Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
West Ham’s position in the Premier League table doesn’t make for all that decent reading at the moment. The Hammers currently sit 17th and although they are 3 points and a hatful of less goals conceded better off than Hull in 18th, it’s not where anyway imagined them to be sitting at this point of the season.
Off the pitch the talk about moving into the London Stadium draws on with talk about retractable seats and policing grabbing the headlines this week while on the pitch defeat to Everton last Sunday has seen their mini revival come to an end.
The first 45 minutes last Sunday saw West Ham as good value for going in at the break all level with Everton but it is after the break they just didn’t turn up as once again who else but Romelu Lukaku scored again against the East London side. He really is starting to become the scourge of West Ham as the Belgian international always seems to be on hand to score against them. Ross Barkley added a second to make sure once again West Ham came away from a road trip empty handed.
With their own revival bought to a halt they go up against a side who have really hit a purple patch of form as of late, with that side being Stoke City. After what was a miserable start for Mark Hughes’ men they have now found their stride with them now being unbeaten in their last five matches.
The last three of those matches have been successive victories, with their last outing producing a comfortable 3-1 win over strugglers Swansea. Stoke themselves were struggling at the start of the season but that is what tends to happen when you are shipping four goals a game.
Now they have ironed out that kink and that kink being Shay Given playing they have looked a much more solid outfit and results have certainly showed that as they move up to 12th in the table. You could argue that they have had an easy run of fixtures but then again you can only beat what is in front of you
And they will look to beat what is front of them this afternoon as the travel to the London Stadium for the first time with the hope of making it four wins from four and six unbeaten in the league. The Hammers have recently beaten Sunderland and Chelsea (EFL Cup) here so I really don’t think we can use the move here as a mitigating circumstance for any negative West Ham result.
Will it be a negative result today for West Ham, that’s hard to say. Although Stoke are on a good run of form this will probably be more of a test than the opposition they have had in front of them as of late. Stoke will certainly have their tails up but I have a feeling The Hammers will be able to earn a point in front of their own fans. I’ll go for a draw.
