Forum | General Discussion

Last season West Ham performed beyond expectation by finishing sixth in the Barclays Premier League, missing out on Champions League qualification by just ONE win. That sixth place earned Hammers a group stage qualification for the UEFA Europa League, a poisoned chalice for many 'smaller' clubs due to the play on Sunday and then on Thursday nature of the competition.

The added games for what was already a paper thin squad threatened to make finishing anywhere near sixth virtually impossible, but here we are, eight games into the League and so far the extra work load has been dealt with admirably, with the club sitting in a genuine fourth place in the league and topping their group in the Europa league.

OK the fixture list has been kind so far, but it is generally accepted that a club's proper league position is defined from matchday eight onwards. Pretty soon it will be apparent as to whether there will be a new beginning, or just another false dawn.

We feel this time is different, because it is obvious David Moyes has a massive point to prove in order to finally get his Manchester United monkey off his back! - LN

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

On the overground once it had picked up the Tottingham contingent, a group of their fans enjoyed 'rioutsly' singing their mainly borrowed songs. However one of their 'originals' was interesting in that they were singing how much they hate Man City, Liverpool AND West Ham!

The backhanded compliment they were inadvertently paying wasn't lost on Hammers fans travelling on the same carriage, many smiled on as if they were looking at young children who were playing naughtily. The fact seemed to elude the Totters that they were confirming what the status quo of the Barclays Premier League is by including West Ham in their particular hate list.

Those 'fans' were soon silenced once inside the Stadium, NOT by a blistering display from the home team, who were a shadow of the team that blew away Genk, but by the HOME crowd! It has taken a long long time, but finally The Bowl has begun to feel like home, albeit one that wasn't welcomed initially. It is still not properly fit for purpose, but the atmosphere certainly is, no longer is it a sombre place to be where the away fans are the noisiest, every time the Tottingham supporters tried to impose themselves in the stadium, they were swiftly drowned out by the home fans all around again and again.

What was even more surprising was how loud and supportive the crowd were despite how poorly their team were playing, and they were poor. But it is the mark of a 'top' team to play badly, yet still manage to grind out a result, the situation was helped by the fact that Tottingham were equally as poor and seemed to be playing for a draw from the off!

The visitors were time wasting throughout the game and their outlet of Son and Kane was completely nullified by Ogbonna and a truly awesome Kurt Zouma. At the end of the day the game could best be summed up, ironically by an honest by an opposition supporter on the way back who said when politely prompted "Both teams were shit, but you wanted it more than us!" He went on to say that Nuno would be gone at the end of the season and that their entire squad needed looking at, he also couldn't understand why, with ten minutes remaining, Tottingham were passing sideways and backwards.

At the end of the day Michail Antonio did what Kurt Zouma had predicted and Zouma kept Kane in his pocket, as he said he would! He wasn't being billy big bollocks, he is now a part of a team that means business, even if it means to win ugly! - Ed