Archive for June 29, 2020
When will we meet again?
Last season we managed to travel to London several times, and in the end we watched four wins out of five games and only one defeat in manager Manuel Pellegrini’s first season with West Ham Utd.
Like almost everybody I had been optimistic that things would get even better this term as the team had played some really good attacking football last season which had been dubbed a “transitional” one. But like we all now know, things at West Ham and in the Premier League have developed very differently from what we expected back last summer.
When we came to London in November for the game against Newcastle Utd., West Ham’s win over Manchester Utd. back in September had remained the Club’s last win of this season so far and six weeks had passed since this game in which the Hammers had not managed to win a single match. The long-term injury of talismanic goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski for whom Pellegrini had failed to sign suitable cover had really cost us dearly, and of course Marko Arnautovic who had left the Club for Chinese money was also missed. His successor in West Ham’s attack, Sebastien Haller, would still take some time to adjust to the English game!
Newcastle was in the relegation zone before the game against West Ham, so this match seemed an almost perfect occasion to get back to winning ways. However, we know that West Ham quite often is also seen by their opponents as a starting point for a revival gifting them “first wins” to leave a losing streak behind.
And that’s exactly what happened: West Ham went behind 0-2 before halftime, had absolutely no clue how to deal with the quick Newcastle attacking play, and finally conceded a third goal after the interval. A late West Ham rally wasn’t enough and they lost 2-3.
Unfortunately it took West Ham until the end of this month to win again, a famous 1-0 away win at Chelsea with our third goalkeeper, David Martin, between the sticks. But in the end it was a short-lived upturn in fortune, and in the end Manuel Pellegrini had to leave and was replaced by David Moyes.
Our next trip to London was planned around the Wolves game on March 15, but this was the time the lockdown started in Austria and we decided to cancel our weekend in London.
When will we meet again in London and inside London Stadium?
EXTRA TIME 
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