 12^th to 13^th. We are on course for another average finish. Of course the fans want better. I’m sure the board, the manager, and the players want better. I want better. This is my 59^th season of supporting the club. But as so many people eventually find out, that well-worn phrase, be careful what you wish for.

It may be that the season gets worse from here. If so, changes will have to be made. If it gets better then we (or at least some of us) will be happy for the time being. But whichever direction it does head in, we may not be the best, and we may not be the worst. We are West Ham. Usually, somewhere in the middle of the top tier. But that’s what supporting the club is all about. Perhaps it is the sheer unpredictability that we love. We never know what to expect from one season to another, from one game to another, and even from the first half to the second half of a game. Some will disagree but that’s how I see it!

Click Here to Read Part One of this Article

West Ham 0 v 5 Manchester City

Calm down, calm down (part one)

EPL Money In the aftermath of the massively disappointing defeat at the hands of Manchester City on Friday night, social media went into overdrive, possibly exceeding what has gone before this season. I guess that the match being shown live on terrestrial television had something to do with it. Virtually no credit was given to our opponents who played some breathtaking stuff at times, just as Arsenal did a few weeks ago. Quite frankly after the first 25 minutes we could not live with them. But then once again, a soft penalty was awarded to a top team. How often does this happen? They are better than us anyway, there is no need to give them an unfair advantage! Yes, to some extent we capitulated in the second half, but I don’t believe it was lack of effort. We just have to accept that we are not good enough to compete with the best.

Once, in a training exercise in the work environment, we were asked to come out with one thing that we really liked about social media, and something that we didn’t like. I liked the fact it enabled individuals to express an opinion which could be seen instantly by many people, sometimes thousands of them. For the dislike I toyed between the anonymity that social media provided, which meant that individuals often make derogatory or rude comments about others that they wouldn’t make to their face, or alternatively, the inability of people as a whole to accept that others have a point of view that may differ from their own. I guess the latter is a fact of modern life that seems to be shared by so many who believe that their opinion must be right, and any other views are not acceptable. I found that much of this was in evidence on social media in the immediate aftermath of the game, and has even continued in the couple of days that have elapsed since then.

In my view (and I accept there may be alternative views!) the top 6 teams are now getting further away from the rest of the Premier League than ever before. The three London clubs, Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham, in conjunction with the three north-western giants of the two Manchester clubs and Liverpool, have so much more money than the rest, despite the massive injection of TV cash that some thought might equalise the situation. Of course, many who disagree with this will point to last season when the “Big 6” didn’t occupy the top six places, and the title was in fact won by a rank outsider, Leicester. For me this was a complete one-off freak season that I cannot see being repeated. And when you think about it, despite their indifferent seasons, all of the Big 6 finished in the top 10, despite the interlopers like Leicester, West Ham, Southampton and Stoke.

The Big 6 are showing an even greater domination of the Premier League this season, and I don’t think many would disagree that they will finish way ahead of the chasing pack. These are the same top six clubs that occupied the first six places in 2014-15. The season before, 2013-14, these six finished in the top 7, the other team to join the party were Everton. In 2012-13 we had the same situation, that is 6 out of 7 plus Everton. When we were relegated in 2010-11 it was the same top 6 plus Everton were seventh. In 2009-10 the Big 6 finished in the first seven, this time Villa crept in to the group and Everton were 8^th. Can you see the pattern here? The top six are consistently much too good for the others over the course of a season, although there are some short-term minor blips. Everton are the next team down in the pecking order.

After last season, the expectation of fans for this season went through the roof, and partly this may have been fuelled by the board, insisting that to compete with the very top clubs we needed to move into a bigger stadium, enabling us to significantly increase our income. This is probably true to some extent, although many will point to Leicester, whose ground capacity and revenue falls well short of our own when we were still at Upton Park, and despite this they still managed to come out on top.

For more than 20 years the accountancy firm Deloitte has produced revenue statistics of football clubs. It is released in February each year relating to the season most recently finished. Generally you can measure the league success of teams by their income, and in broad terms the income league table is not too dissimilar to the current Premier League table. The top six clubs mentioned previously are the top six in the income league table too, albeit in a slightly different order. In income terms we sit in tenth place which is close to our league position, too. The same is true of most clubs in the Premier League. The problem for lower teams is that the gap is getting wider, hence the reason to move to a larger stadium where possible, just to try to halt the growth in the income gap.

To be continued …..

5 Observations from the Latest Capitulation

The Friday Night Hammer House of Horror Show

The Result in Context

I have to confess that I did not watch the match live. Sometimes when this happens I try to watch the whole game on a re-run but on this occasion all I could face was the extended highlights; and even then had to watch from behind the sofa as if it was one of the late night horror films that they used to show after News at Ten. In the context of the season it is difficult to know how to gauge this match; there is nothing left in the season apart from avoiding relegation and/ or attempting to maximise the league placing ‘prize’ money. The first week in January is very early to accept that your season is pretty much over. I hate to think what our team performance and effort will be like if/ when Premier League safety is ensured.

Line Up & Penalty

Prior to the match I was hoping that we would go all out for a win. In theory we probably did but unfortunately Manchester City had the same idea and fielded a very strong team that included some of the best attacking players in the league. To face them with a makeshift right back and only one defensive minded midfield player was a courageous folly. Arguably it was a soft penalty that started the rot but after that heads dropped quickly and the towel was firmly thrown in as City ran riot. Referee Oliver is one of the top penalty givers and so it should have come as no surprise when he pointed to the spot. In the spirit of the game Zabaleta should not be looking for that faint touch that players use to send them spinning to the ground but in the circumstances there was no need for Ogbonna to make any contact. It simply gave Oliver the evidence he required to impose the current letter of the law. Ogbonna has ridden his luck with his manhandling attempts this season and this time it caught up with him.

The London Stadium Effect

The way some people talk about our performances at Upton Park it is surprising that we ever lost a game there. It is pointless to get into any further debate about the stadium as there is no going back; although I understand that steps would seem necessary to improve the matchday experience for spectators. It may also be true that the new stadium eliminates the advantage that Upton Park could provide for those occasional special nights under the floodlights. The stadium doesn’t prevent good football as a number of opposition teams have ably demonstrated. Pep Guardiola was reported as saying that the wide open spaces helped his side because it gave the perception of space for his players. It is my opinion that this perception is due more to the fact that we fail to close down and deny space due to inferior organisation and fitness levels.

Performances this Year and Last

I have seen much debate about performance last season and this. Before the start of the season my view was that we would be unlikely to repeat the excellent results against the top teams that we saw last year. I was still expecting, however, an exciting and profitable campaign based on the assumption that we could fix the problem of not beating the lesser bottom half teams. This has proved not to be the case and now with the majority of remaining home games against top half teams and the majority of away trips to lower half teams we look very vulnerable if past performance is at all indicative of future results. We may need to rely on there being three teams performing even worse than we are.

The Slavenometer at All-time Low

I was reading that pundit brotherhood all agree that Slaven Bilic’s position as West Ham manager is secure and I would guess that Slav is a popular guy amongst the mutual backslapping football fraternity. Others say that it is not the manager but the players that need to take responsibility but even if there is an element of truth in that I would ask who is responsible for selecting, organising and motivating the players other than the manager and coaching staff? Has he lacked resources? Possibly if you are comparing West Ham with a top 6 club but not compared with the rump of Premier League teams. We have no Russian gangster or Middle Eastern sovereign fund to throw cash in when needed (and there have been few saleable player assets in the recent past) but transfer funds have been available and spent; just not very wisely. It is the manager’s job to ensure he does the best with what is to hand, build a well balanced squad, ensure fitness levels are acceptable and establish a consistent style of play. Unfortunately as things stand I do not see progress on any of these fronts. The 3 league wins in December probably saved Bilic his job and making a reaction change now would be difficult. If it was my decision I would be making definite plans for a new manager to come in during the summer.

Matchday: Hammers host City in the Cup

Could she be wearing a claret ribbon in the merry month of May?

City in the Cup It is FA Cup time once more and the stage where the big teams finally enter the famous competition which started with the Extra Preliminary Round on 6 August 2016. A total of 672 ties have been played to date with another 63 to play before someone lifts the trophy at Wembley on 27th May. In total 828 teams will have featured in the competition and there can only be one winner; can the ribbons on the cup this year be claret and blue?

There were 64 teams in the hat for 3^rd draw and so it was rather unfortunate to get drawn against one of the big 4 or 5 clubs. Still it is a home tie and the Hammers have only lost one of the last 8 home FA Cup encounters and that was last season in the 6th round replay against the other team from Manchester.

This is a big game for us and big game for them, it is the FA Cup and it is big for the fans.

– Slav says the right things

The FA Cup is the only remaining chance of glory for West Ham this season following our exit from both the Europa League and EFL Cup and the continued struggles in the Premier League. It is only 5 games to the Final so anything could happen and a win today can take us a step nearer the prize. Unfortunately there are only 4 all Premier League ties in this year’s 3^rd round draw (and one of those is Hull v Swansea) and so there is no opportunity for the bigger teams to knock each other out and create a clear path to the Final.

Head to Head

The overall record against Manchester City of home turf remains a positive one although we only won one of the last 6 meetings at Upton Park. The record against City has been on a downward trend since they were adopted as a Middle Eastern plaything in 2008 and during this era we have only beaten them 3 times out of 16. West Ham have only met City three times in the FA Cup before and hold a 2 to 1 advantage in the series.

	P	W	D	L	F	A	Sequence
Home	48	24	12	12	81	52	DWLLDL
Away	51	11	8	32	65	105	LWLLLL
	99	35	20	44	146	157

Team News

Ever since Manchester United withdrew from the 1999/2000 completion the FA Cup has lost some of its glamour and sparkle. Managers of top teams began to treat it very much as a secondary priority behind the cash-raking goal of Champion’s League qualification and began to field ‘weakened’ teams made up of squad or younger players. For some unaccountable reason managers of other Premier League teams have adopted the same tactic possibly in the hope that it deposits some big-time manager stardust onto their shoulders as well. The consequences are that it is almost impossible to predict how the teams will line-up especially during the early rounds.

The cup is special because the lower team can beat the big teams, which is why it is fascinating, I’m looking forward to it, but of course it’s a Premier League game so it will be tough. We were unlucky in the draw.

– Guardiola on the FA Cup

I am hoping that Slaven Bilic is confident enough in his ability to stay away from relegation trouble to give this one his best shot. We don’t play again for 8 days and so fatigue should not be an issue and, my perception is, that most injuries occur in training rather than in competitive games anyway. Kouyate and Ayew have now set sail for the Africa Cup of Nations while Mark Noble, Reece Oxford, Sam Byram and James Collins may be available. Someone definitely available is Sofiane Feghouli after his ludicrous Mike Dean red card was rescinded by the FA Incompetent Referee panel. If Manchester City have a weakness it is in central defence particularly if it comprises Otamendi and the massively over-hyped John Stones; for this reason I would like to see birthday boy Andy Carroll let loose on them with maybe Michail Antonio playing just behind. I assume that Adrian will back, courtesy of the Cup rotation code, helping the Post to keep the score respectable.

Manchester City are missing Gundogan, Kompany, Sane and possibly Fernando (through injury) and Fernandinho )through suspension). It would be nice if Aguero, De Bruyne and Sterling were also given the night off (although Guardiola always took cup games seriously whilst at Bayern); not that I rate Sterling too highly in the normal course of events but he always seems to give our defenders the run around.

The Man in the Middle

A first encounter this season with young Michael Oliver from Northumberland. Oliver was in charge of two West Ham games last season; both at home against Southampton (won 2-1) and Swansea (lost 1-4). In 21 games this season Oliver has shown 70 Yellow cards and a solitary Red. Despite his prudence with red cards Oliver is one of the top penalty givers (just behind Mike Dean) with 8 awarded so far this season.

West Ham v Manchester City preview

Only our third ever meeting with Manchester City in the FA Cup. Can we pull off a famous win?

City Cup Game

In my previous article, 11 v 11, I wrote about red cards. I mentioned that some of our recent red cards have been rescinded after the event. What I didn’t say was that of our last five red cards, 4 have been wiped off by the FA commission that adjudicates on the appeals. That is a ridiculously high percentage of games where the referee has got an important decision totally wrong.

For this BBC televised game we have Michael Oliver, who at 31 is by far the youngest referee at the top level, and in my opinion is one of the best. He doesn’t issue red cards lightly; in fact his sending off of the Bournemouth captain in the 3-3 draw against Arsenal this week was his only dismissal this season, and few argued with it. I hope I haven’t jinxed his performance with this praise, and hope that there are no dismissals in this game.

This is the first time he has officiated in one of our games this season, but Liverpool seem to like him. He has refereed four of their games this season, and they have won all four scoring 16 goals in the process! He hasn’t been our luckiest referee in the past. We’ve only won three of the eleven games when he has been in charge.

For anyone who is superstitious with dates I am happy to relate that in the past twenty years we have played five FA Cup ties on January 6, and haven’t lost any of them. In 1996, Michael Hughes and John Moncur scored in a 2-0 victory over Southend. In 2001, we knocked out Walsall 3-2 with two goals from Kanoute and one from Lampard. Fifteen years ago, in 2002, Macclesfield were safely despatched 3-0 with two goals from Jermaine Defoe (where have I come across that name lately??) and one from Joe Cole. And ten years ago in 2007, another comfortable victory against Brighton (3-0), with goals from Carlton Cole, Mullins and Mark Noble.

Two years ago in 2015, we drew 1-1 at Everton, before drawing 2-2 in the replay at Upton Park which was decided 9-8 on penalties, with the winning kick being scored by Adrian, famously throwing off his gloves before blasting home the decisive penalty. Of course that is not the only goal Adrian scored at Upton Park; many will remember the great fun of the Mark Noble testimonial game last season, when Adrian ran the length of the pitch (ably minded by Pedro Obiang) to score past David James.

I haven’t gone back beyond 20 years when looking at FA Cup ties, because before then we did have some ignominious defeats on January 6, being knocked out by Torquay and Plymouth, and drawing against Wrexham before losing in a second replay (no penalty shoot outs in the distant past). But recent history is good.

We seem to be drawn against some teams frequently in the FA Cup, but Manchester City is not one of them. We have only met them three times in the competition before this season. In the fourth round in 1998 we won 2-1 at Maine Road with goals from Berkovich and (ex-City player) Steve Lomas. In 2006 we were drawn away to them in the sixth round, and two Dean Ashton goals helped to secure a 2-1 victory on our way to the final. In 2008, we met them in the third round at Upton Park, drawing 0-0, before losing the replay eleven days later to the only goal of the game.

The bookmakers are quoting odds of 4/6 for City to win this game, a ridiculously short price considering their recent form, and the lack of knowledge regarding the strength of the team they will put out. It’s hard to predict who Bilic will select as well, but I believe he will ensure we have a strong side out, especially as our next league game (at home to Palace) is more than a week away. Of course we haven’t pulled up many trees either this season, but as always I am confident of a victory, and wearing my optimistic hat once again, predict 4-1.

What are the chances? The bookmakers will give you around 125/1! Enjoy the game.