A lot can happen in the space of two months in regard to the soap opera that is West Ham United. My last blog was the preview to the Arsenal game back on the 9th of December, a game I travelled over for. But due to work commitments and the busy December/January period, my blogging took a bit of a back seat.
Since then we have managed to beat Southampton (A), lost to Crystal Palace (A), Leicester (H), sacked Pellegrini, re-employed Moyes, beat Bournemouth (H), beat Gillingham in the FA Cup (A), lost to Sheff Utd (A), drew with Everton (H) (my second game of the season), lost to Leicester (A), lost to West Brom (H) (knocking us out of the FA Cup), lost to Liverpool (H), drew with Brighton (H) and I travelled to Manchester only for the City game to get called off while I was in the pub having breakfast!.
We have re-signed Darren Randolph (great to see an Irishman back in the squad), were turned down by Gedson Fernandes, signed Tomas Soucek & Jarrod Bowen. We were yet again linked to every man and his dog with apparent bids flying left, right and centre.
So, I’ll try my best to engage my aging brain to recall as much as possible from the last two months events!
SOUTHAMPTON (A) Won 1-0:
A Sébastien Haller goal won this game. Pellegrini finally gave in to the two up front formation and it would have been 2-0 to West Ham had VAR not ruled out Antonio’s goal for handball.
CRYSTAL PALACE (A) Lost 2-1:
This boxing day fixture was on Amazon. I ignored the in-laws from approximately 3:00pm to 5:00pm as I plonked myself in front of the TV to watch West Ham take the lead through Snodgrass. A great through ball from Antonio played him in to slot the ball into the bottom corner.
But goals from Kouyate and a late winner from Ayew ruined my Boxing Day. Ayew scoring another late winner, same as the game at the London Stadium earlier in the season!
LEICESTER (H) Lost 2-1:
I was away for the night with the missus so didn’t manage to see the game.
For some crazy reason Pellegrini decided to opt back to Haller playing up front by himself! Fabianski was back in goals replacing the goalkeeper impersonator Roberto! However, Fabianski managed to give away a penalty within the first 10 minutes of his return. But he pulled off a fine save to deny the opener.
Pablo Fornals got his first league goal just before halftime for the Hammers, but it was sandwiched between goals by Iheanacho and Gray, who made up for his earlier penalty miss by getting the winner in the 56th minute.
PELLEGRINI SACKED, MOYES RE-EMPLOYED:
Not long after the Leicester game, in fact approximately just over two hours, West Ham released a statement saying Pellegrini had left the club with immediate effect.
I was relieved to be honest. For a manager who had filled me with excitement when he first came in, it became apparent he was stuck in his ways and possibly was here for the big final pay off.
Within 24 hours our new manager was announced. David Moyes had returned as manager on an 18-month contract. It didn’t exactly fill me with confidence, but I’d give the man a chance. Afterall he had kept us up the last time with probably not as good a squad.
BOURNEMOUTH (H) Won 4-0:
A great start to the new Moyes era.
Goals from Noble (2) and Haller had this game over at half time before Anderson finally got on the score sheet again following what can only be described as a barren spell, first goal since April, second goal since December ‘18! Not a great return for our £40 million man.
In Moyes we trust!
GILLINGHAM (A) Won 1-0:
Always a potential banana skin, travelling away to lower league opposition in the FA Cup. But on this occasion, following a very poor first half West Ham managed to get a result via goals from Zabaleta and Jimmy (Hill) Fornals. Surely, I can’t be the only one who sees the resemblance?
Job done, Moyes unbeaten!
SHEFFIELD UTD (A) Lost 1-0:
Moyes run soon came to an end, in what can only be described as a disaster of a game.
Firstly, Fabianski has to go off after 15 mins following a recurrence of his injury. David Martin replaced him.
Martin then gifted the Blades the opener when he misplaced a pass to Balbuena and Fleck intercepted before squaring the ball to McBurnie to score. Although I did also feel Ogbonna could have got there or put more effort in getting back for the goal.
Then to top things off, Snodgrass managed to get an equaliser in the final minute only for VAR to rule it off following a ‘handball’ by Rice in the build-up.
Now, I have watched that ‘handball’ too many times to count and how in underfuck it was given I’ll never know. The defender actually headed the ball from in front of Rice’s chest onto his arm.
We must now be expecting players to run with their hands tight against their sides so as this type of scenario isn’t going to happen.
A farce! Piss off VAR!
EVERTON (H) Drew 1-1:
I managed to travel over for this game. I went on the lash with my boss on the Friday before heading to game the following day.
Wasn’t expecting much to be honest and had predicted a 1-1 draw from the outset. A goal from Issa Diop and an equaliser just before halftime from Calvert Lewin.
A fellow Irishman made his second debut and done well. No obvious clangers from him, which is an improvement on our two recent 2nd choice goalkeepers.
Ancelotti had been mentioned as Pellegrini’s replacement, I wasn’t overly keen as I thought he may have been another Pellegrini type, just here pre-retirement. But he has managed to turn Everton around. A 55%-win rate compared to Moyes 25%!
Moyes Out!
LEICESTER (A) Lost 4-1:
Normal service has been resumed! West Ham players were back to their normal selves. Giving up once the going got tough.
Leicester goals from Barnes and Pereira, then a penalty from Noble just after halftime tried to make it a game. But Leicester pulled away in the last 10 minutes with two goals from Perez.
Mark Noble has scored 38 penalties and missed 4. Not bad for a player who says he never practices them and that even if there’s a penalty in training he doesn’t take it!
He also has record of sending the goalkeeper the wrong way at a penalty 87% of the time. In comparison – Hazard 77%, Muller 68%, Toure 55%, Messi 46% & Ronaldo 38%. That’s an outstanding stat for Mr West Ham.
WEST BROM (H) Lost 1-0:
I was away watching a Celtic match for this game. It was a close friend’s 40th birthday so had to go. Scottish football is awful but a day drinking vast quantities of beer wasn’t!
I vaguely remember checking my phone to see we had lost and now were out of the FA Cup! When will we ever go on a decent bloody cup run again??
There was a chance at the end for Noble, but he didn’t manage to convert it. He then followed up with a strange statement about him being 32 years of age and can’t be relied to come on and win us the game. You’re our club captain Mark, you should be able to make an impact or get the players going at least! Mr West Ham??
LIVERPOOL (H) Lost 2-0:
Never really expected anything from this game, but VAR raised its ugly head again to ruin what hope I had. That and Johnathan Moss favouring the League leaders! I’m beginning to think more and more decisions are going Liverpool’s way in the hope they do win the league!
Liverpool’s first goal came from the penalty spot after a reckless challenge from Diop but VAR was called upon for a subsequent handball against Firminio in the build-up. Various replays ensued and I was happy that the penalty would be rescinded. It didn’t appear to be a deliberate handball but as per Rice’s handball against Sheffield Utd, it should have been deemed handball in this instance.
But no, they are being called LiVARpool for a reason this season, it was apparently ‘inconclusive’, so the penalty was given, and Salah put the ball past Fabianski.
The second goal for LiVARpool came from Oxlade-Chamberlain in the 52nd minute. West Ham did have chances but just couldn’t do anything with them.
This game showed just how good a counter attacking team can be, we are so slow at attacking its unbelievable. Moyes and his management team need to sort this out?
BRIGHTON (H) Drew 3-3:
I tuned into my trusty ‘international satellite system’ to watch this game. Looking to see the latest new signing Tomas Soucek. He looked quite good. Pity the rest of our players didn’t as we threw away a 2-goal lead TWICE!
Diop put the Hammers ahead in the 30th minute. Might be a good bet for 1st goal, following this game and the recent game v Everton.
Snodgrass made it 2-0 just before half time with a volley taking a slight deflection to put it past the keeper.
An awful goal brought Brighton back into the game. A corner was attempted to be punched clear by Fabianski, but the ball was punched off Ogbonna’s head and into the net! Roberto may have left but it was like he was never away!
West Ham then restored the lead again through Snodgrass. Another deflection but it was a rocket of a volley from outside the area and was possibly going in anyway.
The performance in this game was giving me a bit of hope in this relegation 6-pointer.
But with 15 minutes to go, the farcicalness of West Ham’s season was brought to the fore!
Masuaku having just came on a sub, half heartedly cleared the ball, the ball ricocheted off a Brighton player and confusion between Ogbonna and Diop allowed Gross to nip in front of Fabianski to stab the ball home. Embarrassing defending!
Then to just to wrap things up our nemesis Glenn Murray was to get on the scoresheet as per usual. I had been waiting for it all day! A cross into the box appeared to hit him on the arm before he shot low into the net. VAR reviewed the incident and made the correct decision in allowing the goal to stand, no handball.
3-3 we are in a relegation dogfight!
MANCHESTER CITY (A) Match Postponed:
I’ll not go into too much detail for the disaster of a day I had for this match!
I flew over and was sitting in a pub having a bit of breakfast with the wee lad when it flashed up onto the TV that the game was postponed due to the weather! I was in Manchester and there’s been more wind when I’ve had a breakfast of beans on toast!
Apparently, it was in ‘the interests of supporter and staff safety’. But how was the Sheffield United v Bournemouth game played? Surely their fans and staff also had to travel distances for that match? I had flown from Ireland through storm Ciara to get there!
To make things worse our flight home was then cancelled.
We were then sent to Liverpool to fly home from there the next morning. For some reason though our taxi man seemed to think EasyJet would be putting us up in the Crown Plaza in Liverpool City Centre and not at the airport! A standoff ensued before he got confirmation we should be at the airport!
At least we didn’t lose!
NEW SIGNINGS:
The January transfer window came and went and with much ‘alleged’ activity going on in the background. In the end, we managed to sign three new players.
Randolph returned. It’s always great to see one of your fellow countrymen playing for your club, so I was very happy with this signing. He knows the club so could settle in quickly and was a much-needed improvement on our existing backup goalkeepers. Sorry David.
Tomas Soucek arrived and looked really good in the Brighton game. Hopefully he manages to get on the scoresheet regularly and is the box to box midfielder we have been crying out for! Time will tell but looks promising.
The final player through the door was Jarrod Bowen. Lots of rave reviews about him in the Championship and he has incredible statistics. He can play as a winger, midfielder or forward. He has a record of 1 goal in every 2.52 games, and that’s not including his assists! So far this season he has played 29 matches, scoring 16 goals and 7 assists. So, has had a role in 23 goals in 29 matches. A serious stat! Hopefully he can continue that sort of form in the Premiership.
So, an awful lot has happened in the last two months in our soap opera of a football club.
I haven’t even got onto the restlessness among the fans, board demonstrations, finances, the true reality of the relegation scrap we find ourselves in, but hopefully I’m back on track now and will have regular updates/blogs from here on in. I don’t want to have to do another one of these long-winded blogs!
Fair play to anyone who has stuck with it and read the whole way through. I appreciate it.
It’s going to be an interesting next couple of months, hopefully it improves, I’m struggling to be optimistic though!
Somebody give me something to be positive about! Our next two games are away to Man City and Liverpool! Aggghhhhh!
COYI!
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