Category: Preview

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.

Thankfully the transfer window has settled safely back in its frame for another few months and attention can return in its entirety to action on the pitch, even though I suspect the ghostly tones of “We’ve got Payet” will reverberate around the cavernous stadium and in the media for several weeks to come.  It turned out to be a pragmatic window for the Hammers, rather than an exciting one, and much still rides on the continued fitness of Andy Carroll, the only remaining credible striker option in the continued and long running absence of Diafra Sakho.    I was encouraged to hear Carroll say that he was now conscious of picking his battles on the pitch and that he no longer felt the need to try to win every ball; hopefully this should serve to minimise the stresses and strains on his body.

Blah, blah, blah, Dimitri Payet, blah blah blah…..

– Slaven Bilic Press Conference

The closing of the window is unlikely to shut out all of the noise about ‘two-bob’ ‘penny-pinching’ owners but in the context of mid-table obscurity (with an outside chance of Europa League in the event of extraordinary planetary alignment) it is better to keep the ‘war chest’ safely buried until the summer, when there is better value and greater options.  The majority of supporters will not remember a making-up-the-numbers January signing when it comes to scrutinising and comparing future summer investment.

Today’s visitors are one of the few clubs where transfer budgets are meaningless and for whom the odd £50 million thrown around is simply loose change burning a hole in the pocket of a dishdasha. They were quiet this window (unless you count £27 m Gabriel Jesus who was signed in the summer but has only recently arrived) but their net spending for this season still exceeds £150 m.

I am always torn on match-days between a natural, but understated, optimism for a West Ham victory and a litany of reasons why just now is a bad time to be playing this week’s particular opposition.  The recent indifferent run by the Blues and the resultant media focus on Pep’s performance are the anxieties that will gnaw away at my confidence and create growing pre-match-tension as kick-off approaches.

Head to Head

It is a mere 3 weeks since our last encounter with City at the London Stadium when once again the head to head advantage clicked a further notch in their affluent direction.  We have won just two of the last 16 meetings between the two clubs.  In the recent FA Cup tie it was difficult to determine to what degree the final outcome was the result of City’s brilliance or the Hammer’s pitifulness.  Either way it will require one of those special ‘obscene’ all-hands-to-the-pump displays if we are to take advantage of an early opportunity for revenge.

Team News

The injured are still injured, Andre Ayew is busy scoring penalties at the African Cup of Nations and Cheikhou Kouyate continues to queue at Heathrow immigration.  According to the Physio room both Andy Carroll and Mark Noble have knocks but are expected to recover.  It is the manager’s style to keep the same team and formation until we lose a game and so, with the exception of Jose Fonte in for the injured Angelo Ogbonna, I expect to see the same line-up that started at Middlesbrough.  Personally, I would put Snodgrass straight in at the expense of Feghouli but he will most likely be introduced from the bench at two-nil down.  If I owned a hat then I would offer to eat it if either Feghouli or Calleri ever make it as regular Premier League players.  There is a story that Brian Clough once went to scout a player but left after the warm-up because he didn’t like the way he ran; well that is how I view these two, neither of whom look like top-flight footballers – not that I would compare my judgement to Cloughies – and clearly Bilic has seen something he likes about them in training.

“He’s so important, we’ve played a lot of games without him, and I’m happy he’s back.  He’s not an aggressive player. He’s tough. He’s one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met. We accept the ban and don’t complain.”

– Guardiola on Fernandinho

For Manchester City, there is good and bad news.  The bad news is that Kompany is fit again, Aguero has recovered from injury, Fernandinho is available after suspension and everyone else is available.  The good news is that only 11 can be on the pitch at any one time and that one of them is likely to be Claudio Bravo.

The Man in the Middle

For the first time this season we’ve got a Friend in the shape of Kevin from Leicestershire.  A comparative stranger to West Ham games, the single coming together last season was in the historic away win at Liverpool where he erroneously sent off Mark Noble.  In his total of 21 games this term Friend has flaunted  73 Yellows and 1 Red card.

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Manchester City began the season as the bookmakers’ favourites to land the Premier League title. The arrival of Pep Guardiola, who many saw as the best manager in world football, was considered to be a master stroke, and many felt it would ensure that the title returned to the Etihad Stadium. But, despite six wins on the trot in their first six games of the season, which shortened their odds of finishing at the top, they have since been inconsistent for a team destined to win the league. On paper, those first six games did not appear to be the toughest, apart from perhaps a visit to their Manchester neighbours. But they won them all relatively comfortably, scoring eighteen goals in the process and conceding just five.

But in their next sixteen games they have suffered five defeats at the hands of Tottenham, Chelsea, Leicester, Liverpool and Everton. More worryingly perhaps, for a team who had high hopes, they have had four draws at home against Everton, Southampton, Middlesbrough and Tottenham. Had they won those four they would be sitting comfortably in second place, just four points behind the leaders, Chelsea.

But as it is, with just sixteen games of the season to go, they find themselves two points outside of the top four places, and with a fight on their hands to qualify for a Champions League place next season. Their cup performances have been more consistent, and despite being eliminated from the League Cup by their neighbours, they have progressed to the fifth round of the FA Cup where they have an away tie at Huddersfield, and to the last sixteen of the Champions League where they will face Monaco.

Of course they have already beaten us twice this season, 3-1 in the league at the end of August, and then the 5-0 thrashing in the FA Cup third round on our ground. In the league game, despite City scoring twice in the opening twenty minutes, we fought back with a goal from Antonio in the second half, and it took a goal in added-on time to finally seal the three points.

Guardiola has been criticised for his choice of goalkeeper to replace Joe Hart, and has been very touchy when interviewed on this subject by the media. Some statistics (on shot stopping) put Bravo, their keeper, near the bottom of the league of Premier League custodians, but of course the figures cannot take into account the quality of the shots that he has faced. Nevertheless the general consensus is that his performances have not been of the quality needed for a team hoping to win the title, although some blame must also be attached to their ageing defence, who have missed their captain, Kompany, for almost the whole of the season. This is one area that I hope we can exploit in the game. They have conceded 28 goals in their 22 league games, a figure that exceeds the four teams above them in the league, as well as four teams below them, including Middlesbrough who sit in sixteenth place!

Their attacking play, when it is on song, as it unfortunately was in the cup game here, is entertaining to watch, and their 43 goals scored (more away from the Etihad than at home!) is only bettered by the current top four. But their seven wins, four draws, and five defeats in their last sixteen league matches emphasises their inconsistency, and we shouldn’t go into the game fearing a repeat of the cup drubbing a few weeks ago. In fact our current league form, with five wins in our last seven league games, is far superior to their four wins in their last nine league games. On that basis, the bookmaker odds on offer, where we are quoted as around 5/1 to win the game, and City at around 2/1 on, would appear to be wide of the mark, but of course the two games where we have faced each other this season tell another story.

Nonetheless it is to be hoped that the apparent improved spirit following the removal of a certain Frenchman from the team (and now his subsequent departure), will mean that we can at least get something out of the game. With my trusty optimistic hat on I am hoping for a narrow win, perhaps 2-1, although a 2-2 draw may be a more realistic bet.

It will be interesting to see the team that our manager selects. Randolph will be in goal, and I expect a back four of Byram, Reid, Fonte and Cresswell. Kouyate has returned from the African Nations Cup, but whether he returns directly into the team is open to debate. For me, Obiang, Lanzini, Carroll and Antonio are certain starters, and he will almost certainly pick Noble. Of course new signing Snodgrass will be pushing for a place in the starting line-up as will Feghouli. Unfortunately Diafra Sakho is unlikely to be available until March, and it remains to be seen if we sign a striker on deadline day (I am writing this the day before). Bilic appears to have cooled on the prospect of signing Hogan from Brentford (I wonder if he really fancied him in the first place, perhaps hoping that Sunderland would part with Defoe?).

Now that Payet has gone for a reputed £25 million, we have money to spend, but I am uncertain as to the wisdom of doing so; perhaps we should wait until the summer now that we are virtually safe from getting involved in the scrap at the bottom end of the table? However many of our fans on social media are still desperate for a striker and a right-back. Calleri’s deflected goal will probably keep him in the squad, but he hasn’t convinced many yet (apart from the manager perhaps?), and Fletcher is perpetually on the fringe (surprisingly seemingly behind Calleri in the pecking order?).

And I’m not sure our manager could pick a right back based on his history (Antonio and Nordtveit don’t do it for me in this position). It was good to see that Martinez scored within minutes of coming on for his debut at Oxford. It was a well-taken goal, and he certainly looks a fine prospect. But then so does Reece Oxford, but he hasn’t been given a chance yet either! And I haven’t mentioned Fernandes who is another that I like.

I wonder if we will bring anyone in on deadline day tomorrow? Perhaps the long-awaited marquee signing? I won’t hold my breath.

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.

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.