Match – Page 84 – Under The Hammers

5 Observations from West Ham’s Dean inspired defeat.

Elderly incompetent Lancashire referee of doubtful parentage claims man of the match award at the London Stadium.

The Dean and I (Hum Drum Days….)

When the main talking points of a match concern the decisions and performance of the referee and officials then you know there is something wrong. Dean is one of the those referees who seem to be of the opinion that they are part of the entertainment; believing perhaps that neutral supporters will eagerly await the publication of the referee appointments each week before deciding which game to go to watch. Maybe Dean sees his flamboyant behaviour as bringing an unexpected edge that adds to the theatre of game. Sending a player off invariably has a dramatic effect on any game and the earlier it happens then the greater the consequences. The Feghouli incident was two players making a wholehearted attempt to win the ball; nothing dangerous, no malicious intent, no loss of control. Jones may or may not have milked it but the referee appeared to mentally toss a coin, rather than make considered judgement, before making his disgraceful decision. What has football come to when what would have been a regular, everyday challenge 10 or so years ago is punished in this way? Add to that the linesman inexplicably missing the clearest of ‘offsides’ (did he get confused because there were so many players in offside positions) for the second goal and the officials should collectively hang their heads in shame as well as receiving lengthy bans. Personally, I share the opinion that the referee has had a good game when you don’t notice he is there; something you could never accuse Dean of. It was long ago that referees had to hang up his whistle at the age 47 but they are now judged on fitness and performance each year. Surely, it is time for the 48 year old attention seeking Lancashire official to be shown the final red card of his own.

A Catalyst for Improvement?

Ironically this was one of our best performances of the season. We started brightly and were uncharacteristically (based on what has gone before this season) moving and passing the ball well. The opening exchanges were somewhat cat and mouse but we looked sharp before Dean decided to take centre stage by issuing the soft, unwarranted red card. At other times the dismissal could have heralded surrender but the Hammers reacted well and showed great character, organisation and commitment. In many respects we are at our best when defending in numbers and counterattacking against the better sides; more so than when we have to take the initiative. However, it is a tough job with a man down after only 15 minutes. In the first half Manchester United were limited to one clear cut chance when the post was once again called into action – although I believe this too should have been flagged for offside. Mourinho made intelligent substitutions in the circumstances bringing on Mata (an excellent player who I was pleased to see absent from the starting XI) and Rashford to put pressure on a positionally suspect and tiring Havard Nordtveit. Some observers made Rashford man-of-the-match but if that accolade should go the most influential individual then there can only be one winner; referee Dean. It is very difficult to fault our overall performance and maybe (just maybe) the injustice of the defeat can be the catalyst for greater unity and cohesion in upcoming matches.

Midfield Fluency

A positive when the teams were announced was to hear that Pedro Obiang (our best player all season) had been recalled to the midfield. He had yet another excellent game and it remains staggering that he didn’t get a look in during the narrow defeat at Leicester. Obiang is the best defensive midfielder that we have had at club for a good few years; as well as breaking up play he uses the ball well with intelligence and a vision lacking in our other central midfield players. It was inopportune that for all his efforts he might well have done better for both the Manchester goals; going to ground too early when looking to come to Nordtveit’s assistance to thwart Rashford and failing to clear effectively just prior to the obvious offside goal. A superb performance also from Manuel Lanzini who was always willing to make himself available, made great runs with the ball and was central to a number of excellent passing movements. Possibly one of Lanzini’s best ever West Ham performances over (just short of) 90 minutes. It is no surprise to me that we played with greater fluidity and incision with Mark Noble on the bench. Noble’s supporters will say he keeps possession well but the way I see it in modern Premier League football you have to use the ball quickly when gaining possession. Noble’s instinct for sideways and backwards passing allows the opposition time to re-group and closed down space when they should be at their most vulnerable.

Defensive Efforts

Winston Reid came in for some criticism earlier in the season when West Ham were regularly leaking goals but his recent performances have been outstanding both in terms of contribution on the pitch and passion and commitment to the cause; I am very happy with his wearing the captain’s armband . It is surprising that we do not hear about any of the top clubs sniffing around a player who I believe is one of the best and most consistent central defenders in the league; maybe the belief that he doesn’t use the ball well is what discourages the likes of Klopp and Guardiola. An honourable mention also for Angelo Ogbonna who managed to put in a very steady shift with none of his trademark daydreaming moments to diminish his efforts.

My Kingdom for a Striker

I was very surprised to see Andy Carroll left out of the starting line-up. My assumption is that it was felt that another full game was not in the best interest of his long term injury recuperation but I haven’t seen this confirmed anywhere. Carroll showed some good touches during the 20 minutes he was on the pitch and maybe playing him with Michail Antonio just behind would be an interesting option that could unsettle opposition defenders; in the absence of available alternatives it is worth a try. The improved midfield performance yesterday could well have suited Carroll’s game but, as it was, the man-for-all-positions Antonio was given the task of leading the line. Antonio had very good opportunities to score on two occasions; once when he didn’t quite connect with his head at a corner and then when he failed to convert Lanzini’s delightful through-ball just before the opening Manchester United goal.

Ratings: Randolph (7), Nordtveit (6), Reid (8), Ogbonna (7), Cresswell (6), Obiang (9), Kouyate (6), Feghouli (5), Lanzini (8), Payet (7), Antonio (7). Subs: Carroll (7), Fernandes (6)

Matchday: West Ham ‘entertain’ Manchester United

The other United take their bus to the London Stadium for today’s late kickoff.

West Ham Man Utd The visitors to the London Stadium today are Manchester United who, in terms of revenue, continue to be the biggest club in the Premier League. Given the strong correlation between money and success the Manchester club have underperformed since the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson and this season, under third post-Fergie manager, Jose Mourinho, are once again off the pace from the leading pack. Coming into today’s game on a run of 5 straight wins they remain 13 points behind leaders Chelsea and 7 behind second place Liverpool.

Mourinho has brought his 19^th century tactics and introduced the traditional siege mentality to the Old Trafford club and we will need a strong performance from referee Mike ‘Penalty King’ Dean this afternoon.

“We played a good game. I’m very disappointed, angry, frustrated we lost. They started better, we knew they were going to start aggressively and for the first 20 minutes they deserved the goal. I’m very disappointed but we played a good game and that makes one part of me satisfied. We look good but that final product wasn’t there.”

– Slaven Bilic on defeat at Leicester

West Ham’s mini-revival was brought to an abrupt halt in the East Midlands on New Year’s Eve and it will require one of those ‘obscene’ performances to repeat last year’s rousing victory in the final Boleyn encounter.

Head to Head

West Ham’s home record against Manchester United is a reasonably healthy one although last year’s success was the first in the league since 2007. It was also the only victory against the Red Devils in the last 12 meetings home and away.

	P	W	D	L	F	A	Sequence
Home	62	26	21	15	103	90	WLDLDD
Away	65	13	11	41	60	148	LDDDLL
	127	39	32	56	163	238

Team News

There are no new escapees from the treatment room and Mark Noble has become a new inmate after getting a whack on the knee in the Leicester game. It has become very difficult to anticipate Slaven Bilic’s selection decisions and, for all I know, he may be plotting something revolutionary like playing rush-goalie. The logical changes, for me, to the team that lost on Saturday would be to recall Pedro Obiang to centre midfield and start with Manuel Lanzini instead of Andre Ayew. I am much happier with a back 4 and the added protection that Obiang provides provided that Angelo Ogbonna stays awake for the whole game. Also time for Dimitri Payet to step up and put in a performance to impress the visiting manager.

“It’s a challenge for everybody but Chelsea, as they play only on the 4th, Tottenham played Sunday and then on the 4th. For us and West Ham it’s the same – difficult. Middlesbrough play at 12 o’clock, so less than 48 hours. It’s very hard, especially when you see the intensity of this game.”

– Jose Mourinho on everything being so unfair.

Manchester United are without their best defender Eric Bailly who has already left for the Africa Cup of Nations and may be without Michael Carrick and Wayne Rooney. Fingers crossed that Rooney is not involved and is thus unable to break Sir Bobby Charlton’s goal-scoring record on our manor. Mourinho’s side are more a bunch of individuals than a cohesive team but they do have some exceptional talent; we will do well to get anything from today’s game.

The Man in the Middle

Welcome for the second time this season Mike Dean from The Wirral (just down the road from Manchester). He previously officiated in our match at White Hart Lane where he sent off Winston Reid. Reid is the season’s top penalty giver with 10 awarded to date. In his 16 games he has flourished 72 Yellow and 4 Red cards.

Preview: West Ham v Manchester United

Previewing the Manchester United game plus a look back at the 1-0 defeat at Leicester.

Reid v Man Utd The second half of our 2016-17 Premier League campaign begins with the visit of Manchester United. Nobody who was there will ever forget their last visit on that warm May evening eight months ago, when we came from behind to record that famous 3-2 victory in our final game at Upton Park. We will be hoping to achieve a similar points haul against United to that attained last season, when we drew at Old Trafford before beating them at home.

When you consider that they are the most successful club in the history of English football, with 20 league titles and 11 FA Cups, we have a good record against them in competitive matches on our own ground. In over 60 meetings we have won 26 to their 15, although in the 21^st century we have only beaten them three times in the league at Upton Park. In addition to last season’s win, we beat them in two consecutive seasons; 2006-07, when a Reo-Coker goal was the only goal of the game, and the following year when Anton Ferdinand and Upson were our scorers in a 2-1 victory. In that game we were trailing to an early Ronaldo goal when United were awarded a penalty midway through the second half. However Ronaldo pulled the penalty kick wide of the post, and our two central defenders each scored with late headers in a memorable finale to the game. Of course it was a similar tale last season when two late headers won the game for us.

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United go into this game in sixth place in the table, although I guess their fans would have expected them to be closer to the top and challenging for the title, especially with the appointment of Mourinho this season. They have had a good run of results recently, and remain unbeaten since a heavy defeat at Stamford Bridge in October. This included a 1-1 draw against us, when Sakho’s early goal was cancelled out by Ibrahimovic. Mkhitaryan scored a spectacular goal for them in a recent victory over Sunderland, although this was well offside. I fail to understand how a trained assistant referee failed to spot this, or was it just another of those occasions when a “big club” get fortunate with decisions in their favour, especially when playing at home?

Our 1-0 defeat at Leicester on Saturday meant that we reached the mid-point of the season with 22 points from our nineteen games, which is 7 fewer than last time, but more than we might have expected just one month ago. We rose a place to twelfth position thanks to Tottenham beating Watford 4-1 on Sunday, meaning that our goal difference is now better than that of the Hornets. Mark Noble picked up an injury at Leicester and I believe is likely to be missing for this game. This might be a blessing in disguise for us enabling Pedro Obiang to return in the defensive midfield role.

Geoff reviewed the game at Leicester admirably. I have only seen highlights but from what I saw we were unlucky to not get a point, but we seemed to start slowly once again. We must really get out of this bad habit of starting lethargically, and be up for a fast start to the game, especially against United. We need to be at them from the start in a similar way to how they started against us in the EFL cup game. The bookies don’t fancy us at all and I’ve seen odds of up to 5/1 for us to win the game. I’ll have some of that and will be looking for a win by the odd goal, perhaps 2-1 or 3-2. What are the chances?

Matchday: West Ham @ The King Power Stadium

The last day of the year and halfway through the season. Can it be four wins on the bounce, a scramble into the top half of the table and can Michail Antonio claim the ‘golden bonce’?

Leicester West Ham If history has taught us anything it is to select the bits of it that we like the look of and disregard the rest. Today West Ham travel to Leicester to face a side who we have traditionally done well against, with some particular success in games played during the Christmas and New Year period. Victory would make it 4 Premier League wins on the bounce for the Hammers; a feat that, while not unprecedented, is as rare as a proper right back or a 20 goals a season striker. In fact our Premier League record is 5 consecutive wins established during January to February 2006; an achievement that could potentially be matched in the next 3 days – or not!

“He is a big player. He deserves everything and is always there to score goals. Every time I turn to my staff in training and ask who has scored a goal, they say it is always Antonio. I would not say that we taught him to score. It’s his sheer determination, his hunger. You have to keep him close to the box when we have the ball because his stats are unbelievable.”

– Slaven Bilic on Antonio (despite wanting him to play right back)

Our hosts and last year’s Champions have struggled to come even close to last season’s ebullience despite making an admirable and successful fist at Champion’s League qualification. A danger when your team is based on being greater than the sum of the parts is that it can all fall apart when some of those parts stop working. The loss of N’Golo Kante has been Chelsea’s spectacular gain, Riyad Mahrez has failed to inspire, the defensive shenanigans of Huth and Morgan have been under increased refereeing scrutiny and the threat of the ball over the top to Vardy tactic has been neutralised by most opponents. Thankfully the snarling one is suspended for today’s game and will not be able to test the speed or extent of our own learning curve. I did think that once the Champion’s League group stages were over we would see a resurgence from Leicester but as yet, apart from a fine win against Manchester City, it has failed to materialise. Is it possible that the most unexpected Champions since Ipswich Town in 1962 could suffer the same fate and face relegation shortly after?

Head to Head

West Ham’s overall record against Leicester is a moderately good one and the Hammers have avoided defeat on their travels to the east Midlands more often than not. The last 12 meetings have seen honours equitably shared with 4 wins for each team and 4 draws; a sequence that includes our solitary win at the King Power stadium following the Foxes move from Filbert Street in 2002.

	P	W	D	L	F	A	Sequence
Home	61	35	16	10	128	74	LWWDWL
Away	61	15	16	30	74	104	DLLWDD
	122	50	32	40	202	178

Team News

Our player of the season so far, Pedro Obiang, is available again after suspension so let’s hope that Slaven Bilic is not so blinkered as to leave him on the bench and stick with the team that won at Swansea. Personally, I would play Obiang and Kouyate as a defensive midfield two and give Mark Noble some bench time. This would retain the back 4 by keeping Nordtveit at right back despite his offering little attacking capability. Slaven is unlikely to heed my advice, however, and will probably return to his (unaccountably) preferred back 3.

“The first six months of this year were a fairytale – now this is reality. I was waiting for this to happen. We are like a little baby compared to a team like Chelsea. They are like a big man and we’re a little child and we need to grow up.”

– Claudio Ranieri

Manuel Lanzini may be available again but I don’t expect him to make the starting XI with Andre Ayew given the nod again following his maiden goal last weekend. Reece Oxford can be added to the long list of players who have found their way into the treatment room only to find that there is no way out.

If Michail Antonio scores with his head today he will create a Premier League record for headed goals in a calendar year – the golden bonce!

Apart from suspended Jamie Vardy, Leicester are at all full strength with Huth and Fuchs returning from one match bans.

Man in the Middle

A third West Ham away game this season for Anthony Taylor from Manchester; the previous two affairs ending in defeats at Chelsea (where he failed to send off match-winner Diego Costa) and at Everton. Taylor has had a busy season officiating at 20 games in which he has waved 69 Yellow and 3 Red cards.

West Ham at Leicester preview

Can we make it four wins in a row as we reach the half-way point in the season?

Embed from Getty Images

This is our nineteenth Premier League match, and at the end of the game we will have reached the mid-point of the league season. A season that we started poorly, but one where our results have picked up in recent weeks. Leicester were, of course, the very unlikely (5000-1) winners of the Premier League last season, but this has been a much tougher campaign for them. Who would have thought that, despite some of our relatively indifferent performances, we would be sitting above last season’s champions at the half-way point in the season?

The last time we played at Leicester was when we visited them in April. Despite being one down at half time to a goal from Vardy we fought back in the second half (after our old friend Mr Moss had reduced Leicester to ten men by sending Vardy off for diving). Carroll scored from a penalty (Noble had already been substituted when it was awarded), and then Cresswell hit a superb strike to put us 2-1 ahead. It was quite simple now, wasn’t it? 2-1 up, 11 playing against 10, we were about to record yet another famous victory away from home against a top side. Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Chelsea and Everton – none of them could beat us on their own ground, and we had recorded four wins and two draws against those six teams. Now we were about to beat the champions elect.

But hold on a minute. This is West Ham we are talking about. We have to expect the unexpected. Mr. Moss had indicated that there would be a minimum of four minutes to be added. With around 20 seconds of the four minutes remaining the ball broke to Valencia. It should have been easy to run down the clock, shouldn’t it? But oh no, Valencia lost possession, and with 3 minutes 56 seconds showing on the injury time clock, Carroll innocuously brushed against a Leicester player on the edge of the area.

Of course, referees never give decisions to even up potential mistakes that have made earlier in a game, or to try to appease the home supporters, so Mr. Moss must have been absolutely certain that a foul had been committed and duly awarded Leicester a penalty in the dying seconds. Of course, the same referee had “previous” in this respect, giving Tottenham a penalty in the fifth minute of injury time the previous season, allowing them to draw 2-2 against us. I guess the biggest disappointment for me was our inability to hold on to a lead, something we have been guilty of several times this season, too.

Despite their indifferent league form, Leicester comfortably (and surprisingly?) have reached the last 16 of the Champions League, which is no mean feat. But in their attempt to retain their title, they currently sit in sixteenth place in the league on 17 points, just three points above the drop zone, and trailing us by five points. They have won just four league games, beating three teams that we have also beaten, Swansea, Burnley and Palace, in addition to what was arguably their best performance of the season, a 4-2 victory over Manchester City, where at one stage they led by four goals, before conceding twice in the last ten minutes.

We have a very good record in games against Leicester, and in our last 41 league meetings they have only beaten us on nine occasions, with six games ending as draws. I fancy us to extend our good run with another victory, to set us up nicely for an improved second half of the season. 25 points from 19 games seemed an unthinkable proposition just a month ago. A victory in this game will bring us up to that level. What are the chances?

Swansea 1 v 4 West Ham

A Boxing Day stroll in South Wales.

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The last time we played Swansea was when they visited us in the final Saturday home game last season at Upton Park in May when they inflicted on us our heaviest home defeat of the season, beating us 4-1. It was fitting to return the compliment and beat them by the identical score on Boxing Day.

When Andy Carroll blasted the fourth goal into the Swansea net in injury time it got me thinking. When was the last time we scored four goals away from home in a Premier League match? The last time I can actually remember was once again on Boxing Day in 2008 when we visited the south coast and put four goals without reply past Portsmouth. And where are they now? Craig Bellamy scored twice with a goal apiece from Carlton Cole and Jack Collison. We may have scored four goals on our travels since then; it certainly happened three or four times in the Championship, and also at least once in the FA Cup, but not in the top flight unless there is a game that has slipped my mind. And it would be very unusual to forget scoring four goals away from home as it doesn’t happen very often.

Of course along with all our fans I was delighted that we picked up the three points. It is always good to win games without being totally convincing. That’s ten points now from four games, a haul that I don’t think we bettered in four consecutive league games in the last memorable season at Upton Park. We now have the opportunity to go one better and make it four wins on the bounce with the forthcoming trip to Leicester.

The manager thought that it was our best performance of the season and he may be right. But we shouldn’t be kidding ourselves into thinking that everything is now OK. We are not yet playing at the level we achieved last season and, of course, many theories have been put forward as to why that is. I believe that injuries and confidence are two important factors, as is fear when you are involved in a relegation tussle. As we distance ourselves further from the bottom three, I hope that the fear factor will diminish, and hopefully disappear altogether.

We are not yet out of the woods, but I can see us pushing on now into the top half of the table. These days many people appear to believe that most things in life are either black or white. This is exacerbated within the media and social media. When we are not winning then the team is (fill in the missing word or words), and a range of expletives are directed towards the players, the team, the manager, and the board. When we turn it around and start to win games the expletives disappear, and all of a sudden the world is a wonderful place and we’ll soon be challenging for a top four spot. The reality of life is that most things are not black or white, but one of 50 shades of grey in between. We weren’t the worst team in the Premier League earlier in the season, and now we are not the best.

We fall somewhere in the middle of the pack, and we need to improve if we really want to be challenging at the top. Of course, to coin a popular phrase, there are lots of positives to come from our recent revival in terms of results, but still a way to go to be totally convincing in performance. But we are all a lot happier than we were early in December when we sat in the bottom three. So well done to all involved for where we are now, but it’s not “job done” yet by a long way.

One way we have improved over last season is in our ability to beat teams in the bottom half of the league. Of course we finished in the top half last season, but one of the (justified) criticisms levelled was our inability to pick up as many points as perhaps we should have done against the lesser teams. In 2015-16 we managed an average of 3.33 points in our two games against each of the teams who finished in the top ten, but could only get an average of 3.2 points against the bottom ten teams. This season at the moment we sit in a relatively comfortable eleventh place, and our six victories have all come against teams who are below us. Only two of our twenty-two points have come against teams above us, the away draws at Old Trafford and Anfield.

Because of the way that the fixture list has worked out, seven of the ten teams above us will be visiting the London Stadium in the second half of the season. Hopefully we can balance out our results and pick up more points against the top teams, just as we did last season. The loss of players to the African Nations Cup will hit us harder than many others, and it remains to be seen if any significant transfer activity will be able to strengthen the team. Nonetheless, the results are looking good at the moment. Long may it continue.

5 Observations From Victory at Swansea

Sifting through the left-overs to dissect the latest resurgent West Ham success at Swansea.

A Comfortable rather than Convincing afternoon

Three wins on the bounce and we are now safely ensconced in a mid-table cluster of teams beginning with ‘W’. As they say “You can only beat what is in front you” and the Hammers completed a comfortable, rather than convincing, victory against a team who looked resigned to relegation. Having fortunately seen off the other cast-iron relegation candidate, Hull, last week the win over Swansea was a little more straightforward. It may have been (as Slaven said) our best performance of the season but then there is not too much competition for that particular accolade. We still lacked overall cohesion and fluency, passing was below standard expected at this level and we gave the ball away too cheaply. Swansea were able to boss the midfield but it was our good fortune that they were fragile in both defence and attack. What a bizarre decision it was to appoint someone with as little European football experience as Bob Bradley to the job of manager. Go Swans!

A Welcome Change to Formation

With Obiang missing through suspension I expected, when I saw the line-up, that Nordtveit would step into the defensive midfield slot. It was a surprise, therefore, to see Kouyate pushed forward and that we had reverted to a more conventional back four formation. It seemed that Kouyate and Noble were nominally given defensive midfield duties but beyond them it became a little confusing and congested. There was very little width apart from Payet hanging wide left (apart from the brief spell when he hung wide right) but then he prefers to cut inside to create angles. The remaining players – Carroll, Ayew and Antonio – created their own little cluster in the confined central areas of the pitch. Still they each scored so maybe there was a cunning plan in there somewhere. [Note to Slav: Pedro Obiang has still been our best player this season; don’t be tempted to stick with the same team just because we won and bring him back in on Saturday.]

Fair Play to Havard

I have been a harsh critic of Havard Nordtveit’s performances to date in the claret and blue but on this occasion he did an adequate job. Deployed as a right back he maintained discipline and did what he had to do defensively. Although a defenders prime responsibility is to defend at this level there has to be a little more to your game; so far Nordtveit does not give the impression he can offer very much going forward as a right back. A competent stand-in but not the answer to our long running right back dilemma even if, I guess, there was an assist to his name for Antonio’s goal. As for the rest of the defence: Winston Reid again had an excellent game; Ogbonna mixed competence with clumsiness; and Cresswell had another disappointing outing and was at fault for the Swansea goal. A pat on the back too for Darren Randolph who, despite Swansea’s lack of penetration, had to pull of a handful of smart saves.

A Fernandes Cameo

I have to admit to being a big fan of the young Swiss midfielder. He may only have been on the pitch for just over 15 minutes but in that time brought a fresh dimension to the midfield. He shows good movement and uses the ball intelligently and accurately. There is nothing showy about him but he moves the ball quickly, decisively and (critically) in the right direction. Fernandes played an integral part in both the last two goals even if he was not credited with the assist for either. Collectively the midfield are still guilty of being largely static, not creating enough passing options and playing too many backwards and sideways passes. The general lack of width was perturbing with the usual threats of Antonio and Cresswell showing little inclination to stretch the opposition defence. In fact, I thought both had relatively poor games. Difficult to know whether Antonio was under orders to adopt a more central position or not? Still with 8 Premier League goals from 17 appearances to his name who is to complain – can he make the elusive 20 goals in a season target?

Ayew’s Coming Home

It is part of football folklore that a player struggling with form will finally make his mark when he returns to play against his old club. So it was with Andre Ayew who only had to wait 13 minutes before he was able to roll home the fumble from Fabianski after good work from Noble, Carroll and Kouyate. That the returning player scenario is not a myth is supported by the apparent, unusual stat/ fact that, in the history of the Premier League, 41 players have now scored both for and against West Ham. This is apparently more than any other club but I am not sure what conclusion, if any, we can draw from it. There was another decent performance from Andy Carroll even if there were few occasions where he was given service in those dangerous, unplayable situations that we hear about; he is still in one piece and doubled his season’s goals tally while at it. Encouraging to see that Sofiane Feghouli’s first successful cross of the season provided the assist to Big Andy’s strike.

Ratings: Randolph (7), Nordtveit (6), Reid (8), Ogbonna (5), Antonio (5), Noble (6), Kouyate (6), Creswell (5), Ayew (6), Payet (6), Carroll (7). Subs: Fernandes (7), Feghouli (6)

Matchday: West Ham @ The Liberty Stadium

Will there be a welcome in the hillsides for Slav’s men to demonstrate their alleged new found confidence.

Swansea West Ham If the boot were on the other foot and we were facing a team whose record signing was our former player who had struggled since his big money transfer you would be straight down to the bookies with the nailed on certainty that he would break his goal-scoring duck today. When Andre Ayew chose to sign for Swansea despite the apparent advances of West Ham in the summer of 2015 the noisy naysayers saw this as evidence of a lack of ambition by the Hammer’s board. Following his successful season at the Liberty Stadium and subsequent £20 million transfer to West Ham the same critics dismiss him as a flop and claim that we massively overpaid. With the Hammers looking for an unlikely three wins on the trot (and the sixth 1-0 success of the season) what scriptwriter could refuse the Ghanaian a winning goal return as a late Christmas present this afternoon?

Head to Head

West Ham against Swansea is a fixture that has largely gone with home advantage over the years. We have yet to win at the Liberty Stadium and you have to go back to 1985 for a last win on the Gower peninsular.

	P	W	D	L	F	A	Sequence
Home	26	18	7	1	66	26	LWWWDW
Away	26	4	7	15	32	47	DDDLLW
	52	22	14	16	98	73

Team News

Player of the season-to-date Pedro Obiang misses today’s game through suspension. Apparently James Collins and Sam Byram are both available. We are likely to see the same team that struggled against Hull apart from the enforced change caused by Obiang’s absence. Worryingly it could well be the less than impressive Havard Nordtveit who fills the defensive midfield void.

“We got seven points, we climbed the table, now I expect from us to play with more confidence than before. We are approaching the next couple of games till the end of the year with much more confidence and I expect us to play well and get something out of those games.”

– Slaven Bilic

Andy Carroll will continue up front and with Sakho now ruled out until March (I am undecided whether this is a convenient ACON injury or not) the need for striker reinforcements is as acute as ever.

“We have started games well, but we still concede first. I have looked back over the year and one of the things that sticks out is that in 17 games we have only scored first four times.”

– Bob Bradley

Swansea have no injury worries and it could be an uncomfortable afternoon if they really give it a go against our unconvincing formation. Let’s hope we can hold on long enough for Ayew to come on and nick the winner.

The Man in the Middle

A third encounter of the season (Man City [A]; Stoke [H]) with Andre Marriner from the West Midlands. Mr. Marriner has taken charge of 16 games in all competitions this term amassing 68 Yellow and 5 Red cards.

West Ham v Swansea preview

A Boxing Day visit to South Wales.

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The last time we played Swansea was when they visited us in the final Saturday home game last season at Upton Park in May. After the game Mark Noble described it as “a bad day at the office”. And it certainly was. For those of you in your rose-tinted glasses who remember Upton Park as a “fortress” I will remind you that they inflicted on us our heaviest home defeat of the season, beating us 4-1. It was the second time in what was generally considered to be a very good season that we conceded four goals at home; Bournemouth had also put that number of goals in our net early in the campaign. I guess the Swansea game was quickly forgotten when Manchester United were the visitors just three days later in that memorable last game at the Boleyn Ground.

Our last trip to play them in South Wales was almost exactly a year ago when in a “Super Sunday” game we picked up an away point in a tedious 0-0 draw. It was our third 0-0 draw in a row just before last Christmas, and at the time we hadn’t won a game since our victory over Chelsea in October. Swansea finished the season in a respectable twelfth position.

They are another club who have moved home in recent years. Just over ten years ago they left their home at the Vetch Field and began a new chapter at the Liberty Stadium. They were in League One at the time in the third tier of the English pyramid. A couple of years later they won promotion to the Championship under Roberto Martinez, and in 2011-12 they were back in the top tier again, where they have remained since.

The following season, in our first Premier League game away from home after our return, they thumped us 3-0, but the following February we exacted our revenge with an Andy Carroll goal. Like ourselves they finished in mid-table, both of us on 46 points, though they pipped us on goal difference to finish ninth.

In 2013-14 they once again finished in the position just above us (twelfth). At their place we played out a goalless draw, and the return in February saw Kevin Nolan bag a brace in a 2-0 victory, a game remembered mainly for the clash of the pony tails, when the play-acting antics of Chico Flores got Andy Carroll sent off (unjustly) by Howard Webb.

A season later two Andy Carroll goals and one from Sakho gave us a 3-1 victory at Upton Park, and Carroll was again on the scoresheet when we drew 1-1 in the return match. Swansea finished eighth that season (to our twelfth).

This season their fortunes have declined and they currently prop up the Premier League alongside Hull on 12 points, with just three victories and three draws in their seventeen games. They won 1-0 at Burnley in their opening game, and recently notched up home victories over Palace (5-4), and Sunderland (3-0). They have the worst defensive record in the division, having conceded 37 goals.

Of course we bought Andrew Ayew from them in the summer, and I hope that he can get on the scoresheet in this game. They have one player who always stands out for me when I see them play, Gylfi Sigurdsson, and he is someone who is never mentioned as a potential transfer target, but is a creative midfielder who scores goals. I’d like to see him playing in our team.

Of course we go into the game on the back of picking up seven points from our last three games, despite not playing convincingly, and we could do with another positive result to extend the gap between ourselves and the relegation zone. Carroll has a good goalscoring record against Swansea, and Ayew should be looking to open his account for us against his former employers. Obiang will unfortunately be missing due to suspension, which is a pity as in my opinion he has been our best player this season, playing a vital midfield role. I’d like to see Kouyate pushed forward to play in midfield, but I don’t think it will happen. I fear that Nordtveit will play in Obiang’s position, but he hasn’t yet convinced me of his ability to play in the Premier League, despite the good reviews he received for his Bundesliga performances and for the Norwegian national team.

The transfer window opens shortly and it will be interesting to see if any of the 4,256 players linked to us in the media actually arrive. I know who I’d like to see heading out; there are some very obvious candidates. It would be great if those involved with procuring players kept their silence until players actually do arrive.

Personally I’d like us to splash out on a proven goalscorer like Defoe (which of course wouldn’t be popular with some of our supporters), a creative midfielder who can score goals (like Sigurdsson for example), and a proper right back. I’d like to see Burke recalled from his loan, Oxford given a chance when he has recovered from injury, and perhaps one or two of the development squad drafted in to see what they can do. Martinez seems to score goals for fun at that level; perhaps he can step up?

Three points would of course be great, but I predict a 1-1 draw.

West Ham 1 v 0 Hull

A review of the Hull game – A star is born.

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A couple of days ago Geoff Hopkins wrote an excellent article with five observations in respect of robbing Hull of three points at the weekend. It is hard to disagree with anything that he said. During the game tweeted that he believed the post was our man of the match, and his idea was followed up on some post-match polls with thousands of respondents who agreed with his selection.

Whenever a player is known by one name you know he is a star. Pele, Maradonna, and now Post. Post, whose real name is Woody Woodwork, is related to a number of famous people such as Rod Laver, Rod Marsh, Postman Pat, Woody (of Toy Story fame) and Roy Wood, whose Christmas song is played throughout December. He is also closely related to Barry Bar of Crossbar Challenge fame.

Reports that Post was seen staggering out of an East End nightclub at 4am on Sunday morning were way off the mark according to his agent, Posty McPost Face. Posty confirmed that Post is an upright character who spent the evening at home with his wife, Wendy Woodwork, after a meal at a Chigwell restaurant with close friends.

Post has always been known as a hard man at the back, and his agent has lined him up with several lucrative endorsement opportunities, the biggest one being the front for a new Viagra campaign. Sales of West Ham home shirts with “POST” on the back have been the biggest seller in the club shop in the lead up to Christmas.

Despite Post coming to our rescue three times, and the general agreement that Hull deserved to win the game, or most certainly didn’t deserve to lose, it is interesting to note some of the statistics for the game. Now as Geoff and I have written on some occasions in the past, football statistics can be interesting but in many respects are meaningless when considering the outcome of a game.

Nevertheless I will set out below some of the key statistics that are always collected at games. Those people who believe in the statistics will find it hard to believe that Hull were unlucky losers.

Possession – West Ham 56%, Hull 44%
Shots – West Ham 19, Hull 16
Shots on Target – West Ham 6, Hull 5
Corners – West Ham 10, Hull 6

None of this really means anything except that we had the ball more than they did, we shot at goal more than they did, we had more shots on target than they did, and forced more corners than they did. I know that the general view is that we were fortunate (very fortunate!), but the fact of the matter is we scored a goal and they didn’t. And when it comes down to allocation of points that means we got three and they got zero.

Of course if we keep playing like this, then as Geoff pointed out, we are unlikely to win many more games. But, just for the moment I will take our seven points from three distinctly average performances in the past week. Things will need to improve drastically, but I can remember many occasions in our history when we have deserved to win games but haven’t. It’s good for the boot to be on the other foot for a change.