Now is as good a time as any to mention that I'm not going to be following the Olympics actively, and probably won't blog about it at all, except to recap any major highlights. Reasons for this are multiple but boil down to: if I watch a sport actively, I tend to immerse myself in it and I simply don't have time to watch the whole of the Olympics, as I have a dissertation due in three weeks. Anyway. back to the Premier League round-ups.
WEST HAM
So, we're up to the higher places, and this is the point where we start having to get very positive, especially when there's one or two surprises. To call West Ham's improvement this season under Slaven Bilic a surprise is maybe a little unfair, but nevertheless, with the caliber of team in this league, I don't think anyone expected West Ham to finish in a European spot, and to play extremely well in doing so. They have some class players, the likes of Antonio, Noble, Lanzini and Kouyate were all exceptional, and their defensive partnership of Reid and Ogbonna was excellent, but of course the real star of the West Ham show was Dimitri Payet, who set the Premier League alight last season, scoring nine goals and getting into double digits for assists too.
Overall, seventh place represents an exceptional season for West Ham, who secured some excellent high profile victories early on, starting with a 2-0 win on the opening day to Arsenal, and beating Liverpool, Chelsea and Man City too before the end of October, seeing them rise as high as third in the Barclays Premier League table with twenty points off ten games.
However, then West Ham failed to win a game for two months. Defeat to Watford, followed by a hammering to Spurs, and a whopping five straight draws, left the Hammers tenth, and in desperate need of a win at the heart of the Christmas period. And they duly delivered, turning over Southampton, Liverpool and Bournemouth to propel themselves back up the table. And from there, West Ham were able to keep the momentum going. Victories over Villa and Sunderland in February gave them seven points from four games in that month, and after losing to Southampton on 6th February, they didn't lose another league game until May, drawing five and winning five, as they mounted a sustained Europa place charge, managing to avoid defeat against Spurs, Leicester, Chelsea, Everton and Arsenal.
By the end of April, it looked as if West Ham were embroiled in a battle for sixth with a Southampton side pushing hard and a Liverpool side who were...well coasting, with only one side guaranteed a Europa League place. And West Ham bottled it hard. Twice. First against Swansea, who hammered them 4-1 and then on the final day, when Stoke turned them around, leaving West Ham seventh, either side of a terrific, pulsating 3-2 win over Man United to put them in pole position for that sixth spot. As it turned out, West Ham got Europa League football anyway, after a very nervous wait to see if Man U would win their FA Cup final against Palace (it might also turn out that they get knocked out tomorrow night after losing the first leg but we'll see).
Nevertheless, it was a good season overall for West Ham and Bilic has done wonders for the club, building on the excellent work of Big Sam. There were plenty of positives for them. They found new ways to score goals, with the likes of Mark Noble, Kouyate and Lanzini all popping up with vital goals from midfield, with Antonio, Payet and Carroll the top scorers. It's remarkable how many goals West Ham managed to score (65, as many as Arsenal with only City, Leicester and Spurs scoring more) considering they didn't have a single player break into double digits and their only striker who had a good season was Carroll.
If there are negatives, it is the lack of a killer instinct; they threw away a lot of good positions which resulted in some poor draws in games that they really should have won, and defensively they need more from their fullbacks and defensive midfielders. Noble and Kouyate were excellent coming forward but sloppy defensively at times, and the only way to move forwards for West Ham is to shore themselves up at the back.
West Ham are going into arguably the hardest Premier League season ever, where they'll have to do better than at least a couple of Leicester, Spurs, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Man U, Man City and Southampton in order to repeat their seventh place feat. Can they do it? Well to be honest probably, but we'll have to see how it goes.
The Hard and Fast Section
- Finn back for England. Batting level: mediocre.
- Oh dear Australia losing to Sri Lanka.
- Lizzy Armistead is in hot water. Controversial.
- 10 days. And counting.
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