The Premier League fixtures and out and we have a fantastic first game away at Chelsea and we finish the season away at Burnley.
After a first initial look at the fixtures I’ve predicted we’ll get a minimum 53 points, which is an average of 1.39 points per game.
Last season we achieved 1.63 points per game. So why are my points total so low?
Here’s my list… (Green – Win, Blue – Draw, Red – Loss)
2016
Chelsea (A)
Bournemouth (H)
Man City (A)
Watford (H)
West Brom (A)
Southampton (H)
Middlesbrough (H)
Crystal Palace (A)
Sunderland (H)
Everton (A)
Stoke City (H)
Tottenham Hotspur (A)
Man Utd (A)
Arsenal (H)
Liverpool (A)
Burnley (H)
Hull City (H)
Swansea (A)
Leicester City (A)
2017
Man United (H)
Crystal Palace (H)
Middlesbrough (A)
Man City (H)
Southampton (A)
West Brom (H)
Watford (A)
Chelsea (H)
Bournemouth (A)
Leicester City (H)
Hull City (A)
Arsenal (A)
Swansea (H)
Sunderland (A)
Everton (H)
Stoke City (A)
Tottenham Hotspur (H)
Liverpool (H)
Burnley (A)
That’s 10 wins, five losses and a staggering 23 draws!
I do hope I’m wrong and that we try and get over 60 points again, but looking at the games ahead, we need to change those likely draws into wins.
Last year I predicted a pre-season minimum of 39 points, which we achieved on Tuesday 2nd Feb 2016 against Aston Villa, with 14 games to go. On Sunday 17th April 2016, we reached 53 points by getting a draw at Leicester City, and we had five games remaining.
So, can West Ham get 53 points by the time we play Big Sam’s Sunderland at the Stadium of Light on 15th April 2017? For me that is the minimum target and we have to raise our points per game ratio from 1.63 to at least 1.7 to guarantee Champions League football in our inaugural season at the Olympic stadium.
It’s going to be a tough season ahead, what with the Premier League having a huge amount of world class managers coaching some top teams: Conte at Chelsea, Mourinho at Man United, Wenger at Arsenal, Klopp at Liverpool and Guardiola at Man City
They are all looking to spend money to get their players this summer. But we have Super Slav and with some more signings we might, just might, turn our dreams of joining the European football elite into a reality.
Let’s see how the season unfolds!
Come on you Irons!
