Which West Ham Will Turn Up?

Renowned for giving struggling teams a helping hand, West Ham face Arsenal on Monday night in a fixture that threatens to continue the visitors worst run in their modern day history, a terrible run of results that culminated in the sacking of Unai Emery. Traditionally West Ham will flatter to deceive before Arsenal, guided by former Hammer Freddy Lungberg, finally steal the points in a smash and grab raid.

Emery joined Mauricio Pochetinio as sacked managers of London Premier League teams, many thought that Manuel Pellegrini would also be joining that select group, however Pellegrini earned a stay of execution with the surprise 1-0 victory away to Chelsea, but normal service was resumed in the 2-0 defeat away to Burnley. The difference between the two games was like chalk and cheese, with the main factor being the fitness and availability of Michail Antonio. How on earth can a team assembled at relatively vast expense be so dependant on one player, a player who arrived on transfer deadline day from Nottingham forest for a fee of £8 Million four seasons ago?

For game after game, fans screamed out for Roberto Jiminez Gago to be dropped following his appalling displays as replacement goalkeeper for the injured Lukasz Fabianski, before Manuel Pellegrini acquiesced and replaced the hapless Spaniard with David Martin, which had an immediately positive effect on team morale. Those same fans have also been calling for the beleaguered Hammers boss to change from his traditional and stubbornly rigid 'one up front' formation which has left £45 Million signing Sebastian Haller as an increasingly isolated striker.

Why spend £45 Million on a striker who was blisteringly brilliant playing as one of a front two and then play him as a lone striker? The thought of facing Haller AND Michail Antonio is a terrifying one for most defenders, if you then add Felipe Anderson playing behind the two of them in a similar position to that which brought him enormous success in Serie A, and you would have an awesome front line comprised of players in their natural position!

It's not rocket science is it? Playing players in their 'correct' position, and one that suits them most in order for them to perform to the very best of their abilities. Antonio is like a Duracell bunny compared to most of the rest of the team, but by playing in their proper position the rest of the squad might just begin to be 'infected' by his enthusiasm. Although it is a sorry state of affairs that so much responsibility for the team's progress rests on the not inconsiderable shoulders of 'Big Mich', if he fails his late fitness test, Monday's fixture against Arsenal at the London Stadium could be a further embarrassment for Manuel Pellegrini, who, despite being an older statesman of the Barclays Premier League must realise he is next for the chop unless results really turn round! - Ed

Comments

Lungburg and co

You just know before the WHU game that Arse are going to announce their new manager(That's what I think they will do) and the players will play to impress the new manager, and it will be Mourinho all over again. But if Lungberg or the new manager (Watching from the stands) win this then I hope Manuel Pellegrini walks. Arsenal were awful against Brighton and they will have to appoint a manager because if we win Arsenal will be in a relegation battle, Almost unthinkable init? 2 seasons ago Champions league, now fighting for their lives in a relegation battle this is how important this match is to both sides. And I don't think a draw is going to rescue Pellegrini, he had the perfect opportunity against Wolves I saw that there was a report that he rested Antonio for the Game, but what should have happened was Haller started and Antonio brought on about the 60th minute we all want Pellegrini 2 play 2 upfront this would have shown him how they both play together. Traori one of the fastest wingers in the premiership whose he play Arron Cresswell, don't get me wrong he played a great game against Chelski and scored a great goal, but this wolves game was not for him, and Masawaku has a lot more pace and better sorted to deal with Traori. We saw how he got skinned against Newcastle, Yarmelenko has had 2 bad games and should have been on the bench and start Nathan Holland.
I remember when we started Pelligrini and we had that real bad patch and lost our first 4 matches listened to Klopp he said he noticed that we were weak on the left-hand side he exploited it and we lost 4-0 on our 1st game of the season. Then we listen to Pellegrini I Am not interested how the opposition play just how I play with 1 up front and playing out from the back" Maybe not his exact words but near enough) they will get used to playing this way with a big team mentality. Well, I don't think his attitude has altered he has been here long enough and if he doesn't look at the way an opposing team play we will be relegated. The Wolves match showed us that his attitude has not changed. When you look at the Sheffield Utd game and Then field the same team and formation and get beaten by Newcastle it just shows us that you can't teach an old dog new tricks. But after all this, I still think that we will win and still have wurzel till we lose against Gillingham

we will lose

Because we are poo right now

I had a betting hunch that we

I had a betting hunch that we would beat Chelsea but did not place a bet. That same hunch is there for this fixture but my gut is telling me we will lose or draw. Its so us to play crap against the smaller teams and pull it out the bag for the big sides but just not feeling confident for tomorrow. We need to prioritise our effort levels