Under The Hammers

I Wouldn’t Bet On It 31

Pedro to repeat his goal from last week?

Fancy A Bet

A profit from last Saturday’s game at Southampton on the following bet:

4 points on West Ham to win the game @15/4 (19)

We’ve had a few bets this season on West Ham to win and Obiang to score in the game, but of course Murphy’s (or Sod’s) Law, it happened this week but it wasn’t one of our bets. You win some and you lose some!

We also got our stake of 1 point back on the following bet as only one team let us down (Palace):

1 point – A six game accumulator for the following six teams to win this weekend: Chelsea, Palace, Everton, Watford, Tottenham and Man City @ 17/1 (18)

Our balance has now increased to 130 points.

This week I’m confident that we will win against a West Brom side, managed by Tony Pulis, who I believe have exceeded the expectations of most people this season and currently sit in eighth place. A win would cut the gap to two points in the league table. My bets are as follows:

10 points on West Ham to win the game @11/10 (21)
2 points on West Ham to win the game and both teams to score @7/2 (9)
1 point on the London bus saying that you wait a long time and then two come along together, so West Ham to win the game and Obiang to score at anytime @18/1 (19)
1 point on the score at half-time to be 0-0, at full time West Ham to be 2-1 winners @40/1 (41)

And finally the real longshot of the weekend:

1 point on the following 11 teams to all win their game – Arsenal, Manchester United, Stoke, Swansea, Villa, Brighton, Derby, Fulham, Leeds, Norwich, and Reading @331/1 (332).

Total stake 15 points – new balance after staking is 115 points. Potential returns if correct in brackets.

What are the chances?

West Brom Preview

Can we reverse the result at the Hawthorns in September?

West Ham West Brom

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.

The Lawro Challenge – Week 25

The battle at the top of the Lawro Challenge table hots up as we reach week 25.

Lawro Crystal Ball Twenty-four rounds of games in the Premier League have now been completed. That means we have now predicted the results of 240 matches.

In Week 24, Rich scored 7 points, Geoff 6 points, and Lawro 5 points. Rich has narrowly regained his place at the top of the leaderboard, but the competition is well and truly on.

In this challenge we award one point for a correct result, and a further two points (making three in total) if the score prediction is spot on.

We now proceed to week 25.

	Rich	Geoff	Lawro
Total after 23 weeks	185	143	186
Score in week 24	7	6	5
Total after 24 weeks	192	149	191

Predictions – Week 25
	Rich	Geoff	Lawro
Saturday
Arsenal v Hull	2-0	3-1	2-0
Man U v Watford	2-0	1-0	2-0
Middlesbrough v Everton	1-1	1-0	1-1
Stoke v Palace	2-0	0-0	2-1
Sunderland v Southampton	1-1	2-1	1-0
West Ham v West Brom	2-1	3-0	1-1
Liverpool v Tottenham	1-1	1-2	1-1
Sunday
Burnley v Chelsea	1-2	1-1	0-2
Swansea v Leicester	2-1	1-2	1-1
Monday
Bournemouth v Man City	1-2	0-3	0-2

The Boy Never Quite Made It: Danny Williamson

Remembering Danny Williamson, a promising West Ham youngster destined never to hit the highest heights in career cut short by injury.

Boy Never Quite Made It West Ham is a club that likes to promote itself as the academy of football and there is nothing as rewarding for a supporter than seeing a young player break through from the youth system and establish a career in the claret and blue; especially when that youngster is a local lad. In reality the record over the years in producing young talent has been rather patchy albeit there have been some spectacular successes and periods of plenty. In this occasional series we look at those young players for whom there were high hopes but were unable to become local heroes at West Ham.

The academy was experiencing one of its barren spells during the late 80’s and early 90’s with the last notable graduates being Tony Cottee and Alan Dickens, who had both been key members of the boys of 86. At the end of the 1993/ 94 season, 20 year old Danny Williamson was given his debut by manager Billy Bonds as a late substitute (for David Burrows) in a surprising 2-0 victory at Highbury, he then kept his place for the following two drawn games, away at QPR and at home with Southampton. In the Southampton match Williamson got his Upton Park career off to a flying start by putting West Ham ahead after just 11 minutes.

Danny Williamson was the perfect academy star, a keen West Ham supporter who was born in Plaistow and played locally for Newham and Essex boys before committing his future to the Hammers, despite the lure of interest from Arsenal. After signing his first professional contract Danny enjoyed short loan spells at non-league Farnborough Town and third division Doncaster Rovers before getting his first team opportunity at West Ham.

Between his debut and the start of the 1994/95 season there was upheaval at West Ham with Harry Redknapp taking the manager’s seat and the resultant bitter departure of Billy Bonds from the club that he had served so magnificently during a 27 year association. Redknapp’s appointment preceded the arrival of new midfield signings John Moncur and Don Hutchison at West Ham which together with an unfortunate ankle injury limited Williamson to just 4 appearances for the season. In the subsequent 1995/96 season, however, he took his chance to become a regular starter in the first team and made a total of 33 appearances, scoring 4 goals including a 70 yard run and finish away at Bolton.

His strong running, passing and ability to find space looked set to establish Williamson as a popular West Ham hero but his progress was to be interrupted once more by injury during the 1995/96 season. Having recovered from one setback he was injured again in his comeback game at home to Chelsea resulting in the need for surgery on his foot. It was while he was recovering from injury in August 1997 that he was sold to Everton in a deal, valued between £3 -4 million, which saw David Unsworth plus cash head to Upton Park. He had made a total of 58 appearances for his boyhood club.

Williamson enjoyed a good start to his Everton career, commencing with a 2-1 home win over West Ham, but an injury to his foot sustained against the Wimbledon Crazy Gang in December 1997 ended up being his last ever game. He remained at Goodison Park until his contract was cancelled at the end of the 1999/2000 season but he was never able to get far away from the treatment room. A career that had started with such promise was never fulfilled.

Some supporters can get quite irate and critical about players that are continually injured but it is unlikely that many stay in the treatment room through choice. With Danny there some accusations from Everton ‘scallies’ that Redknapp knew that he was crocked before the transfer but this is improbable given that Williamson had passed a medical before signing.

Danny Williamson retired completely from football at the end of his Everton contract, aged just 26, and later became involved in a property company operating in Portugal.

My Favourite Games: Number 4 – West Ham 4:2 Manchester United, May 16 1977

A series of occasional articles recalling my favourite West Ham games, and songs that topped the charts when these games were played

There have been so many great games in the last 58 years and I’ve covered many of them throughout my book, Goodbye Upton Park, Hello Stratford. So many of them are remembered because of the importance of the game, the goals scored, and the spine-tingling atmosphere generated by our fans. Hopefully my memories of these great games will evoke fond memories of fans, (especially older ones like me!), and the music in the charts at the time.

Man Utd 1977

One of the best games of football that I can remember, and certainly one of those with the most incredible atmosphere, came in the last game of the 1976-77 season. United were back again as a force in the top flight and we were facing relegation. It was a Monday night and United were playing in the FA Cup final the following Saturday. The equation was simple. If we won the game we would be safe. I met (lifelong friend and co-weblogger) Geoff Hopkins after work, and we stood on the West Stand Lower Terrace to watch the game. Considering the importance of the game, it was surprising that fewer than 30,000 were there to see it. I guess it was a sign of the times. We had only won two of our previous 13 games, leaving us in this precarious position, although in truth we had spent most of the season in the bottom three.

If we thought that United would be taking it easy with the cup final just a few days later we had another think coming. Firstly they fielded a virtually full strength team, and secondly within 30 seconds of the start their left winger Gordon Hill gave them a 1-0 lead. Frank Lampard (senior of course) scored the equaliser in the first half, yet another of his important goals, and then shortly before half time we were awarded a penalty. With Pop Robson in the team I’m not sure how a young Geoff Pike came to be the penalty taker, but he had scored twice from the spot in the previous month and he stepped up to take the kick. Unfortunately his fierce shot sailed high over the bar and we went into the break at 1-1. Fortunately he atoned for the miss early in the second half when he scored a tremendous goal to put us ahead. Pop Robson made it 3-1 to ease the nerves before Stuart Pearson (later to join us) pulled one back. Robson scored again to ensure a 4-2 victory that kept us in the First Division. Our stay in the top flight only lasted into the next season, as we were relegated after another dismal year when we barely got out of the bottom three for the whole time. Once again we could have saved ourselves from the drop in the final game but a 2-0 defeat at home to Liverpool sealed our fate and we went down for the first time in my life.

The number one in the charts that week was Free, by Deniece Williams. Other notable chart songs in May 1977 were Stevie Wonder with Sir Duke, Rod Stewart with I Don’t Want To Talk About It (which was the number one the following week), Abba with Knowing Me, Knowing You (not by A-ha!), Hotel California by the Eagles, Good Morning Judge by 10CC, and Lucille by Kenny Rogers, which took over at number one after Rod Stewart’s three weeks at the top. Even though it was almost 40 years ago, I can recall practically all the songs in that chart, unlike my non-existent memory of the May 2016 chart recalled in Number 3, the final game at Upton Park, also against Manchester United.

A Poll of Player Ratings from the Southampton Game

Rating the Ratings. How different people viewed individual West Ham performances at the weekend.

Football Stats When I was young (I’m talking about between the ages of around 8 to 11, so over 50 years ago) I used to badger my dad to buy the People newspaper every Sunday. Apart from liking their match reports, they were the only paper (to my limited knowledge at the time) who gave the players ratings out of 10 for the game played the day before. You have to remember that all games were 3pm kick offs on a Saturday at that time, so apart from midweek games, I was able to collate the figures for most of the West Ham games throughout the season. I used to painstakingly write out on a schedule the subjective scores of the reporter at the game, and then as the season progressed I would calculate the averages. In this way I believed I was working out which players were the best. I didn’t keep my schedules, although I can recall that Bobby Moore and Johnny Byrne always figured highly at the time.

Now I haven’t really taken too much notice of player ratings since that time all those years ago, but it did occur to me that more and more publications, both newspapers and websites, seem to be giving players scores for their performances. Some of this is done for the purposes of fantasy leagues, dream leagues etc, and some for the purposes of the supposedly ever increasing demand for football statistics. Understanding the subjectivity involved, I decided to analyse some ratings that I researched when looking at the performances of individual West Ham players in our win on Saturday at Southampton. I looked at eight sets of scores, including those by my fellow web co-blogger Geoff, to see how much correlation there was in the figures. I was surprised by the consistency of what I found. I was expecting greater variation knowing how people tend to see games differently.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	A	B	C
Randolph	6	7	7	7.5	6	6	7	7	53.5	40.0	6.67
Kouyate	6	7	7	6.5	5	2	5	7	45.5	36.5	6.08
Reid	7	6	7	6.5	6	5	6	7	50.5	38.5	6.42
Fonte	7	6	7	5	6	5	6	7	49.0	37.0	6.17
Cresswell	6	6	6	6	7	7	7	7	52.0	39.0	6.50
Antonio	6	7	6	6.5	5	6	6	7	49.5	37.5	6.25
Noble	7	7	7	7	7	7	7	8	57.0	42.0	7.00
Obiang	9	9	9	8	8	8	8	9	68.0	51.0	8.50
Feghouli	6	6	5	6	6	6	6	6	47.0	36.0	6.00
Snodgrass	7	6	6	7	7	7	7	7	54.0	41.0	6.83
Carroll	8	7	8	7	7	7	7	8	59.0	44.0	7.33
	75	74	75	73	70	66	72	80	585	442.5	6.70

1 – Geoff Hopkins, Under The Hammers
2 – The Sun
3 – ReadWestHam
4 – The Mail on Sunday
5 – ESPN
6 – Football Insider
7 – Sky
8 – Outside 90

The eight sets of scores are listed above. I have only used the scores awarded to the eleven starting players. Of course, when I used to look at the data fifty years ago, there were only eleven players in each game as no substitutes were allowed at the time.

Column A is the total of the eight scores. Using standard statistical analysis to remove some element of bias / unusual scoring, Column B is Column A minus the highest and lowest score awarded to each individual player. For example, the Football Insider score for Kouyate is way out of line compared to the rest of the scores, so this “unusual” score is eliminated from the calculations. Column C is the average score for each player based upon the six “middle” scores, i.e Column B divided by 6.

The resulting table below is the final score for each player in descending order:

1	Obiang	8.50
2	Carroll	7.33
3	Noble	7.00
4	Snodgrass	6.83
5	Randolph	6.67
6	Cresswell	6.50
7	Reid	6.42
8	Antonio	6.25
9	Fonte	6.17
10	Kouyate	6.08
11	Feghouli	6.00

Unsurprisingly, Obiang was considered our player of the match as he was the top scorer in each of the eight sets of scores. His average was well ahead of Carroll who was second, and Noble in third. Feghouli finished at the bottom, although he still scored an average of 6.00. The average for the team using this calculation was 6.70.

It was just a bit of fun, but does give the thoughts of eight individuals subjectively analysing player performances in the game. Pedro Obiang is my player of the season to date, and his performance in this game reinforces my belief. I think, but I am not 100% certain, that he is the only West Ham player to score a goal and create an assist in the same game in the whole of this season. I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong!

Southampton 1, West Ham 3

A good performance to reverse the result at the London Stadium in September

noble

As always, co-weblogger Geoff summarised the game excellently in his article on the game published in Under The Hammers on Sunday: 5 Observations from Victory at St Marys. We were seeking revenge for our early season defeat at the hands of Southampton, and achieved it well.

Throughout this blog we have commented on the plethora of statistics surrounding football and I’ll add some more today.

In the Hull v Liverpool game, Liverpool “won” the possession statistics 72% to 28%, the shots 11 to 7, completed passes 523 to 162, and the pass success 82% to 62%. You all know the score of the game. Hull 2, Liverpool 0.

In the Palace v Sunderland game, Palace “won” the possession statistics 65% to 35%, the shots 17 to 10, completed passes 399 to 195, and the pass success 81% to 71%. You all know the score of the game. Palace 0, Sunderland 4.

In the Everton v Bournemouth game, Bournemouth “won” the possession statistics 54% to 46%, the shots 16 to 12, completed passes 476 to 391, and the pass success 86% to 82%. The final score was Everton 6, Bournemouth 3.

In the West Brom v Stoke game, Stoke “won” the possession statistics 62% to 38%, completed passes 416 to 220, and the pass success 81% to 70%. The final score was West Brom 1, Stoke 0.

In the Chelsea v Arsenal game, Arsenal “won” the possession statistics 59% to 41%, completed passes 475 to 326, and the pass success 84% to 80%. And the game ended Chelsea 3, Arsenal 1.

And finally in our game, Southampton v West Ham, Southampton “won” the possession statistics 55% to 45%, the shots 18 to 5, completed passes 388 to 296, and the pass success 82% to 76%. You all know the score of the game of course. Southampton 1, West Ham 3.

I think that I have proved my point! The TV and written media love to show us these statistics when a game is in progress (sometimes they give you the last ten minutes), and at the end of the match. So what do they prove? Of course it doesn’t always happen this way. Sometimes the team with the most possession and pass success rate will win the game.

I’ll leave you to judge the relationship between the data and the outcome of games. I’ve picked out six of the eight games played on Saturday in this last weekend. I suppose losing managers can hide behind the data to try to prove that they were unlucky. But the only meaningful statistic is goals scored. In each of the games I’ve highlighted the team that “won” in terms of the data lost the game. The teams that “lost” in terms of the data were the ones who picked up the three points.

Despite the four goals scored in the game we were still as low as sixth on Match of the Day! The win was well deserved in spite of the statistics I’ve quoted above. Gabbiadini, a player we have been linked with in the media in the past, took his goal well, although he looked offside to me. I haven’t seen a replay but I’ll be amazed if he was onside.

The timing of our goals couldn’t have been much better. The equaliser from Carroll proved that his right foot isn’t just for standing on, and he coolly slotted the ball home just a minute or two after we had gone behind. Obiang has been threatening to score for a long while now, and his goal on the stroke of half-time was well struck from outside the area. And finally Mark Noble’s free kick, as the Saints were threatening to get back into the game early in the second half, was rightly credited to him, despite taking a deflection of a Southampton boot. The “rules” of goals accreditation work on the basis that if the ball was bound for the goal, then even if it is deflected off a defender, the goal is given to the player who shot. It would have only been given as an own goal if Noble’s shot was deemed to not be heading into the goal.

Three more points and ninth in the table. We have a very important game at home to West Brom next, where a win would help enormously if we want to close the gap on them.

This Week in Hammer’History

League Cup semi-finals and that memorable 9 goal Bradford thriller feature in the week 6 to 12 February in Hammer’s history.

This Week Hammers History During the famous 1985/86 season West Ham only played one league matches between the middle of January and mid-March due to inclement weather and frozen pitches leading to severe fixture congestion during the final weeks of the season. Strangely, FA cup games were not affected and this week saw the culmination of a long running 4^th round battle with Ipswich as the Hammers triumphed in a second replay at Portman Road by a solitary Tony Cottee goal.

If you can cast your mind back to 1989 you will remember it as a disappointing season that ended in relegation and the dismissal of John Lyall after 34 years with club. The season was briefly brightened by an enjoyable League Cup campaign which included stirring home victories against Liverpool and Aston Villa. The semi-final opponents this week for the first leg at Upton Park were fellow first division strugglers Luton Town. The game was to prove just as disappointing as the rest of the season as Luton took a 3-0 lead into the second leg with goals from Mick Harford, Ray Wegerle and Danny Wilson (a penalty conceded by a young Julian Dicks). Luton went on to win the tie 5-0 on aggregate before losing in the final to Nottingham Forest.

There was also League cup semi-final exit in 1967 when once again West Bromwich Albion proved to be our nemesis. Having lost to Albion in the final the previous year a 2-2 draw in the second leg at Upton Park was academic as the Baggies booked their place at Wembley with a 6-2 aggregate win.

It was a much happier Upton Park in 1981, however, when second division West Ham faced first division Coventry City in a second leg semi-final encounter with the task of turning round a 3-2 first leg deficit. In what was one of those special nights under the Boleyn floodlights West Ham played some exceptional football (John Lyall described it as ‘some of the best football I’ve ever seen from a West Ham team’). Second half goals by Paul Goddard and an 87th minute strike from Jimmy Neighbour rounded off a great night on what was Billy Bonds 600th appearance for West Ham; setting up a final against Liverpool.

Parkes, Stewart, Lampard, Bonds, Martin, Devonshire, Neighbour, Goddard, Cross, Brooking, Pike

There may have been a 9 goal thriller at Goodison Park on Saturday but in 2000 West Ham featured in an unforgettable clash with Bradford City that not only had 9 goals but all-sorts of added drama. With the score goalless West Ham keeper suffered a broken leg after just 5 minutes played to be replaced by 18 year old Stephen Bywater making his first team debut. Bradford opened the scoring after 30 minutes through Dean Windass but the Hammers were soon level when Trevor Sinclair swept home and then led when John Moncur fired in from long range. However, it was back to all square at the interval as Peter Beagrie converted from the penalty spot following a push in the box by Moncur. After the break Bradford took the advantage with two goals from a red-haired Jamie Lawrence, the first a fumble by Bywater, gave the Bantams a 2-0 lead. As West Ham pushed forward Paolo Di Canio was denied several penalty appeals prompting him to demand that manager Harry Redknapp take him off. Redknapp managed to calm the Italian down and moments later West Ham were finally awarded a penalty, for a foul on Paul Kitson. This led to a penalty area tug-of-war between Di Canio and Frank Lampard Jnr as to who should take the resulting kick; in the end Di Canio prevailed and, fortunately for him, scored from the spot to make it 3-4. A goal from Joe Cole brought the scores level again after 65 minutes before Lampard struck from the edge of the area with seven minutes remaining to complete the scoring at 5-4 to West Ham. Possibly one of the most bizarre matches ever to take place at the Boleyn.

Hislop (Bywater), Charles (Kitson), Minto, Lomas, Stimac, Ferdinand, Sinclair, Cole, Di Canio, Lampard, Moncur

5 Observations from victory @ St. Marys

A first ever win at the St Mary’s Stadium has the Hammers nudging up to ninth place in the Premier League table.

Hitting The Heights

A very satisfying first ever win at the St Mary’s Stadium which elevates West Ham towards the upper end of their probable finishing position for the season, somewhere between 8^th and 14^th. Next week’s match at home to West Bromwich Albion potentially giving a clearer indication as to whether the Hammers have already peaked or not. Some commentators are suggesting that away form is now better than at home, but this is not the case, at least in absolute terms, where we have collected 14 points away compared to 17 at home. In relative terms, however, we are performing better away (as we did last year); league tables based solely on either home or away games would have us 15^th and 6^th respectively compared to 7^th and 4^th respectively over the course of 2015/16. Comparing the overall record at this stage of the season (after 24 games) we have won just one less game but have lost 6 more giving a total of 7 less points. If you constructed league tables, for the whole of last season, based only on games against top half sides you would find West Ham in top spot; this season we are next to bottom just above Crystal Palace. The equivalent table for matches against bottom half sides would have us 11^th in 2015/16 and 6^th in 2016/17 to date. Proving perhaps that lightning doesn’t strike the same place twice.

When a Plan Comes Together

Even though the daffodils are not yet out the match had the feel of an end of season game for me, although this was largely down to Southampton’s subdued approach. Maybe with key players missing and an EFL cup final on the horizon their minds were elsewhere. Having now lost 6 of their last 7 league games and with signs of life among the bottom dwellers Southampton might be advised to take a quick look over their shoulder. In the after-match interviews, Slaven Bilic claimed that West Ham a game plan and that the players had stuck to it. I’m sure that plan didn’t include going a goal down early on but the team reacted well where you might have expected heads to have dropped in the aftermath of the midweek experience. As they say in football, ‘you can only beat what is in front of you’ and West Ham were worthy of this competent win despite not dazzling. Although Southampton were credited with 21 goal attempts very few of these created real threat to the West Ham goal. I still think that Gabbiadini was offside for his goal but that when he we was pulled up later in a similar position he was not; the swings and roundabouts of refereeing decisions.

Cotton Wool Striker

It was another well taken goal by Andy Carroll to make it a total of 6 for the season from 12 appearances, including 3 substitute appearances. All being well, Carroll is on target for his best ever haul of Premier League goals in a single season which currently sits at 11 with Newcastle and 9 with West Ham. This week’s goal was a controlled right foot finish following a ‘slide-rule’ pass from Pedro Obiang (I wonder how many supporters know what a slide rule is let alone have ever used one?) It was interesting that he was once again withdrawn as a precaution once Bilic felt that the game was won. In the scheme of things I think that not making rash purchases in the transfer window was a sensible course of action but how a team in the world’s ‘elite’ football league got themselves into a position of being so short in a number of key positions remains staggering. With no natural ‘trusted’ replacement to lead the line West Ham effectively surrendered the initiative in the final half hour and invited Southampton to come at them. Although you could argue that the result vindicated the decision this is an outcome bias and we could easily have been in trouble had the Saints pulled one back (e.g. Gabbiadini’s skyer). Keeping hold of the ball is always the best defensive tactic in my opinion and our ball retention dropped alarmingly after Carroll’s withdrawal.

Snodgrass Puts in a Shift

I didn’t really notice Robert Snodgrass much during the first half and his main contribution appeared to be at free kicks and corners. In fact if his stats are to be believed he didn’t do much at all and only Feghouli had fewer touches (41 versus 40) over 90 minutes. But we all know that the stats do not tell the whole story and, as well as earning the free-kick that led to Mark Noble’s goal, he put in a tremendous amount of effort during the second period and particularly when it became his turn to fulfil the lone striker role. Not only did he cover a huge distance but he did so at pace and did not allow the Southampton defenders any time on the ball. It was one of Michail Antonio’s quieter games but, not for the first time, he ended up playing in three positions in one game. As with the ‘Cheikhou Kouyate at right back situation’ you can understand the emergency use of a player out of position but to have it happen so regularly has an air of disorganisation.

No Way, Pedro!

Without doubt a man-of-the-match performance from Pedro Obiang. Great work to set up West Ham’s opening goal and then a superb moment to open his own goal-scoring account on the stroke of half-time. [Not such good news for our regular betting thread which has backed him to score in almost every other week before this.] If team-sheets really are completed in descending order of your best performers then surely Obiang’s is almost the first on it every week at the moment. Add in Reid and Carroll and these three create an excellent spine to our team in the majority of games. Better performances this week from captain Mark Noble and Sofiane Feghouli although we should still be scouting for better and faster alternatives. Good to see Noble get on the score-sheet although I was convinced it would be given as own goal – shows what I know about dubious goals! Feghouli was more involved than usual although he played very narrow (possibly under instruction) and did not offer temporary full-back, Kouyate, much protection.

Ratings: Randolph (6), Kouyate (6), Reid (7), Fonte (7), Cresswell (6), Feghouli (6), Obiang (9), Noble (7), Snodgrass (7), Antonio (6), Carroll (8) Subs: Lanzini (5), Collins (6)

I Wouldn’t Bet On It 30

A good decision to not stake too much on the City game!

Fancy A Bet

Our 10 point stake was blown out of the water in the first half on Wednesday night bringing our balance down to 120 points. We now face an away game at Southampton and remember that they beat us convincingly 3-0 earlier this season at the London Stadium. Nobody really expects us to win on Saturday, including me, but I refuse to bet against us, so my stakes on Saturday will be:

4 points on West Ham to win the game @15/4 (19)
2 points on the game ending as a score draw @4/1 (10)
1 point on Antonio to score the first goal and the game to end 1-1 @50/1 (51)

And then 3 fun accumulators:

1 point – A double on the Southampton v West Ham and West Brom v Stoke games to both end in score draws @22.5/1 (23.5)
1 point – A four game accumulator on the above two games plus Hull v Liverpool and Leicester v Man Utd – all four games to end as score draws @619/1 (620)
1 point – A six game accumulator for the following six teams to win this weekend: Chelsea, Palace, Everton, Watford, Tottenham and Man City @ 17/1 (18)

Total stake 10 points, bringing our balance down to 110 points. Potential returns if correct in brackets.