Despite suffering a heavy home defeat at the hands of Manchester City on the opening day of the Premier League season, West Ham enjoyed a strong start to the 2019/20 campaign. Following the 5-0 loss against Manchester City, West Ham went on to defeat Norwich City and Manchester United at home plus Watford away.
The Hammers also picked up draws away to Brighton and Hove Albion, Aston Villa and Bournemouth meaning they secured 12 points from their opening 7 Premier League matches of the season. However, having picked up a point at Bournemouth West Ham have started to struggle and have managed just one draw in their last 5 league games ahead of the home match against Tottenham Hotspur.
Things started to go wrong for Manuel Pellegrini and his players in the 2-1 home defeat against Crystal Palace. Since then, West Ham have lost at home to Newcastle United and away against Everton and Burnley. The only point came at home against Sheffield United and this run of results has left West Ham in the bottom half of the table.
What has gone wrong for the Hammers and what do West Ham need to do this season in order to improve results and push into the top half of the table?
Clearly the defensive side of West Ham’s game needs to improve if they are to get back to winning ways. At the time of writing, West Ham have played 12 games in the Premier League and conceded 20 goals. In addition to the 5 goals conceded at home against Manchester City, West Ham have recently conceded 2 goals at home against Crystal Palace, 3 goals at home against Newcastle United and 3 goals away against Burnley.
Considering only two teams have scored fewer goals the Newcastle United in the Premier League this season, one of which is Crystal Palace, it soon becomes obvious West Ham need to shore up at the back. The injury to first-choice goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski has not helped the situation. The keeper has won player of the season awards for two years running and West Ham are a different, weaker team defensively without him between the sticks.
They went 5 games unbeaten before that the draw to Bournemouth, when Fabianski was injured and have since gone 5 games without a victory. During the goalkeepers absence, it appears other players confidence has dropped and so has their form, including England international Declan Rice and central defender Issa Diop.
With Fabianski set to return from injury in January, there is little sense in West Ham attempting to buy a goalkeeper during the transfer window. However, his return could come too late for Pellegrini who is coming under increasing pressure at the London Stadium. The former Manchester City boss needs to turn things around defensively in Fabianski’s absence if West Ham are to move away from the bottom of the table and challenge for the European places this season.
As things stand, West Ham are 11/2 to be relegated and 25/1 to finish in the top 6 places with Bet365, meaning relegation is currently looking more likely in the eyes of the bookmakers.
As sponsors of West Ham, Betway have slightly more favourable odds of them avoiding the drop. A lot of other bookies and online operators are floating around these sort of prices. For those of you out there that may have signed up to Gamstop but have long regretted doing so, be aware that you are still going to be able to bet and also play real money poker or casino games online or on your mobile devices.
For there are several non Gamstop poker sites and other online bookies at which you will be made very welcome at, and you are going to be able to sign up to those sites and apps in a matter of minutes, make a deposit and then play any real money poker game variants, or enter any real money poker tournaments you fancy playing in taking part in.
So if you do want to back the Hammers to get into the top half of the table, look around and try and find the best value by comparing prices at several bookies.
Tomorrow’s game against Spurs looks set to be even harder now with the appointment of Jose as teams always seem to get that extra kick when a new manager is in place.
