Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
West Ham find themselves precariously placed in the Premier League right now with them just a point above the drop zone. But that said the situation looked a lot worse on Saturday night when they were in the bottom three for the first time this season.
So credit must go to Slaven Bilic and his side for earning a hard fought point against Liverpool on Sunday. That point which came after a 2-2 draw at Anfield and just eight days after that almost embarrasing 5-1 defeat to cross town rivals Arsenal.
The hope now is that they can use that draw against Liverpool as a small stepping stone to build a run of positive results and pull them clear of the drop zone. Tonight they will hope that run continues when they play host to Burnley.
Sean Dyche’s side find themselves currently in 13th place in the Premier League and they have a relatively comfortable 5 point buffer between them and the drop zone. For a promoted side they have earned an impressive points haul but it comes with a certain caveat.
That caveat being the fact that they have picked up 16 of their 17 points at home with only 1 being earned on the road. Although that point did come at Old Trafford when Manchester United could have played until the end of time and still not put the ball past Tom Heaton.
The lack of away points may be a worry for Sean Dyche but his side will still be flying high from their 3-2 win against Bournemouth on Saturday. Not only did the win move them up to 13th in the table but it also meant that they ended the week as not the lowest league scorers.
Although at just 15 all season (an average of just 1 per game) their goal record doesn’t make for particularly good reading. Then again West Ham’s goal record at either end doesn’t make for the best story either, they’ve scored just 17 times but are letting in an average of more than 2 per game with 31 goals shipped in their first 15 matches.
And were it not for Darren Randolph’s fantastic late save from Jordan Henderson they would have come away from Liverpool empty handed and still in the bottom three. Henderson’s shot looked like it was flying in but The Republic Of Ireland’s international’s acrobatics meant he was more than equal to it and meant West Ham would go on to earn a much needed point.
Randolph’s heroics did atone for an earlier error though and the goalkeeper’s berth continues to be an area of concern for Slaven Bilic. He may well look to get in another ‘keeper in January with Asmir Begovic believed to be on the Croat’s radar.
That is something that could play out in the next few weeks but as for Tonight what with Burnley being so poor on the road in relation to their home form I can’t see them winning this game but I’m not sure West Ham still have enough to win. I’m going to go with a share of the points at The London Stadium.
