Written by billythekid
After the disappointment of the Brighton defeat and the poor performance from our team, it’s time to leave the old year behind and start afresh on New Year’s Day with a more positive performance as we take on another struggling team in West Ham at the London Stadium. West Ham lost their home game against Leicester City and at the same time parted company with their manager Manuel Pellegrini of one season plus a few months of this season in charge.
Former manager David Moyes will be in charge when the Cherries visit the London Stadium. Struggling clubs parting with their managers and replacing them has become a bit of a norm for our club when we come to play them not long after the changes. David Moyes was brought in to try and save West Ham from a relegation fight in November 2017 with the Hammers in 18th place in the table. He did save them from relegation with West Ham finishing in 13th place, 9 points clear of relegation and 1 place and 2 points behind AFCB. But it wasn’t enough to secure a new contract and Moyes left at the end of the season. He was replaced by Manuel Pellegrini, but as things turned out he was only keeping the seat warm for Moyes to come back to again.
The Dean Court September 2-2 draw, Josh King and Callum Wilson scoring for AFCB, left West Ham in 5th place with 12 points. This was the 7th game of the season, AFCB were then on 11 points and in 8th place. West Ham then lost their next two games, first 1-2 at home against Crystal Palace and this was followed by a 2-0 defeat away against Everton. They then drew 1-1 at the London Stadium against Sheffield United. November was a bad month for West Ham losing three out of their four games. First at home 2-3 against Newcastle United and then 3-0 away at Burnley. Back home they lost to Spurs 2-3, before winning their last game of the month away against Chelsea 0-1. December was as bad as November, West Ham losing four of their five games. Away they lost to Wolves 2-0, then at home 1-3 against Arsenal. Their only win was away at Southampton by 0-1. Then came a 2-1 defeat away against Crystal Palace and finishing December with a 1-2 defeat at home against Leicester City.
AFCB’s last visit to the London Stadium ended in a 1-2 win, with the Cherries goals coming from Callum Wilson and Steve Cook. On our visits away against West Ham in the league, AFCB have W 2, D 1, L 2. In all competitions, AFCB have W 4, D 5, L 5.
West Ham Team News
Andriy Yarmolenko has been out with a hamstring injury. Jack Wilshere out with groin injury. David Martin recovering from a thigh injury but could be back for Saturday’s squad. A player who will return is Aaron Cresswell after suspension for picking up 5 cards.
West Ham Player To Watch
Sébastien Haller the big striker could cause us problems and the other player is Michail Antonio with his pace, he had a good game against Saints the other week.
AFCB Team News
Looks like we could now be missing Josh King and Jack Stacey, both picked up hamstring injuries against Brighton. Simon Francis may be available after a knee injury.
AFCB Player To Watch
Hoping Jefferson Lerma will be available to start, we badly missed him against Brighton and he has been our most consistent and reliable player this season.
The referee is Graham Scott, we had him for our 0-1 win at Chelsea.
He was also in charge of VAR at Brighton on Saturday.
Your say…
horndean_exile wrote…
We’ve reached the pinnacle of achievement for a club of our size and showed we could maintain such a high level for a couple of years which is fantastic but temporary. Without any further investment, it was always going to be a short stay at the top so the inevitable decline is now underway. The problem for the management of the club is how far we slide down the leagues. We have survived at this level because of the ridiculous money from TV and advertising, once that goes as we slide down and current highly paid players leave us what is going to stop us? The ground fan base is built around a team residing in league 1 or 2. Blackburn and Bolton spring to mind and they have or had a bigger fanbase. – Join the conversation, click here.
