Category: Preview

Whenever a team has a player sent off, even if this is in the second minute of added time,  it is the duty of the headline writer to include the phrase “Ten Man” in the description of the game.  So it was that I was in a bar last weekend watching Ten Man Bournemouth frustrate Manchester United.  This particular bar had two separate large screen TVs showing the game from two different feeds; one was in real-time while the other had a five minute delay, and unusually took the decision to run the commentary from the delayed feed.  Bournemouth should have been dead and buried before half-time but managed to get on level terms with an unlikely Old Trafford penalty and then showed great resilience to protect their point once they had skipper, Andrew Surman, sent off in the aftermath of the Ibrahimovic/ Mings fracas.

We are expecting a really difficult game on a difficult pitch with a good atmosphere but we are looking forward to it.  There is still a big job to do. We have to approach every game and try and win it and see where it will bring us. We want, and we have to finish strongly.

– Slaven Bilic

Bournemouth are on a long winless eight match run during which time they have conceded 21 goals, they are without a league victory in 2017 (since Nathan Ake was recalled by Chelsea) and have never beaten a London side in the Premier League on home turf.  West Ham are unbeaten on the road in 2017 and have not previously lost away to Bournemouth in any competition; 26 of the Hammer’s 33 league goals and 8 of their 9 wins have come against teams in the bottom half of the table.  What could possibly go wrong?

Head to Head

The all-time record between the two clubs spans just 8 games since the first encounter in the 5th round of the 1929 FA Cup competition.  Of these games West Ham have won 5 and lost just 1, last season’s 4-3 home defeat.  Bournemouth will have a permanent place in the West Ham record books as the very first league visitors to the London Stadium (or whatever future incarnation of naming rights that it takes).

Team News

West Ham welcome back a touch of pace today with the return from suspension of Michail Antonio.  The Physio Room shows late fitness tests for Carroll, Fonte and Reid so the manager will be compiling his list of favourite available players before deciding how he will have them line-up.  Apparently we have never scored in the first half of any Premier League game against Bournemouth and so expect more of the same today as the starting arrangement once again fails to impress and tactical adjustments have to be made at half-time.

My guess is that one of Reid or Fonte will not make it with Kouyate conveniently moving to the central defence and allowing Byram to return at right back.  Where to play Antonio will be the dilemma (assuming Carroll is fit); if he plays behind Carroll then Lanzini will be forced to a more ineffective wide role and if he plays out wide then the question is on which side and who of Feghouli, Snodgrass or Ayew takes the other berth?  I experienced a real laugh out loud moment during the week when reading a suggestion that Mark Noble could be the answer to the right back problem; I just hope and pray that Slaven Bilic did’nt read it as well.

They’re a different team with Andy Carroll – he’s got strengths and is a huge part of their game.

– Eddie Howe suggests a one-dimensional West Ham

The leaky Bournemouth defence is further weakened by the suspension of the merciless Mings and if there was ever a perfect opportunity for Carroll to notch his 50^th Premier League goal then this should be it.  Bournemouth are also without the suspended Surman and a number of injured players including Callum Wilson and former Hammer, Junior Stanislas.  Despite their struggles this season I still have a lot of respect for Cherries manager Eddie Howe who has done remarkably well with limited resources.  The one question mark against him is the big money signing of Jordan Ibe, a player who has performed so poorly that he must be odds-on to score today.

The Man in the Middle

The man in figurative black today is Robert ‘Rob, Bob, Robbie, Bobby’ Madley from West Yorkshire.  Madley previously had the whistle in the two home victories this season against Sunderland and Burnley.  His all competition record so far this term comprises 25 games with 101 Yellow and 3 Red cards.

 

 

 

 

We go into the game on the South Coast this weekend sitting in eleventh place in the Premier League table on 33 points after 27 games. This effectively means that we are at the top of the bottom half of the league. Based on revenue figures we would hope to finish seventh by the end of the season, but this is not going to happen. It is good to see that some of our fans have retained their sense of humour, as I read one tweet today that said unless we pick up three points against Bournemouth then we cannot win the league!

Bournemouth, or to give them their proper name which very few people use, AFC Bournemouth, are in their second consecutive season in the top flight, and currently are three places below us in 14^th, and trail us by six points. Their 27 points attained so far is just five points above the drop zone, so they really need to collect some more wins in their remaining games to ensure another season in the Premier League. They have won seven of their 27 league games, four of which have come against teams in the top half of the table, West Brom, Everton, Liverpool, and Stoke. Their biggest win was a 6-1 victory over lowly Hull back in October. Conversely, they have lost home games against both Sunderland and Palace to demonstrate the inconsistency of their performances.

If neutral spectators exist, and enjoy seeing goals, then Bournemouth are one of the teams for them to follow. The 89 goals scored in league games involving the Cherries this season puts them in third place just behind Swansea on 94, and Liverpool on 92.

Their recent record is why they might still end up in the relegation dogfight, as they haven’t won a single league game in 2017. In their eight games, they have drawn three times and lost five, although last week they had a creditable performance drawing 1-1 at Old Trafford. Apart from that draw, their other five drawn games have all come against clubs ‘loosely’ from the London area, Watford (twice), Palace, Arsenal and Tottenham.

We have only ever played them 8 times in history (and two of those were in 1929), and normally we have come out on top. Our only defeat was the 4-3 reverse at Upton Park in our second home game last season. That game was catastrophic from a defensive point of view, but we did get our revenge in the return match when we came from behind to win 3-1 with all of our goals coming from players who are no longer with us, Payet and Valencia (2). Two of the goals, one from the Frenchman, and another from the Ecuadorian currently on loan at Everton, were scored directly from free kicks.

In the very first Premier League game at the London Stadium, Bournemouth were our visitors, and in a tight game we just shaded it at the end with a late (85^th minute) headed goal from Michail Antonio. At the time we hoped it would be the start of a good run, but we didn’t win another league game at home for two months, when an even later goal (94^th minute) from Winston Reid gave us another 1-0 win, this time over Sunderland. And then we had to wait almost two months again before two more 1-0 home wins in a week against Burnley and Hull. Our win at home against Palace puts us on a par with Bournemouth in that we have both won five of our home games. Our away form has been superior to theirs, and hopefully we can record our fifth away from home victory this weekend.

Antonio should be back in our starting line-up after his unfortunate hand ball cost him a place for the Chelsea game. Perhaps another far post header will be the winner as we fight back after conceding the first goal to win the game 2-1 this time? Bilic gave Noble a vote of confidence this week, so I guess he is not immune to the feelings of a number of fans who would like to see our captain given a rest, and have taken to social media to express their views. Personally I would like us to revert to four at the back with a recognised right back in Byram. I’d like to see Kouyate add more pace in midfield alongside Obiang, who has been the player of the season for me so far. A lot of fans on social media were raving about Ayew’s substitute appearance against Chelsea, and I guess he did provide the assist for our late goal. He hasn’t yet convinced me of his potential worth to the team, but I concede he hasn’t had many chances to prove himself.

We all have opinions about the team that we would like to see selected, but only one man has his job on the line, and he sees the players every day, so he has to go with what he thinks is the team for a particular game, and not bow to external pressure. In many ways, as we are virtually safe, albeit not mathematically yet of course, it would be good to see us giving some of the fringe players the chance to prove themselves, but with an additional £2 million for each additional place higher that you finish in the league, then that is not going to happen.

We face a Chelsea side on Monday, who, with 20 wins and 3 draws in their 26 Premier League games to date this season, have a ten point cushion at the top of the league, and are odds on with the bookmakers to repeat their title success of the season before last. Of course, last season they had a very disappointing time by their own recent standards, finishing tenth and therefore missing out on playing in Europe for the first time in the last twenty years. Perhaps their lack of European games is a contributing factor to their record this season?

We faced them at Stamford Bridge for the opening game of this campaign, and lost 2-1 in the closing minutes to a goal from Costa, who in my opinion should not have even still been on the pitch at the time. You’ll remember we had Antonio playing at right back and he gave away a penalty for their first goal. James Collins equalised a quarter of an hour from the end, and Ayew limped off early in the game, not to be seen for some time afterwards.

Far better to recall the EFL Cup game in October, when a marvellous Kouyate header from almost 18 yards put us one up after about ten minutes, and then a fine strike from Fernandes made it two in the second half. All Chelsea could muster was an injury-time consolation strike from Cahill. This victory came about against the odds based on form at the time, and we hoped it would kick-start our season. But it didn’t really. We didn’t win another game after that until Burnley were the visitors in mid-December and we managed a (lucky?) 1-0 victory.

Whatever you think of Chelsea, and I for one don’t particularly care for them at all, you have to say that they have had a magnificent season so far under their new Italian manager, Conte. After winning their first three league games in the month of August they had a miserable September, drawing with Swansea and losing at home to Liverpool, and 3-0 at Arsenal. But from that point they went on a tremendous run, winning all 13 league games in the months of October, November and December, scoring 32 goals in that period and conceding just 4. The run included victories over Manchester United (4-0), Everton (5-0), Tottenham (2-1), and a 3-1 win at Manchester City, all teams in the top seven in the table. Our EFL Cup win over them was their only defeat in the last quarter of 2016.

They began the New Year losing 2-0 at Tottenham, only their third league defeat of the season, but since then they have recorded four wins and two draws in the next six games. They have also progressed to the Quarter-Final of the FA Cup where they will face Manchester United next weekend. Their record is a formidable one, and shows the difficult task we have ahead.

It appears that we only have three players from the first team squad unavailable to play in the game. Ogbonna and Sakho are long term injuries of course, but it is disappointing that Antonio will miss the game through suspension due to being sent off at Watford for an innocuous hand ball offence. OK by the letter of the law we can have no complaints about the dismissal, but it does seem harsh that we have to face the champions-elect without Antonio because he handled the ball in the middle of the field.

Our all-time league record against Chelsea in the twentieth century was a positive one, and we beat them more times that they beat us. But since the turn of the century, and mainly as a result of the Abramovich effect, we have not done so well. Ironically we did the double over them in our relegation season of 2002-2003 with a 3-2 victory at Stamford Bridge, our goals coming from Di Canio (2) and Defoe, and then in our final home game, and the last time we saw Di Canio play at Upton Park in a competitive match, we beat them 1-0. Di Canio came off the bench to score the only goal of the game. It wasn’t enough to keep us up in the end and we were relegated with a massive 42 points. Trevor Brooking was our caretaker manager at the time.

We didn’t beat them again in the league until December 2012, when goals from Carlton Cole, Diame and Maiga helped us to a 3-1 victory. And of course we famously beat them last season with goals from Zarate and Carroll, who came on as a substitute to score the winner. This was another game where Mourinho was sent to the stands, and he was pictured looking forlorn standing in front of one of the boxes.

Without underestimating the task ahead, I am hopeful that we can become only the fourth team to beat them in the league this season. We beat them 2-1 last season, 2-1 again in the EFL Cup, so I am predicting a third 2-1 home victory in a row against them. What are the chances? Bookmakers will give you odds of around 17/1 on a 2-1 victory, and around 9/2 on a win by any score. It is about time we created an upset against one of the top teams this season, so where better to start than on Monday night?

This weekend we visit Watford, who sit 13^th in the Premier League and are one of the five clubs separated by just two points in the middle of the table. Stoke are 9^th on 32 points, followed by ourselves with the same points but an inferior goal difference, and then three teams on 30, Southampton, Burnley and Watford. As the games begin to run out, and with a gap of five points to West Brom in 8^th, then you have to believe that the five clubs are fighting it out to finish 9^th. It would take a very good run put together, plus some faltering by the Baggies, to envisage any of them realistically challenging for eighth place. Not impossible, but unlikely I reckon.

This is the return fixture of our fourth game of the season, and second at home, where we raced into a two goal lead, which included an outrageous piece of skill from an ex-favourite Frenchman, only to be pegged back by half-time, and comprehensively beaten 4-2 by the finish, mainly as a result of some diabolical defending. From the point that we went two up our defence faced a situation fraught with difficulties in containing the rampant Watford attack; a real hornets’ nest! The Watford captain, Deeney, said in a post-match interview that he felt that the West Ham players were showboating, and this spurred on them on in their comeback. In truth we could have lost by an even greater margin.

Watford are one of the many Premier League clubs under foreign ownership, with the owner and chairman both Italian, leading to (unsurprisingly) an Italian manager, Walter Mazzarri. Mazzarri was a journeyman Italian footballer, playing for eleven clubs in a fifteen year period in the 1980s and 90s, and then in his managerial career managed seven Italian teams from 2001 to 2014, including some notable clubs such as Sampdoria, Inter and Napoli. His appointment at Watford last summer was his first foray in football outside his native country, and he appears to have done an OK job leading them to a mid-table position, with no real danger of relegation (unless they collapse dramatically), and like ourselves, not much chance of progressing beyond finishing in ninth place.

Watford’s home form is nothing special. Apart from losing at home to Gillingham in the EFL Cup, they have won five of their twelve games, beating (most notably) Manchester United and Everton, as well as more predictable victories over Hull, Leicester and Burnley. They have had three home draws, all against teams below them in the table, namely, Bournemouth, Palace and Middlesbrough. Their four defeats at home have all come against teams above them in the table, Chelsea, Arsenal, Stoke and Tottenham. I wonder if we can make it five? In addition to their win at the London Stadium, they have won two further games away from Vicarage Road, at Middlesbrough, and a surprising win at the Emirates.

Their main danger men from a scoring perspective are Deeney, who is their leading scorer with seven, and Capoue who has netted five times in the league. Their goals scored and conceded records are very similar to our own, so in many ways the form points to a potential score draw. The game is yet another of our mid-table six pointers in the “race” to finish ninth, and one that we should be looking to win if we are to continue to hope for a top half finish.

Our head to head record against Watford has generally been a very positive one. In the 21 years from November 1985 until August 2006 we faced them 22 times, winning 18 and drawing 4. They didn’t beat us in a period of over 20 years. But in the 8 meetings since January 2007, we have won just two games, with one draw, and Watford coming out on top 5 times. So the recent record has not been a good one.

Despite Carroll’s continuing injury, I fully expect us to come out on top this time. I am hoping for some of the incisive movement that we displayed against West Brom two weeks ago, without the defensive lapses that cost us in that game. Perhaps we can reverse the score from the home fixture and win 4-2 this time? What are the chances?

If reports are to be believed we are promised a team packed with renewed energy and vigour as a consequence of the warm weather training break in Dubai since our last competitive match. Most of the pictures that I saw from Dubai involved the players eating and dancing but we are assured that they also worked had and with great intensity to work particularly on defensive frailties. Today we will be able to judge for ourselves the effectiveness of this expensive bonding and possibly be wowed by how well those batteries have been recharged. One can only hope that the late kick off doesn’t further interfere with adjustment from the Dubai time-zone – wouldn’t want Mark Noble’s tackles being any later than usual.

It was a very good trip, we trained very hard, more than if we had stayed here. We were all together and we all trained once a day. We used it to do a bit of fitness, intensive small games, some work on defence, it was all good. The team bonding is good for the players who didn’t open themselves totally, who come to training and just talk to your best friend and then go home.

– Slaven Bilic

Today’s opponents have one of the most cosmopolitan squads in the Premier League and, until the recent loan acquisition of Tom Cleverley, captain Troy Deeney was frequently their only English born player. They have also fielded the oldest average age starting eleven of all Premier League clubs during the course of the season. So a super-charged and (relatively) youthful Hammers might be fully expected to zip past these elderly Hornets  and make amends for the calamitous defeat at the London Stadium in September.

A lot of the reporting after Watford’s win at the London Stadium was focused on Troy Deeney and his reaction to the apparent ‘showboating’ by our players after they had taken a two goal lead. In media terms Deeney had ‘slammed’ the Hammers but in reality he had used the situation to motivate his teammates, and with great success you have to say. It is what I remember as “come on lads they’re taking the piss now” over the park on many a Sunday morning. Whether our manager can now use the perceived slight by Deeney to motivate his own players, who remember are already straining at the leash, even further has the potential to provoke the footballing equivalent of shock and awe.

Head to Head

West Ham have never lost two games on the bounce to Watford and this is a record we have to defend today. Overall it is a very positive good record against the Hornets with West Ham having won 22 out of 35 league meetings. At Vicarage Road we have won 9 out of 17, having lost just 4 times. In the last 12 encounters (home and away), however, it is a very even contest with each team having won 5 with 2 drawn games.

Team News

Sun, sand and warm weather training have not worked their magic on Andy Carroll’s groin by all accounts and he remains a major doubt for today’s game. If there is any doubt at all with Carroll it is likely that he will be missing and not even on the bench. With fellow physio room inmate, Diafra Sakho, still some weeks from recovery I would expect the man-for-all-positions Michail Antonio to turn out once more as the primary striker. I don’t see Andre Ayew as a viable option to perform the role as an outlet or to hold the ball up. If Ayew gets a look in it would probably be at the expense of Sofiane Feghouli but the Algerian did enough in the second half against Albion to earn another chance.

Elsewhere, Aaron Cresswell is available and Sam Byram is also fit. My prediction is that Slaven Bilic will avoid a difficult midfield decision by sticking with Cheikhou Kouyate at right back.  Expect Darren Randolph to keep hold of the keeper’s jersey despite his recent wobbles.

We cannot compare today with that game. It was a long time ago. West Ham had some problems in that period and we were coming from a particular period, too. We did a very good game after losing at the beginning, but West Ham are doing very well now.

– Walter Mazzarri

In a Yin meets Yang moment Watford have a cluster of defender injuries which is handy for them given that West Ham do not have any forwards. Former occasional Hammer’s favourite Mauro Zarate may line up for the Hornets now that he has brought his sulking back to the Premier League.  Watford also have M’Baye Niang in their squad the striker having chosen the Hornets over West Ham because they showed him greater love.

Man in the Middle

Today’s potential match spoiler is Craig Pawson from South Yorkshire. Pawson has taken charge of the Hammers on three occasions so far this term; home wins against Bournemouth and Chelsea (EFL Cup) and the 5-1 defeat by Arsenal. In a total of 25 matches Pawson is just one short of his century of Yellow Cards and has 3 red cards to his name.

Having stealthily clawed their way to 9^th in the Premier League table, with a sequence of effective rather than spectacular performances, West Ham will seek to build on the resurgent air of optimism at the London Stadium by stamping their authority of today’s encounter with West Bromwich Albion.

Albion are now comfortably the biggest team with a Birmingham postcode, and sit one place and five points above the Hammers in the table at start of play.  Realistically nabbing 8^th place is about the very best that West Ham can hope for this season and in the circumstances Albion (and their pragmatic manager) may well be inclined to settle for a point this afternoon.  The Baggies look to be this year’s over-achievers with a style of play that has seen them record less possession than their opponents in every single game they have played this season in the Premier League.  Hate him or merely dislike him, Tony Pulis has a knack of making do with a collection of spare parts that will get the job done even if it’s not particularly easy on the eye.

We are a different team now, we have players fit, that is the key. Now we have to at least maintain it, try to avoid injuries, work hard and try to improve.

– Slaven Bilic

It is not difficult to predict how the game may shape up today.  Albion will be happy to concede possession, will be respecting the point they started with, looking to frustrate the crowd and perhaps snatching a goal from a breakaway or set piece, if the opportunity arises.  Whether West Ham have the wit and tactical nous to overcome such an approach is the big question to be answered.  An early West Ham goal would put a very different complexion on both the game and the atmosphere inside the stadium.

Head to Head

The overall record against West Brom is running neck and neck with both sides having won 40 of the 104 meetings that have taken place over 104 years.  West Ham have won two and drawn five of the last seven home fixtures against Albion whose last win on our own turf was the 4-3 victory in November 2003; a game in which they recovered from 3-0 down and Jermaine Defoe was sent off.

Team News

West Ham have reclaimed their rightful position at the top of the Premier League injury table, reporting a total of 10 injured players.  Of these Angelo Ogbonna is out for the remainder of the season, Diafra Sakho is allegedly back on 1 April (note the date), Arthur Masuaku is two weeks away from full fitness and Gokhan Tore (who by now must resemble the Michelin Man) has no return date.  The remainder (Carroll, Kouyate, Cresswell, Byram, Nordtviet and Arbeloa) are either slight doubts or subject to a late fitness test – whatever the difference between those two statuses is!

The extent of the injuries to Carroll, Kouyate and Cresswell are the most likely to affect the starting lineup and, if all is well, I would expect the same team that started at Southampton with the exception of Lanzini in for Feghouli.

They are a good team, they’ve got some good players.  They’ve had a season of being very, very good and pretty bad at times and we just go there and hope we can compete.

– Tony Pulis

West Brom have no injury worries with both Jonny Evans and Claudio Yacob recovered from injury and/ or sickness.

The Albion lineup has a decidedly workmanlike look about it but it was enough to see us off in the fixture at the Hawthorns earlier in the season.  The Baggies have secured most of their points from bottom ten sides this season while we have performed poorly against those in the top ten.  A neutral might see this as a nailed on draw but I am optimistic for that early goal as a catalyst for a comfortable victory.  My fingers will be firmly crossed that our starting eleven, once announced, will endorse confirm my optimism.  The thinness of options in attack and full-back will continue to torment for the remainder of the campaign.

Man in the Middle

It is an early return to the London Stadium for Michael Oliver from Northumberland who was in charge of the unhappy FA Cup tie against Manchester City just two months ago.  In a total of 26 games this season Oliver has contributed 82 Yellow and 2 Red Cards.

An excellent victory at St Mary’s last weekend saw us move up into ninth place in the table, which if we maintained that place would equate to prize money of £24 million at the end of the season. According to reports in the media, Slaven Bilic will be offered a new contract if we finish eighth or above this season. The question I ask is – how does information such as this find its way into the media? Does somebody guess, and then the rumour spreads like a lot of fake news these days? Or does it get deliberately leaked by somebody? He may have some tactical shortcomings, but Bilic is adored by the majority of fans according to various polls, and I find it hard to believe that our board will dispense with his services provided that we don’t collapse between now and the end of the season. A top half finish is well within our grasp, and we can go some way towards pushing upwards for an eighth place finish if we can beat West Brom this weekend.

In many ways, the Baggies are the surprise team this season. The top six were very predictable, and it is no real shock to see Everton in seventh, but West Brom eighth was not one that many could see coming. But in eighth position they are, and five points clear of ninth (us) at that, so they will be working extra hard to ensure that we don’t beat them and close the gap to two. One of the best games of football I ever saw was on Good Friday in 1965. We beat West Brom 6-1 but I’ll save the details for another article in my series on favourite games. They were a top tier team throughout the 1960s like ourselves, and we often gave them a thrashing at Upton Park.

In the last 25 years the Baggies have not had a great deal of success. When the Premier League began in 1992, we missed out on being one of the teams taking part in the first season as we were in the second tier. Albion were in a worse position than ourselves as they were even lower; they were a third tier team (the equivalent of League One today). Throughout the twenty-first century they have been the archetypal yo-yo club. Promotion to the Premier League in 2001-2 was followed by relegation the following season (2002-3). They came back up as a result of a successful campaign in 2003-4, and famously avoided relegation the following season with their version of “The Great Escape” when they became the first club to be bottom of the Premier League at Christmas, but stay up, which they achieved on the final day. It didn’t last though as they went down again in 2005-6, came back up in 2007-8, were relegated in 2008-9, and then won promotion yet again in 2009-10. Now that is the definition of a yo-yo club if ever I’ve seen one.

They have retained their position in the top league since then, and this is now their seventh successive season in the Premier League. They will be delighted with how it has gone so far, and early murmurs about the Pulis style of play have evaporated as they have climbed the table with a reasonably attractive style of football (well attractive by Pulis standards, anyway). Their ten wins, six draws and just eight defeats leave them on 36 points, just short of the magical 40 that all clubs aim for, although in truth 36 is often enough (but not in 2002-3, I hear you say!). A bit like ourselves, they could be described as flat-track bullies, in that they haven’t beaten any of the seven sides above them in the table. Away from home they have won three games at Palace, Leicester and Southampton. Of course their seven home wins include beating us comfortably 4-2 in September, after being three up at half-time, and four ahead shortly afterwards as a result of some comedy defending. It certainly wasn’t Masuaku’s finest hour in a claret and blue shirt.

The weather forecast is for another cold day so I’ll be wearing my hat (yes my optimistic West Ham one) and hoping for another victory, perhaps by the odd goal in three? If we can beat them, then there is every chance that we can push them for their position in the table. If we don’t win, then with games beginning to run out this season (just 13 to go after this one), it will be harder, though not impossible, to bridge the gap.

One of several players who have featured for both West Ham and Southampton is ‘old fashioned centre forward’ Iain Dowie.  In addition to scoring one of the finest own goals ever, in a League Cup tie at Stockport, Dowie’s legacy to football is the concept of ‘bouncebackability’.  Today is a chance for the Hammers to demonstrate their aptitude for resurrection as they travel to Southampton on the back of midweek humiliation at the hands of Manchester City.

Ask most West Ham supporters and they will be adamant that the Hammers are a far bigger club than Southampton, yet in reality they are currently part of a small group of teams, along with ourselves and Everton (plus Newcastle when they come back up), who have aspirations of nicking that spare Europa League spot and enjoying the occasional jaunt into Europe.  Southampton have the appearance of a very organised and well run club with a modern compact stadium, excellent training facilities (I wonder how Jose Fonte compares them to our own Rush Green base) and a recruitment system that has shown great stability in an environment where talented players and managers have come and gone in search of what they felt were greater things.

“They have some new players and some injuries, and it will be a tough game for us and for them.  It is an important game because we are only one point above them and we want to make that gap bigger.”

– Slaven Bilic

Since experiencing severe financial difficulties and entering administration, in the wake of the Redknapp curse, the Saints have demonstrated their own bounceback proficiency and during the past five seasons they have pipped us for automatic promotion from the Championship and finished above us in three of the last four Premier League seasons.   The current manager and team have not pulled up any trees in the League this season but have still managed to make it to the League Cup final.

Head to Head

Matches between West Ham and Southampton date back to the Southern League in 1899 with a first Football League Division 2 encounter taking place in 1922.  Since then there have been a total of 95 games of which West Ham have won 35, drawn 28 and lost 32.  The record away from home in 48 matches is won 10, drawn 16 and lost 22.  West Ham have yet to win at the St Mary’s Stadium which has seen 3 defeats and 4 draws in 7 games,

The last win on the road was a 3-2 success in November 2000 with goals from Kanoute, Pearce (S) and Sinclair.

Team News

Very few of the players who turned out against Manchester City have reason to qualify as the first name on the manager’s team-sheet this afternoon.  However, with a fairly limited number of viable juggling options available to him it is likely that the manager will plump for the largely similar personnel once again.  Cheikhou Kouyate has returned from the ACON and would be straight back in, for his athleticism alone, if I was picking the team .  Reports suggest that Sam Byram may be doubtful with a hamstring injury and so it could be a return to a back three with either Kouyate or James Collins linking up with Winston Reid and Jose Fonte.  If Kouyate is selected in midfield expect the manager to do this at the expense of Pedro Obiang, who despite being our best player for most of the season will be penalised for his poor show on Wednesday.  The more reasonable decision would be to bring in Kouyate for Mark Noble who looks to have even more treacle in his boots as each week goes by.  Robert Snodgrass will surely start in place of Sofiane Feghouli.

“We know this team, they have come back well in the table lately. They are a good opponent with confidence and we have to play a strong game.”

– Claude Puel

Interesting to see what type of reception Fonte receives from his former supporters and whether he is able to help the coaching team plot Southampton’s downfall.  Fonte was quoted as saying that the players did not follow the manager’s instructions during the midweek game and hopefully he can provide some on-field leadership in that regard.

Southampton are missing leading scorer Charlie Austin and best player Djik Van Dijk and with doubts over Rodriguez and Ward-Prowse they are close to what a fromer manager might have called the ‘bare bones’.  Bertrand and Tadic always seem to play well against us and manage to exploit our generosity on the flanks.

It is improbable that we have been able to address the lack of relative fitness in our squad over the past three days but it is fingers crossed that we go into the match with some sort of game-plan that is then executed with hard work, effort and commitment.

Man in the Middle

A rare Premier League appointment today for Graham Scott from Oxfordshire.  Scott’s only previous encounter with the Hammers was the League Cup defeat at home to Aldershot in August 2011 when he sent off Callum McNaughton, playing his one and only game for West Ham.  In a total 19 games this season Scott has awarded 67 Yellow and 3 Red cards.

We move on to game twenty-four in our topsy-turvy season. We have a trip to the St Mary’s stadium on the south coast to face a Southampton side whose season has been just as inconsistent as our own. Anybody who saw them beat us convincingly 3-0 in the sixth game of the season, at which point they had a five point lead over us in the table, would be surprised that they now sit one place and one point below us in that congested area which sees Stoke in 9^th place on 29 points and Bournemouth in 14^th on 26. We are 11^th on 28 points, at a midpoint of nine points below Everton who currently sit in our finishing place last season (7^th), and nine points above the drop zone.

It is highly unlikely that we can improve enough to move upwards to finish 7^th as we did last season, and improbable that we can implode to finish in the drop zone either. So mid-table obscurity is the order of the day, and an exit from cup competitions means that we have little to play for other than pride, and to finish as high as possible to earn financial rewards that are based on finishing positions.

Realistically, based on our performances to date, our final finishing position is very likely to be somewhere between 9^th and 14^th, so the six clubs in that band, Stoke, Burnley, West Ham, Southampton, Watford and Bournemouth, separated by just three points, are in a mini-league hoping to finish at the top (i.e 9^th). These six teams can perhaps be considered to have performed the most inconsistently this season, and all six have lost more games than they have won, without being that bad to be considered relegation candidates.

The prize money for a 9^th place finish is £24 million, and drops by £2m for each position, down to £14million for finishing 14^th. The difference of £10 million is sufficient to buy you another solid Premier League footballer (such as Robert Snodgrass, for example) who will help you to retain a mid-table position the following season, but not enough to buy any players to take us to the next level.

So the games against the other five teams in my mini-league take on added significance, and we have yet to play all of them for a second time this season, and the first of these games is on Saturday. We have already met all five of them at home, so they are all away games between now and the end of the season.

Our opponents on Saturday have beaten seven teams so far, Swansea, Burnley, Everton, Middlesbrough, Bournemouth and Leicester, in addition to ourselves. By the middle of December they had only lost five times, but a very poor run since then has seen them lose five of their last six league games. Their only win in that time was a 3-0 win over Leicester in their last but one game.

Of the six aforementioned teams in my mini-league, only Burnley and Leicester are still in the FA Cup, although Southampton have performed well in the EFL Cup to reach the final where they will take on Manchester United at the end of February. It is surprising to me as to how many of them fielded weakened teams in the FA Cup competition this season. None of them were in a position to challenge for a European place, and none of them were likely to be involved in the relegation dogfight. Surely they owed it to their fans to try to win the FA Cup? Fans will remember a visit to Wembley to contest the FA Cup final for years to come, but they won’t remember the difference between finishing 9^th and 14^th in the Premier League. We can exclude ourselves of course. We put out a strong team but were still battered by a rampant Manchester City team in the third round!

So what will happen when we take on one of the other “inconsistent” teams this weekend? To be quite frank I haven’t a clue. Based on current league form since around mid-December, we have performed better in our last eight games than our opponents, winning five of them to their two victories. But for many of those we weren’t that impressive, but nonetheless they were victories. On the other hand Southampton will remember their victory at our place earlier in the season.

We were both promoted to the Premier League in 2012 and have met nine times since then. We have won three times (all at home), they have won three (including two at our place), and three have been drawn (two of them goalless). We last won on their ground in November 2000, more than sixteen years ago, when goals from Kanoute, Stuart Pearce, and Sinclair, helped us to a 3-2 victory.

The smart money (according to the bookmakers) is on a home win, with Southampton odds-on to collect three points. I hope that we can prove them wrong and win there for the first time in a long while, but realistically I predict a 1-1 draw, replicating the score in the game in April 2013, and an important point against one of the other teams in the race to finish 9^th! On that day less than four years ago, Andy Carroll scored our goal, and he is the only player in our team from that day who is likely to face the Saints on Saturday. How times change. Other players in the starting line-up that day included Jaaskelainen, Demel, Diame, Nolan, O’Brien, O’Neill, Jarvis, Tomkins and Vaz Te, all long gone. The only other starter on that day who could possibly play is James Collins, but I suspect he will be on the bench.