For those traditionalists who were brought up on 3pm saturday kick offs this weekend will come as something of a relief, West Ham and Watford fans will be able to go back, albeit briefly to a sense of time before football schedules were dictated by the TV companies. This will be West Ham United's first Barclays Premier League match at the London Stadium to start at 3pm, in fact it will be their first match of the entire season to start at the traditional time!
After the stop start transfer window, international break and various other machinations, the 'phoney war' is over and the season begins for real. The international break came at a good time for Slaven Billic and his team, with the good news those who were representing their countries all returned without any new injuries to add to the once stratospheric injury list, Billic also has the added bonus that the list has finally started to reduce.
England manager Sam Allardyce had a modus operandi that involved dividing the season's fixtures into blocks, and then working out the win ratio possibilities, thankfully Slaven Billic doesn't seem to adopt the same approach, although Payet's non-appearance against City was a little suspicious. However if Slaven was a 'win ratio' man, he would look at Hammer's next group of fixtures with a certain amount of optimism but also be aware that it is necessary to make hay while the sun shines, the need to build up a healthy points balance will be vital if the club wants to progress or even maintain the status quo. The 'lesser team' syndrome does have a habit of biting back and by no means are Watford a small club, never the less tomorrow's match will be a significant pointer as to how West Ham will do in the forthcoming season. This will be the first Barclay's Premier League match where Slaven Billic has had a near to full squad of 'top' players to choose from, anything less than a win and the 'natives' will be getting restless, Watford will want to spoil the party! - Ed
