The footballing year 2015/16 was a watershed twelve months for the Premier League, a year that represented the final moments of the title deadlock held by Chelsea, Manchester United, and Manchester City since Arsenal lifted the cup in 2003/04. That’s twelve seasons with just three teams in the running for the title. The sudden challenge and eventual victory of Leicester City the following year is something now firmly etched in football legend.
Forget Leicester, though. West Ham earned a club record 65 points in 2015/16 and a position in the UEFA Europa League. It was also Slaven Bilic’s first season in the capital, which came shortly before the club’s departure from the Boleyn Ground for the much more modern London Stadium. West Ham had been resident at the former site for 112 years, by that point.
Bilic would ultimately lead West Ham to a 7th place finish, one that mirrors (almost) the bookmakers’ expectations for the club in 2021/22. West Ham are 200/1 in the most recent 2021/22 Premier League betting odds, a prediction that would place the side ninth in the early winner markets. Unsurprisingly, many of the same clubs from 2015/16 have the bookies’ favour, including United, City, and Chelsea.
Dimitri Payet
West Ham’s 7th place position represented a bit of an upturn in The Hammers’ fortunes. It was the club’s best finish in the Premier League since 1998/99 when they placed 5th under Harry Redknapp. Unfortunately, after those two highlights, it would take until 2020/21 to get out of double-figures and back into the top ten. Their finish at 16th in 2019/20 was the team’s worst performance in a decade and cost incumbent manager Manuel Pellegrini his position at the club by the end of the year. A draw with Bournemouth provided a bit of a spectacle in those less-than-spectacular times.
Despite Bilic’s rather mixed time in London, the Croatian manager did pull a few tricks from his sleeve. Between February and May of 2016, West Ham went ten games undefeated, holding off Chelsea, Arsenal, and Leicester City, and finding victories over Spurs and Everton. It would all come crashing down on 7 May, with a miserable 1-4 result against Swansea but a 3–2 win over Manchester United closed out the season well, just one game from the end. Manuel Pelligrini would build a streak of the opposite quality in early 2020, being unable to find a win in seven games.
Bilic is generally considered one of the Hammers’ top-three managers today, behind David Moyes and, of course, Harry Redknapp. Granted, the move to the London Stadium did his time in charge no favours but his introduction of Dimitri Payet (that season’s top goalscorer, with 12) in 2015/16, was one of the brighter moments of the Hammers’ Premier League campaign during the last decade.
Given West Ham’s current position of fourth, the bookies’ odds seem more than a little unfair to Moyes’ men. However, it’s still very early in the campaign, just yet. LN
