EXTRA TIME

Let the Bubbles Fly Against Bogey Team Brighton

December 1, 2021 at 12:25 pm 1 comment

West Ham have never beaten tonight‘s opponents Brighton & Hove Albion in the Premier League, and for the first time since April the Hammers have lost two Premier League outings in a row. Therefore it‘s time to get counted tonight at 20:30 (MET) when the Hammers take on their “PL bogey team” in an attempt to get back to winning ways and start well into the most busy footballing period of the year. A win would be a welcome sign showing that the metamorphosis of West Ham under David Moyes will not “fade and die”.

West Ham’s win in the Europa League over Rapid Vienna has been sandwiched by two Premier League defeats. The Hammers have lost two league games in a row for the first time since April. Despite those setbacks, West Ham sit fourth after 13 matches with 23 points and are one of just four Premier League clubs with a positive goal difference.

Brighton has become something like a bogey team for West Ham since the Seagulls’ promotion to the Premier League. West Ham have lost the first three meetings before drawing five in a row, including both games last season: 2-2 at London Stadium in December and 1-1 at Brighton’s Amex Stadium in May.

The Sussex side had a very good start into the current season. They even broke into the top four, but have been on a bad run of results for some time now, having failed to win any of their previous eight Premier League matches, drawing six and losing two. However, courtesy to their good form at the beginning of the season, Graham Potter’s team still are in the upper half of the table in ninth with 18 points.

It would be very much the “West Ham way” in its worse sense of the word, if the Hammers tonight gifted a win to the Seagulls, a team which desperately is looking to end a bad run. It really happened much too often in past years that West Ham were the first team that helped their respective opponents gain new confidence in situations like these by losing despite having been tipped to win against an out-of-form team.

Therefore David Moyes said, shortly after his return to West Ham in December 2019, that the Hammers were known as an “inconsistent, flaky side” and that he was out to change that. Tonight he and his team have the perfect opportunity to show how far they have come! With a win against the Irons’ bogey, they would not only be back to winning ways and remain fourth in the Premier League (regardless of Arsenal’s result against Manchester United tomorrow), they would show what a big transformation has happened under the second reign of David Moyes.

When the Hammers played very well for some time under Moyes’s successor and predecessor, Manuel Pellegrini (1 July 2018 – 28 December 2019), I thought that with this high calibre manager at the helm the Hammers had become a team with a “winning mentality” and spoke of a “Pellegrini Revolution” – until in autumn 2019 the train went off the rails. “Hammer of the year” Lukasz Fabianski had got injured early into Pellegrini’s second season in charge, and the manager had not provided for appropriate cover.

Pellegrini’s signing, Spanish goalkeeper Roberto, conceded four goals in the first game after Fab’s injury against minnows Oxford United (West Ham tumbled out of the League Cup with this 0-4), and in the consecutive matches he was a permanent factor of concern and uncertainty in defence. With Roberto in goal West Ham mustered only one clean sheet (in his first game in charge against Newport in the League Cup) and didn’t win a single game. Following Fabianski’s injury West Ham won only two games from 14 matches until Pellegrini was sacked, and in these ties against Chelsea (1-0) and Southampton (1-0) the Irons’ third keeper David Martin played in goal.

Then David Moyes started his second spell with West Ham with a 4-0 victory at London Stadium against Bournemouth. He saved the Hammers from the drop when he came back to east London by the end of December 2019, and has overseen an unbelievable metamorphosis of our beloved club with qualifying for the Europa League group stage for the first time, finishing sixth in the Premier League 2020/21 (after having been in the running for a Champions League spot for a long time, with only one win missing in the end). So far he has even been exceeding this success in the current season with winning and winning and winning … (only four losses and 12 wins from 20 games so far!). West Ham have gained 23 points from 13 Premier League matches and are one of just four clubs with a positive goal difference (also a huge improvement compared to previous seasons).

Now let’s hope that we keep going this term when the most challenging part of the season starts (including the busy Christmas season with matches on 26 and 28 of December). Until the end of the year the Hammers will play a game every three or four days and must hope that no long term injuries will be added to the one that Angelo Ogbonna suffered in the famous victory over Liverpool.

First of all, tonight it’s time to beat the bogey team from east Sussex in east London. There should be a “Sussexit” (as Megxit has to be called now!) out of West Ham’s bad record with the “east Sussexes”: a first win over Brighton in the ninth Premier League outing of these two teams would end the winless streak against the Seagulls and keep West Ham in fourth place in the Premier League. Prior to the visit of Chelsea at London Stadium next Saturday, that would be a clear sign that the “Moyes Metamorphosis” is remaining on track! And, contrary to the “Pellegrini Revolution”, that this metamorphosis could be one that lasts for longer.

Come on you Irons!

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