If we wanted to know just how serious West Ham are about bouncing straight back to the Premier League, Saturday afternoon at Swansea should provide us with a pretty good answer. We travel to Wales sitting third in the Championship, four points behind leaders Swansea after ten games. The Swans have 23 points, we have 19, so while nobody wins promotion in October, this certainly feels like one of those games that could tell us quite a lot about both sides.
What a strange week it has already been for us. Last Friday night’s 1-1 draw at home to QPR felt like a missed opportunity, particularly when we were looking to make the London Stadium the sort of place visiting Championship sides wouldn’t particularly enjoy coming to. Then, five days later, we went to Lincoln and won 6-0. That’s West Ham for you. Just when you think you have us figured out, we go and do something completely different.
That Lincoln result was certainly some response, helped of course by Lincoln’s reckless opening to the game, but Swansea represents a very different examination. They come into the match after four successive victories, the latest being a 1-0 win at Millwall, and their record of seven wins from ten league games explains why they are sitting on top of the Championship. They’ve conceded just seven goals compared with our 12, although our 29 goals means we’ve been comfortably the more prolific of the two sides at the other end. So perhaps the big question is whether our attacking threat can break down the best defence we’ve encountered so far.
One encouraging factor is that we haven’t lost away from home in the Championship this season. Our four trips have produced one win and three draws, including that 2-2 draw at Millwall. But there is also the other side of that statistic; if we’re going to turn a promising start into a genuine promotion challenge, at some stage some of those away draws have to become wins.
Trips to Swansea haven’t always provided happy memories. Our last visit, admittedly all the way back in March 2018, ended in a miserable 4-1 defeat. Before that, however, there was a very enjoyable Boxing Day afternoon in 2016 when we went there and won 4-1 ourselves. That win avenged a 4-1 defeat in May 2016 in what was scheduled to be the final game at the Boleyn Ground (but wasn’t of course because the Manchester United game was rearranged).
That’s right you keep reading the scoreline 4-1. Three of our last games against Swansea have finished with that score and in between them we’ve managed two 1-0 victories. Here’s a quiz for you – answers at the foot of the article.
- Name the three goalkeepers who played in goal for West Ham in those last 5 games against Swansea.
- Name the goalkeeper who played in goal for Swansea in all 5 games.
- Name the player who played twice for Swansea and three times for West Ham in those 5 games and scored a goal for both teams (not own goals).
- (an easy one to finish) 21 penalties have been awarded in the Championship this season and 19 of them have been scored. Name the two players who missed with their spot kicks.
For me, Saturday isn’t quite a must-win game, it’s far from it. There is an awfully long Championship season ahead of us, and a point away to the league leaders would hardly represent a disaster, in fact I would be happy with that. But there is an opportunity here too. Win and suddenly we’re just one point behind Swansea, whereas lose and the gap becomes seven. That’s what gives this game a little extra edge.
After six goals at Lincoln confidence ought to be high but now comes the harder part. Can we produce that sort of performance against the team currently setting the pace? It will be a totally different game and it won’t be easy but if we can win we will have 22 points from 11 games which brings our average up to two points a game. Over a whole season that would give us 92 points from the 46 games which would be the total needed to be in strong contention for automatic promotion.
And the answers to the questions:
- Darren Randolph was the West Ham goalkeeper in three of the last five games against Swansea, Adrian played in one, and Joe Hart in the other.
- Lucas Fabianski was the Swansea keeper in all five of the games.
- Andre Ayew played twice for Swansea and three times for West Ham in those five games. He scored for Swansea in their 4-1 win at Upton Park in May 2016 and then scored for West Ham in our 4-1 win in Swansea on Boxing Day 2016. Both he and his brother Jordan played for Swansea and Jordan scored one of the goals in Swansea’s 4-1 win in March 2018
- Taty and Jarrod Bowen of course!
