Posts filed under ‘West Ham’
Two Cup Finals And A Triple Call For VAR
West Ham have ended a bad run of three defeats with a 2-2 draw against Leicester – that‘s what will be on record when someone looks up the last third of Manuel Pellegrini‘s first season at West Ham Stats in years to come. It’s just a pity though that there won’t be a footnote to this result stating that West Ham would have won the game if the assistant ref hadn’t got it wrong with Lucas Perez’s second goal! But never mind, now we’ve got two cup finals and a trip to London to look forward to!
With only minutes to go and West Ham 2-1 up against the Foxes, courtesy to goals by Michail Antonio and Lucas Perez, the latter one had latched on Pedro Obiang‘s pass and rounded Leicester’s keeper Kasper Schmeichel to kill the game off with what seemed to be the 3-1 for West Ham, only to be wrongly flagged offside by the linesman. And after that incorrect decision, fortune was hiding again from the Irons when Leicester substitute Barnes put his team level in injury time!
New carpet, old mistakes
Therefore that draw tasted like defeat to the West Ham faithful on a bright sunny Holy Saturday which had brought us a new claret carpet around the pitch of the London Stadium; a carpet which had got caressed by goal scorer Michail Antonio who put West Ham up with a brilliant header in the first half. But in the end the carpet didn’t play a main part and wasn’t so supportive to West Ham’s squad as we had thought it would be, following Slaven Bilic’s remarks about the difficulties the players had with assessing the size of the pitch with the former green carpet under his tenure at London Stadium.
Nevertheless I am already curious about what the ground will look like with its new dress when we are going to be back to London Stadium in two weeks time for the last game of the season against Southampton! And we’re also looking forward to the unveiling of the 2019 Hammer of the Year, who in my opinion will be Declan Rice quite certainly.
But much more certain is that last year’s HOTY will not play any role in this season’s contest: Marko Arnautovic hasn’t scored since his “China saga” in January, and he and the team have been inconsistent (to put it mildly) since Arnie’s premature waving good-bye when he was substituted throughout the second half in West Ham’s win over Arsenal. That was the last game I have watched in the London Stadium so far, and I think I haven’t missed very much during my absence before coming back to Stratford at the beginning of May. Apart from the Liverpool draw, a game which the Hammers would have won if a blatant offside goal for Liverpool had not counted, West Ham have more or less underachieved in most of the games since that famous 1-0 victory over the Gunners with Declan Rice’s first goal for West Ham just two days before his twentieth birthday.
Back in January we had thought that a good cup run was on the cards and that manager Manuel Pellegrini’s pledge to fight for 7th place in the Premiership could be successful. But a lot has gone wrong since, with West Ham tumbling out of the FA Cup against much lower opposition, and they never regained the winning mentality Manuel Pellegrini had seemed to have instilled into the squad back in autumn and December. Well, one of the reasons quite certainly were the usual series of injuries that have plagued the Hammers all season (short and long term), but maybe it was also the club’s handling of Arnie’s transfer request which had a detrimental effect on the squad. And we haven’t got an in-form natural born striker in the team with Andy Carroll injured (again), Chicharito inconsistent or injured too, and Arnie … well, he’s far from being our talisman, as he was last season when his goals kept us up. The “China saga” has turned his head, and no turnaround is in sight so far. West Ham thoroughly miss a forward to score the goals you need to win a game!
Can’t wait for VAR now
Having already spoken about the offside incorrectly given in last weekend’s game and the wrongly ignored offside in Liverpool’s opening goal in the aforementioned draw with the Reds, that leads us to the recently much repeated call for VAR. Being a traditionalist I wasn’t so sure if I was happy with the implementation of the video assistant in the Premier League next season, with all the interruptions of the game and the wait before we will know if a goal is going to stand or not. But in recent weeks, with Manuel Pellegrini rightly saying Manchester United’s penalties in West Ham’s 1-2 loss at Old Trafford a week ago would have been overturned with VAR, and having watched that blatant misjudgment this weekend on TV, also for me VAR now cannot come quick enough. It’s obvious that the referees need assistance and our beautiful game will become more fair with VAR. I think with VAR already implemented in the Champions League and in Germany it‘s overdue in the Premier League now!
So this season will not only be remembered for the beginning of a new area for West Ham United, dubbed the “Pellegrini Revolution“ by me in a former post (maybe a little too early taking into consideration the bumpy ride that followed towards the end of this season!). It will also be the last season without VAR. Well, I now hope and expect that the video assistant having the last word in tricky decisions will help the referees to get right what they have got wrong much too often this season.
An inconsistent campaign
And what has went wrong with West Ham and the “Pellegrini Revolution”, as we will in all likelihood not reach the target of finishing in the top ten of the Premier League? I know many say that we should be happy with mid table security and the fact that despite a really bad start (with 4 games lost in a row) West Ham never was in danger to be dragged into the fight against relegation. But with quite a lot of money spent last summer and a high calibre manager at the helm the Irons should have done better and been much more consistent throughout this campaign! Now I think the gap that has opened between 10th place and the Hammers’ points tally will be too big to be bridged with just three games to play!
I think we will need more steel in midfield next season as Declan Rice and Mark Noble haven’t got enough support in the middle of the park, and we will have to buy a proper striker in summer. Throughout the season I had hoped that the trio of Felipe Anderson, Arnie & Nasri could develop a real threat to our opponents, but due to various facts that never materialised. And also the defence needs improvement as opposition goals have gone in much too easy, not only in recent games! I like Zabaleta and Masuaku going forward and beating their opponents in wing positions, but their crosses frequently lead to nothing and they are beaten themselves much too often in counter attacks. And unfortunately Cresswell and Fredericks haven’t delivered much better either imo. Issa Diop has played very well as a central defender especially in the partnership with “General” Balbuena, but he’s still young and seems to be “overplayed” and out of form recently. Finally MP will have to be more open to develop some kind of “plan B” for certain matches if his “plan A” is not working. I hope he will get a decent transfer kitty, our long term injuries will come back in the summer, and West Ham will be able to offload some of the fringe players and buy wisely; then a new season and a fresh attempt to become a real force in our big claret carpet stadium can start!
Two Cup Finals and a conference ahead
As regards football here in Austria my favourite club Rapid Vienna has done much better in the domestic cup than West Ham have. Sorry, West Ham’s men’s team, I should have said! Because the „honorable ladies“ in claret&blue have sensationally reached the Women’s FA Cup final, West Ham women v Manchester City women in Wembley: only to be played the same day as West Ham’s final home game at the London Stadium! So it won’t be possible that we watch both of these games in London, much to my wife Eva’s pleasure though, as she can avoid a “football overkill” on our trip!
Back to the mighty SK Rapid Wien whose club pastor Christoph Pelczar I have been able to meet recently (in the pic with midfielder Dejan Ljubicic): After a disappointing Bundesliga campaign in which Rapid have not reached the “champions play-off” of the best six clubs in Austria’s new league format, they won a thrilling penalty shoot-out in the cup semis against LASK Linz, and now we’ve got a cup final ahead just days before we fly to London. Fortunately there isn’t a conflict of schedules with this final, so I will be able to watch Rapid on Wednesday and West Ham’s Premier League team on Saturday, and then participate in the LC19 leadership conference in Royal Albert Hall on Monday and Tuesday!
Rapid Vienna take on Red Bull Salzburg on the 1st of May in Klagenfurt, hoping to win their first silverware since 2008! Two years ago Rapid have lost the final against the same opponents at the same venue – now this is an other chance to beat the odds and defeat RBS, the club that have dominated Austrian football for years now. As Rapid is the only club which already has beaten Salzburg in Austria this season, why not do that in the Cup final again?
So I do hope to come to London in high spirits at the beginning of May, and then we’re going to cheer on the West Ham and help them finish the season in good mood, too. I’m sure the LC19 conference will inspire and motivate us then anyway, regardless of the outcome of the football games, though I have some doubts about how it will feel to know that this visit to the UK will be the last one before Brexit comes into effect. Albeit we’ve already thought that of our last stay, back in January !
But you never know with West Ham, and with Great Britain either nowadays …
Come on you Irons!
Nicht einmal 35 Mio Pfund!
“West Ham have been offered 35 million Euros by the unnamed Chinese club for striker Marko Arnautovic – not the £35m widely reported!”
Das ist unakzeptabel für West Ham, keine Chance! Marko muss bleiben, solange nicht das Doppelte geboten wird!
Hurry up if you want to see Arnie
Am Samstag sind wir wieder in London. Wie gut, dass wir Tickets für das Spiel gegen Arsenal um 12:30 bekommen haben und dass Marko Arnautovic wohl fit sein dürfte, nachdem er im FA Cup beim 2:0 gegen Birmingham nach 20 Minuten vorsichtshalber ausgetauscht worden ist. Es wird ob eines konkreten Angebotes aus China für den österreichischen Stürmer wahrscheinlicher, dass er West Ham verlassen könnte.
Natürlich hoffen die West Ham-Fans, dass die “£35m bid from China” abgelehnt wird, entspricht doch der aktuelle Transferwert von Arnie angesichts der Inflation auf dem Kickermarkt sicherlich eher dem Doppelten dieser Summe!
Aber Arnie’s Bruder Danijel, der den Österreicher managt, wird angesichts der hohen persönlichen Gage, die man in China bietet, sicher versuchen, einen Transfer durchzudrücken. Hoffentlich gibt es nicht dieselbe verfahrene Situation wie bei Dimitri Payet vor zwei Jahren, als sich dieser weigerte zu spielen, um den gewünschten Transfer zurück zu Marseille durchzubringen.
Aber würde Arnie wirklich mit 29 Jahren schon nach China gehen wollen, wo es zwar unanständig viel Geld zu verdienen gibt, man aber von der europäischen Bildfläche verschwindet und keine Europa- oder Champions League gespielt wird und von wo auch Einberufungen in das Nationalteam durchaus fraglich sein könnten? Das “next level”, von dem Familie Arnautovic träumt, ist das sportlich sicher nicht!
Und vielleicht kann auch Marko’s Trainer Mario Pellegrini ihm erzählen, warum er in China offenbar nicht glücklich geworden und wieder nach GB zurückgekehrt ist.
Jedenfalls gut, dass die Tickets für Samstag nun da sind und Arnie in diesem March wohl sicher für West Ham auflaufen wird. Wie oft wir ihn in “claret and blue” noch sehen werden, ist offen in Zeiten wie diesen…
A “Noble“ Gesture
“The Noble Collection” heißt der Shop in der Londoner Neal Street im “Seven Dials”-Viertel in der Nähe von Covent Garden, in dem man allerlei Zauberstäbe und andere Harry Potter-Utensilien kaufen kann. Aber eine ganz andere “Noble-Collection” wurde zuletzt durch eine noble Geste von West Ham‘s Mark Noble erweitert, was einen jungen Fan aus Schottland überglücklich gemacht hat.
Der West Ham-Skipper, diesmal Ersatzmann beim 2:2 gegen Brighton, wärmte in der 2. Hälfte vor der Tribüne auf. Stevie Whorlow (12) aus Glasgow, der mit seinem Vater das Match im London Stadium besuchte und in einer der untersten Reihen saß, traute sich, Mark Noble mit einem selbst gebastelten Plakat (aus der Verpackung der neuen Mikrowelle) um sein Matchshirt zu bitten. Noble gab ihm das Daumen Hoch-Zeichen, doch nicht im Traum hätte Stevie gedacht, dass sein “hero” Mark Noble tatsächlich nach dem Spiel zu ihm kommen würde.
Doch “Mr. West Ham” tat genau das, nachdem er nach seiner Einwechslung bei 0:2, unter anderem mit einem Pass auf Marko Arnautovic, das Spiel gedreht und entscheidend mitgeholfen hatte, dass die Hammers ohne Niederlage ins neue Jahr starteten: Er lief zur Tribüne, vor der er eine halbe Stunde vorher aufgewärmt hatte, und warf dem Buben das verschwitzte Leiberl mit der Nummer 16 über die Bande!
Das war wohl das größte Weihnachtsgeschenk für Stevie, der erklärte, dass er das Match Shirt nun sicher nicht waschen werde, sondern es einrahmen und seiner Mark Noble-Sammlung hinzufügen wird. Eine wahrhaft noble Geste von Mark Noble!
Link (WHUFC): https://www.whufc.com/news/articles/2019/january/03-january/i-never-one-minute-thought-mark-noble-would-actually-bring-me
Das neue Jahr bringt einen Star
Selten so viel über West Ham in der österreichischen Presse wie in den letzten Tagen: zuerst wurde Marko Arnautovic zum Spieler des Jahres 2018 in Österreich gewählt, und mit der Verpflichtung des auch hierzulande wohlbekannten Samir Nasri gab es eine weitere Schlagzeile: Das neue Jahr bringt West Ham einen Star, schreibt der KURIER.
Nun ja, ob er tatsächlich eine solche Super-Verpflichtung sein wird, der seit einem Jahr wegen Dopings gesperrt gewesene Franzose, der einst bei Arsenal und Man City spielte, bleibt abzuwarten! Aber „in Pellegrini we trust“. Schließlich war er unter West Ham’s Manager Manuel Pellegrini der Spielmacher der Meistermannschaftbvon Manchester City.
Und nebenbei, die Schlagzeile des KURIER stimmt jedenfalls, denn Stars haben wir ohnehin schon einige bei West Ham, vor allem Österreichs Fußballer des Jahres 2018, Marko Arnautovic, letzten Sommer auch „Hammer of the Year“, also bringt uns das erste Spiel des neuen Jahres am Mittwoch auf alle Fälle den einen oder anderen Star auf dem Rasen des London Stadium – egal, ob Nasri schon involviert ist oder nicht.
Marko Arnautovic hat es sich jedenfalls verdient, heuer zu West Ham‘s erstem österreichischen Fußballer des Jahres gewählt zu werden. Im Interview sagte er auch, er fühle sich sehr wohl bei West Ham, es sei nicht geplant, demnächst dem Klub zu wechseln. Er wolle mit West Ham Titel gewinnen, der FA Cup sei das Ziel!
Zunächst muss Arnie aber erst mal wieder richtig in Form kommen nach seiner Muskelverletzung, aufgrund deren er bei West Ham‘s bestem PL-Monat, dem Dezember, gar nicht mit da wo war. Ich kann es kaum erwarten, ihn und Felipe Anderson wieder zusammen spielen zu sehen, wenn beide fit und nicht müde sind. Am vergangenen Sonntag war das gegen Burnley ja leider noch nicht der Fall.
Vielleicht nun gegen Brighton & Hove Albion am Mittwoch Abend! Come on you Irons!
Still West Ham’s best December
Instead of securing another win in an already extraordinary December of 2018, West Ham lost 0-2 to Burnley in the last PL game of the year. But this December was still the month in which West Ham have won more points than ever before in Premier League history, coming out as winners in 5 games out of 7, though up to 11 players have been out injured.
Felipe Anderson, who scored in almost every game this month, was not on fire this afternoon, and Marko Arnautovic‘s comeback after his hamstring injury showed that the Austrian will need some time until being back to form.
Burnleys Austrian striker Ashley Barnes, on the contrary, contributed an assist to a vital win after three defeats for the Clarets at Turf Moor.
It was a frustrating afternoon for West Ham. Burnley, having played their last game one day earlier than the Hammers, capitalised of an extra recovery day, and for West Ham’s injury-ravaged squad it was a step too far.
Now West Ham have to bounce back – again – in the next match, a home game against Brighton & Hove Albion. Also the Seagulls will have one more day to recover than West Ham, so it will be a tough game again for the Irons. I’m looking forward to a better performance though, may Arnie and Felipe show what the two of them are capable of when they are playing together!
West Ham have performed so well this December, now let’s see what the new year will bring with its first three games, all of them at home: on the Wednesday against Brighton, then, another three dass later, the FA Cup tie against Birmingham on Saturday, and finally a London derby the next Saturday with Arsenal being the opponents in the London Stadium. I will be there at this game!
Come on you Irons! Happy New Year!
The Pellegrini Revolution
If we believe the statistics, West Ham have never won more points in a single month of a season in Premier League history than this December. And that said, there is still one game to play, quite a winnable one against Burnley today! I saw the home game against the Clarets back in November (a 4-2 win), and that team can be beaten away too, and West Ham could add an other three points to their tally. Or will this match end in defeat because bottom teams often start winning again with West Ham being the opponent?
I don’t think so. West Ham have now developed a real winning mentality under Manuel Pellegrini and aren’t easy to beat anymore. Though the recent run of four wins was halted by a 0-2 defeat to the hands of Watford before Christmas, West Ham did exactly what the manager had asked them to do: to make up for the three points lost against the Hornets in their next game, and the squad responded perfectly with the 2-1 win away over Southampton! West Ham‘s attitude was perfect in that match, they played an attacking game as if they were at home for most of the time, and that is just what the gaffer wants: to play the same way at home and away. That‘s the “Pellegrini Revolution”, a transformation of our club whose bubbles have burst much too often in Hammers history.
Back in 2007 when I started to blog about West Ham, I described them as “one of the big clubs in England” in my first post, and rightly so, but it’s a matter of fact that within the last decades West Ham hardly was a force to reckon with in the Premier League or the cup competitions (apart from reaching the FA Cup final in 2006 and the last season at the Boleyn when West Ham qualified for the Europa League in 2016). West Ham fans often see themselves as “long-suffering“, e.g. Robert Banks’s new book (“An Irrational Hatred of Everything: My Continuing Odyssey as a West Ham Fan”), which spans almost the same time as my blogging history, is described as “recounting the life of a a long-suffering Hammers fan”. But I have a strong feeling that the suffering could be over this season and the move to the London Stadium might have paid off at last.
I was able to watch three games this season in the London Stadium so far, the first one the dire 0-1 against Wolves at the beginning of the season, when West Ham lost their first four games in a row. But Pellegrini remained calm then, knowing what he and his team were going to show as soon as the new players would gel and the squad had fully understood the new kind of tactics they were asked to play.
My next match was the home game against the Clarets back in November, a thrilling win with Burnley equalising twice, and Felipe Anderson scoring a brace in this 4-2! Actually it was this game in which Anderson started his fine run of scoring, now having netted almost in every game since.
Then I returned for the 3-2 win over Crystal Palace. Having been on my own in the London Stadium this time I had a WhatsApp conversation during the game with my old friend Alfred back home in Austria, who had not been able to make the trip. He was surprised by my optimism when the Hammers still had to trail 0-1 at half time, and when the Hammers had won he texted me how important it was that the Hammers were separated by 11 points from the relegation zone now. “Bescheidenheit ist eine Zier, aber jetzt wollen wir vier”, I texted back (“modesty is a virtue quite respectable / but now of four wins West Ham are capable“).
And now the old year is going to end on a high note for West Ham and its supporters, as the 0-2 loss to Watford before Christmas has turned out to have been just a minor setback for a team which now has found a real winning mentality. In the difficult match against Southampton, a team on the up with two wins from their last two games under a successful new manager, Ralph Hasenhuttl from Austria, West Ham’s squad responded perfectly to Pellegrini’s demand to make up for the points lost against Watford and win this one. They had a game plan which Hasenhuttl’s Saints could not cope with, making the “Klopp from the Alps“ a more and more unhappy looking figure with a facial expression reminding me of an angry rabbit in his hutch (which is the meaning of his name Hasenhuttl), the longer the game lasted!
West Ham‘s attitude with which the Irons addressed the difficult task of playing the highly motivated Saints at their ground was perfect, the Irons played an offensive tactic for large parts of the game as if it was a home game, and they could already have scored in the first half. Then they responded very well when Southampton took the lead with an odd goal and were in front within 9 minutes after the 0-1. Felipe Anderson could not only have scored two, but a least three goals. Declan Rice was superb, a real midfield general, Michail Antonio’s powerful runs were great, and with Lukas Fabianski in goal we have a keeper that in my opinion will be named in line with the greatest West Ham shoot stoppers in history like e.g. a certain Phil Parkes, one of my all time favourite players. And, most important of all, the whole squad, though deploited by a lot of injuries and long-time absentees, remained strong in the final stages and never let the game slip out of their hands.
A day after this game we learned that Declan Rice has signed a new contract commiting himself to West Ham until 2024 – this is vey good news again! So the year really ends on a high note for us Hammers, almost regardless of a win in the last game.
15 or 18 points won in a single month? We will know on Sunday. But we already can be sure that the “Pellegrini Revolution“ will stay on track anyway! Well, I hope I haven’t got carried away by an overdose of optimism by writing this post, but I’m already looking very much forward to my next visit to the London Stadium in January when West Ham is going to take on Arsenal.
Hopefully Marko Arnautovic will have come back from his injury by then, I can’t wait to see him and Felipe Anderson play together again! That game will be a real test for the new winning mentality of our beloved Hammers.
Come on you Irons!!! And a happy new year everybody!
The impact of the Austrians
I started to write this on the plane back to my home town Vienna, just having spent an extended weekend in London and watching West Ham for the second time this season. The first game had been the defeat against Wolves at the end of August, and now I have been able to watch West Ham’s convincing 4-2 win over Burnley last Saturday. One bad game, one good game, and the revelation of what a so far underperforming player can do in the second match – that seems to be the pattern of my West Ham Story last season as well as this one.
Last season I also had been able to attend two live games in autumn, and interestingly, this year is following the same pattern as the last one: my first game was dreadful (last term losing to Liverpool 1-4) and this year’s first game was nothing better: it was the fourth league game of the season and turned out to be West Ham’s fourth consecutive defeat with the Hammers conceding in the dying minutes, losing out 0-1 to Wolves in the London Stadium.
But like last year, this game turned out to be the last one in a series of disappointments, and things started to get better afterwards. Last year I had witnessed Slaven Bilic’s last game in charge, and soon afterwards his successor David Moyes engineered Marko Arnautovic’s metamorphosis into West Ham’s most prolific striker for years and eventually secured West Ham’s Premier League survival.
Marko Arnautovic evolving into “Arnie”, Hammer of the Year
After the disappointment in the first game, the following journey to the British capital last year gave me the opportunity to come back to London Stadium for a second game of last season, against Chelsea. And much to my delight, the presence of his fellow Austrians in the West Stand must have inspired Marko Arnautovic who had had a disappointing start into his spell with the club. The Austrian not only scored his first goal for West Ham against Chelsea and jumped into the crowd like Carlos Tevez had done a decade earlier at Upton Park, but he went on to deliver, starting from that game, what West Ham had expected of him when he was signed for a record fee in the summer. And finally “Arnie” deservedly won the “Hammer of the Year” award.
Well, and this year? When date proposals were made for a law symposium in London that I was going to participate in, the 2nd of November turned out to be the day of the event – a date which luckily coincided with a West Ham home game on the Saturday afterwards. That made it possible to come over again to spur on an other “record signing” this year who had come under some criticism for failing to play up to his potential so far.
Playing like strangers
Back in August in the Wolves game, the West Ham players, and especially Felipe Anderson, had played as if they were strangers not understanding one another. They were somehow strolling around the pitch on a nice sunny Saturday afternoon, lacking any urgency which would have been necessary to beat a newly promoted team in one of the first games of the season. Our new Brazilian marquee player from Lazio Rome showed only rare glimpses of what he might be able to do, and almost all his passes and runs led to Nothing. In my opinion he played much too deep and was too slow in going forward wide left, with the other players not able to anticipate where he would pass the ball or want to get it from his teammates.
But also this year after a very disappointing start (which we had not expected after the appointment of a high profile manager and massive funds invested in the squad), something better was just around the corner: like last year, the deplorable outcome of my first visit to the London Stadium wasn’t followed by other poor performances and results, but instead the “Pellegrini revolution” finally broke clear at last, West Ham turned the corner and went on a run of three wins and a draw – before undeservedly losing away to Brighton, and (more deservedly) losing twice to London rivals Spurs in the Premier League and the League Cup.
Because of this setback the Burnley match had become another “must win game” and I was only cautiously optimistic that the Hammers would get back to winning ways.
Especially I did not expect that another part of my narrative of the last season was going to be repeated in 2018. As I said before, last year our record signing Marko Arnautovic had not performed well until my second visit to London, and also this year, though a first goal had been scored by Felipe Anderson in September against Manchester Utd, our current “record signing” still had failed to deliver, much like Arnie had done in his first games last year.
Felipe on the up at last
But as we had been able to watch Arnautovic’s first goal and the start of a very successful season for the Austrian last year, we now were very lucky to be able to 
witness Felipe Anderson’s best game by far since his arrival! So West Ham really was lucky – or must I say: I had been lucky – to be able to come to London for a second time earlier than last year! Hence we did not have to wait until December until West Ham’s £36 million signing started to justify the amount West Ham has paid for him to Lazio in the summer. Anderson scored twice and played a large part in the Irons’ so far best game of the season, an important and much deserved 4-2 win. He linked up very well in the process with promising youngster Grady Diangana (who still has to make a choice, if he would want to play for England or the Democratic Republic of Congo) and with “Arnie from Austria” (who is already irreplaceable in Austria’s national team, and of course at West Ham).
Well, that said – with tongue-in-cheek of course – I think West Ham should not underestimate the impact which two Austrians have on the run of the season: one of them on the pitch, Marko Arnautovic, and an other one in the West Stand whose mere presence in the crowd each year on his second visit to the London Stadium seems to inspire, unconsciously of course, a particular kind of player: the one that has been earmarked as West Ham’s new star player in the respective season, but has not been able to find his feet in the London Stadium so far. This year: Senhor Felipe Anderson.
Therefore never underestimate the (partly unknown) contribution of the Austrians!
Come on you Irons!
In the Pursuit of Optimism
“The point of living, and of being an optimist, is to be foolish enough to believe that the best is yet to come.” As supporters of West Ham United, time and time again, we‘re “blowing bubbles”, and every year we’re foolish enough to believe that this season will be different from the preceding ones. But after a bad start into the new season with two defeats in two games, and now a difficult away game against Arsenal imminent, it’s not easy to stay optimistic for another week or two, and live according to the above mentioned conception once enunciated by Sir Peter Ustinov. And furthermore, as West Ham fans, the capacity of our optimism is limited anyway. We know that bubbles “fade and die”.
To raise the mood after the heavy defeat to Liverpool in the season opener, West Ham‘s club captain tried to give the preparation for last Saturday’s game against Bournemouth a spin in to an optimistic direction by stating that “our season starts now”. And of course we would have been all but happy to be made forget, through a convincing win at home, that there had been a minor unpleasant fact the weekend before, losing 0-4 on the road. Albeit, as we know, it wasn’t to be … and this season has already started with not only one, but two defeats, 6 goals conceded and not any goal scored from open play. And skipper Mark Noble is tipped to lose his place in the starting eleven for West Ham’s trip to the Emirates.
Well, so much optimism had been around the place during pre-season when West Ham’s board at last started to deliver on the promises they made when West Ham left Upton Park and moved to the Olympic Stadium: a high profile manager was installed in Manuel Pellegrini who has won the Premier League and two League Cups with Manchester City, and investment into the squad was made timely and to a significant amount. Only a few clubs, including Liverpool and Chelsea, have invested more than West Ham’s almost £100m. And this ýear, transfer deadline day which unusually took place before the start of the season, was not awaited by the West Ham faithful with anguished expectation and grave concern about the board failing to make respectable signings. This summer the common feeling was that on deadline day we might just get some icing added to the cake – a cake that already seemed to be a very tasteful one. We couldn’t wait to get the season started!
But optimism has vanished quickly with just two games into the season. We self-ironically thanked Huddersfield on Sunday evening that we weren’t bottom of the table anymore, and in all the West Ham Forums we’re discussing the reasons for this failed start and still have not come to a conclusion. The level headed ones say the team takes time to gel, the angry ones say the players are lazy and didn’t care on Saturday, and the ones that have had a closer look might point to the fact that the new gaffer has changed the system of playing. Therefore it will not only take time until the new players have accomodated and developed a common understanding; also the ones who have already been here last season will need time to adapt to the ideas of the new manager who wants to defend higher and let his team play a “possession game”. Well, in my opinion Manuel Pellegrini (if he’s successful) could make West Ham play that cultivated attacking style again which once was part of the “West Ham way”, a long, long time ago. Though I’m yet a bit sceptical because Pelle had already been able to work with the majority of the squad including most of the new players all pre-season, yet the defence looked as if they hadn’t played together before.
Last season I was able to come over from Austria to London on three occasions to attend West Ham games. The first one was in November, Slaven Bilic‘s last match, the 1-4 defeat to Liverpool; the second one in December was the 1-0 victory over Chelsea with fellow-Austrian Marko Arnautovic‘s first goal for the Hammers – two turning points of the last campaign! And finally I was able to watch the 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge, after which we flew home feeling sure that West Ham would avoid the drop.
This season I‘ve already bought the tickets for our first game, the second home game against Wolves on September 1st, and I‘m optimistic West Ham will record the first home win in this match. Yes, I‘m “foolish enough to believe that the best is yet to come“ this season. I think we can be optimistic that Manuel Pellegrini and his team will work it out with this squad full of talented players.
The point of being a football fan is that not just a new season, but also every weekend offers a new start. And especially we, the West Ham supporters, are foolish enough to believe that the bubbles we’re blowing will reach the sky – or at least “nearly“ will do. Maybe they will fly high as early as next Saturday against an also still winless Arsenal. And in any case I’m sure my first visit of the season on the following Saturday will be a happy day! If the bubbles don’t fade and die ,,,
Come on you Irons!
Never take anything for granted
In football one thing is for sure: you never can take anything for granted. The Champions League and Europa League ties last week again proved very well that even the highest favoured teams, leading by a comfortable margin from the first leg, may struggle or be eliminated against all odds. And as West Ham fans we know only too well that never opposition should be taken lightly, especially in cup games. And the game under the floodlights on Monday at the London Stadium is a cup final.
Well, West Ham’s engagement in the domestic cups didn’t really set the world alight this season, and the Hammers have no more cup ties to play at this stage of the proceedings. And they haven’t won a real cup final since 1980. But now we virtually have a cup final – or at least a semifinal – on Monday night! If the Irons manage to win the crucial game against second from bottom Stoke City, their unwanted flirt with relegation will be more or less over and our season is saved.
The other results this weekend could have gone a little better so far from West Ham’s perspective (if Crystal Palace and Huddersfield had dropped points and Swansea had lost, there would still be a gap of 2 or 3 points between these teams and West Ham before the Stoke game). But with third from bottom Southampton losing 2-3 at home to Chelsea (squandering a two goal lead) the gap of 6 points between the Hammers and the relegation zone is still there before the game against Stoke. Alas, in case of winning on Monday night West Ham will be 9 points away from the drop zone with only 5 games to play until the end of the season! And with playing at home against a team that has managed only one win in 15 games since Christmas and has the worst defensive record of the league, this win should be all but ensured.
But as we said before, in football never anything can be taken for granted, and West Ham have already lost games with similar prospects and expected outcomes this season (just think of losing to Newcastle, Swansea, and Burnley – or drawing with Crystal Palace at home). And we also should be aware that West Ham haven’t managed any back to back Premier League home wins since December 2016, and have not won twice in one season over Stoke City since the Potters’ first PL campaign in 2008/09.
But the last two games can make us quite optimistic with Marko Arnautovic still in top form, benefiting from Arthur Masuaku’s return from suspension and thriving in his role as a central striker which David Moyes has handed to the Austrian international. Arnie has completely lost his odeur of instability and sloppiness, of wasting chances and disappearing for large parts of games. Asked on my thoughts about him when he came to West Ham last summer I praised him as Austria’s recently most talented player, but I added that I had been happy that I was made angry by him only some times a season (when I watched him in the Austrian national team), and now I was going to be disappointed or annoyed by him every weekend… He seemed to prove me right right from the beginning of his West Ham career, but since David Moyes has come in as the new gaffer and lined up the record signing as West Ham’s central striker, Arnie has supplied nine goals and five assists from 14 starts. Statistics say that since gameweek 16, only three players have fired more shots on target: Harry Kane with 36, Mohamed Salah with 28, and Sergio Aguero with 25. And since the Austrian’s return from injury in gameweek 27, no player can better Arnautovic’s 12 shots on target. He has been directly involved in 13 PL goals this season, with nine goals and four assists.
That playing him in the central and only striker role has proven so successful doesn’t make it easy for the manager to include Chicharito in the starting eleven. „Little pea“ is a born goal scorer with an impressive record of scoring from inside the box and his inclusion in the starting eleven is requested by a lot of fans and, I think, also expected by himself. He has already got 8 goals this season though he has been played out of position under Slaven Bilic, been injured and often only has come from the bench. It will be very interesting to see if David Moyes will find a system in which West Ham‘s two top scorers can work together in the last 6 games of the season…
RapidHammer at Stamford Bridge
David Moyes’s team selection against Chelsea last Sunday (the third game in London I was able to fly over for and watch live this season by the way) has been spot on, and bringing Hernandez in the second half has proved highly successful. I was very sceptical about the appointment of Moyes back in November, but, as was said in a previous post here, „he has brought improvement to a number of players, steadied the ship, improved morale and also given a few opportunities to youngsters which we have all been asking for“.
Chicharito scored the equaliser against Chelsea (73′ – assist: Marko Arnautovic)
If Moyes could do at West Ham what he achieved at Everton from 2002-2013 (8 top seven finishes in his eleven seasons) that would be the „next step“ that West Ham realistically can make. Promising us more, even Champions League football, was a highly unrealistic vision that has not gone well with the problems West Ham’s supporters faced with the loss of Upton Park, the transition to the new stadium which has not emerged as a proper football ground so far and the underachievement in the transfer market with a lack of clever and sufficient investment. Karren Brady, Sullivan and Gold have underachieved (to put it mildly) in the first two seasons in the London Stadium. This summer, after having secured Premier League football, will be crucial for the direction in which West Ham is heading.
Now let’s hope for our first back to back wins at the new ground after almost one and a half year!
A cup final ahead
As I’ve already said, Monday under the lights is a cup final for West Ham. Though West Ham haven’t won a real cup final since 1980, the Hammers have won a final back in 2012 when they beat Blackpool in the play offs at Wembley to secure their comeback to the Premier League.
Monday’s game is of similiar significance, I would not only call it a “six pointer” but a nine or ten pointer: a win will move the Irons 10 points away from the Potters and 9 points away from the drop zone. One more win is all but important and could make us virtually sure that the fear of relegation is over! And with the confidence the win over Southampton and the draw at Stamford Bridge have brought, the squad looks capable of seizing this opportunity to make a giant step towards safety.
This massive game must be won. But you know, in football and especially with West Ham nothing can be taken for granted.
Come on you Irons!
EXTRA TIME 
Recent Comments