Archive for January, 2023
Through to FA Cup 5th Round
West Ham have beaten Derby County courtesy to goals by Jarrod Bowen (10’) and Michail Antonio (50’) at Pride Park.
It always was going to be a difficult game at Derby County, currently sitting fourth in League One, but the Hammers came through it.
They now can head to Newcastle at the weekend with confidence and hopefully will start to build momentum in the Premier League.
The draw of the FA Cup brought a tough trip to Old Trafford to come in the next round.
➡️ BBC match report
Huge Crowds at London Stadium
The Hammers have been able to expand the seats at London Stadium before the start of this season, and they have since been roared on by the fifth-highest average attendance in world football in 2022/23, with 62,449 fans heading to London Stadium for each of the Club’s first eight home Premier League matches in autumn 2022. The last home game of the year (Brentford 0:2 on 30 December 2022) was attended by an even higher crowd of 62,467.
West Ham’s average home attendance this season has been larger than Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool, Manchester City and Newcastle United, as well as the likes of Real Madrid, AC Milan, Marseille, Celtic, Rangers, Benfica and Ajax. Only Manchester United, Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich have registered higher numbers in 2022/23.
In total, 562.057 fans have attended the Irons’ nine home games in which they have mustered 3W 1D 5L. Only Manchester United have drawn more people to their stadium and registered a higher average home attendance for Premier League matches this term than the east Londoners.
Fifth Win in 20 Games
With only their fifth Premier League win of the season and the first one in three months West Ham moved out of the relegation zone. The Hammers defeated Everton 2-0 at the London Stadium on a day when the club paid tribute to the late David Gold who passed on January 4th. It was Jarrod Bowen who scored both goals after having gone 12 games without a goal.
“t was a big result for everyone connected with the club. The players earned it, they recognise the situation and we are working to get the club away from where they are, said victorious West Ham manager David Moyes.
The manager also said that “the only difference between this and the other performances was scoring two goals.”
“I’m not saying the pressure is off,” Moyes admitted, “but maybe we can show what we’ve really got and maybe the boys are going to know they’re going to have to play much better with the ball and without the ball as well.
“We have had a couple of extraordinary years and we are all disappointed that we haven’t hit that height this year, but we need time for some players to settle in. Hopefully we can build that team and are on the right track now.”
West Hame now face teams higher up the table in the next three games (Newcastle on Februar 4th, then Chelsea and Spurs) and David Moyes thinks that might suit them.
“Today I thought we did a really good job defensively and we didn’t give too many opportunities to Everton, but we still need to tidy up.
“If we had got the third or fourth goal it would have been a much better outcome for us, but winning 2-0 I’m not complaining at all.”
David Crosby Died
Today sad news emerged that David Crosby has passed. The legendary folk-rock singer died, aged 81, “after a long illness” while surrounded by family, his wife told.
The folk-rock star who was renowed for his guitar-playing, brilliant voice and vocal harmonies sung together with The Byrd’s, CSN and CSN&Y achieved the rare feat of being inducted to the revered Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice.
If somebody asked me which was my favourite band, my answer always was and will be “CSN” and “CSN&Y”. Their music has inspired me to play guitar myself, and I was lucky enough to attend a concert of CSN’s last European tour in September 2015 in London’s Hammersmith Apollo (below).
David Crosby will never be forgotten. RIP.
Ings: First In in January
West Ham have completed the £15m signing of Aston Villa striker Danny Ings as David Moyes looks to refresh the struggling Hammers’ attack ahead of their relegation battle.
Danny Ings will now have played for all the three clubs in the Premier League whose colours are claret & blue. The thirty-years-old surely is a striker who can hit the back of the net. Only Harry Kane (41), Mo Salah (41) and Jamie Vardy (38) have scored more goals than Ings (34) over the last two Premier League campaigns.
In other news it is reported that full back Craig Dawson is going to leave the Hammers and join Wolves, whereas West Ham have made an offer to sign England’s Harry Maguire from Manchester United.
On Saturday afternoon West Ham will host David Moyes’s former club Everton in a crucial relegation clash at the London Stadium. If West Ham didn’t win and he would get the sack, Moyes could ironically take over from Frank Lampard and return to Everton…
Come on you Irons!
Defeat to Wolves …
…lets drop West Ham into the relegation zone, separated from Southampton and Everton only by goal difference.
West Ham lost 0-1 to Wolves at Molineux, and things don’t look bright at the moment for the Hammers. Manager David Moyes has not been sacked yet, but time‘s running our for the Scot.
Cup Win at Brentford
With their first win in seven games, West Ham proceeded to the fourth round of the FA Cup, beating Brentford 1-0 away. Said Benrahma knocked out his former club as he collected the ball after a perfectly timed Declan Rice tackle and thumped home from 25 yards.
“I think the result in midweek [2-2 at Leeds] and a good win here today is something to build on,” said West Ham manager David Moyes.
“Getting through in any cup competition is important and we just about got there today.
“I said last week we could do with someone scoring a screamer and Said did that. His impact was excellent. It was a terrific goal.”
Benrahma’s strike was West Ham’s first on target, and was a fine effort, but the game as a whole was quite disappointing with regard to the quality of the performance of both teams.
The winger decided not to celebrate against his former side, but the goal will have been relief to West Ham and manager Moyes, who would not have wanted a replay in between crucial Premier League games against fellow strugglers Wolves and Everton.
It continues Moyes’ impressive record in the FA Cup third round, with the Scot now having won 10 of his 12 ties at that stage. Though more important are the following League games in which West Ham should get back on track with wins at Wolves on Saturday and Everton at Stratford one week later, before they go into the next round of the FA Cup. Then a trip to Newcastle is to follow at the beginning of February.
The FA Cup round-four draw will be staged ahead of the tie between Manchester City and Chelsea on Sunday afternoon, and can be watched on BBC One in the UK and on the official FA Cup Facebook and Twitter channels.
»Der Gott, der mich sieht«
EXTRA TIME 
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