Archive for February 1, 2021
West Ham Still Number One…
The Hammers are still number one of the six London Premier League clubs. Despite their disappointing defeat to Liverpool (1:3) on a rainy Sunday afternoon, they remain fifth in the table, in front of Tottenham, because Spurs were beaten in the evening game by Brighton and have now lost twice in a row. In contrast, FC Liverpool have now taken six points within four days from their last games in London against Spurs and West Ham and have moved up to third in the table.
After West Ham’s six wins in January so far, I had hoped for a better result, remembering a 3:1 win over Liverpool back in 2014 which I have witnessed myself in London at Upton Park. Sam Allardyce was West Ham’s manager then, and the Reds were coached by current Leicester manager Brendan Rogers.
Well, it was a 3:1 again – but it was Liverpool that scored three goals (two of them coming from man of the match Mohamed Salah) and West Ham’s Craig Dawson could only add a consolation when the score was already 3:0. West Ham manager David Moyes had decided to approach this game with a very defensive strategy which worked in the first half, but West Ham really never looked like they truly believed they could extend their run of six straight wins in all competitions against the reigning champions.
Chelsea with their new coach Thomas Tuchel also played on Sunday. Their lunchtime kick-off game brought the first win for their new manager with a 2:0 win over Burnley. The Blues are sixth, level on points with Tottenham and two points behind West Ham.
On Saturday Crystal Palace beat Wolves, and Arsenal and Fulham drew their respective games. Arsenal are tenth, the Eagles moved up to thirteenth and Fulham with manager Scott Parker remain in the bottom three after a 2:2 draw with fellow strugglers West Brom. Albion have replaced manager Slaven Bilic with Sam Allardyce to little effect so far and are 9 points from safety. The Cottagers are 7 points behind Brighton in 17th.
In the Championship London club Brentford which had been beaten by Fulham in the 2020 play-off final is again chasing promotion and sit third in the Championship table after trashing Wycombe 7:2 this weekend.
West Ham v Liverpool 1:3 (0:0)
Match report (BBC): www.bbc.com/sport/football/55769215
EXTRA TIME 
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