West Ham United

THE SEASON SO FAR

The Premier League has seen its usual up and downs this season but there has been one success story so far and that is the shock contention of West Ham breaking into the top 4. The club who at the start of July were in some turmoil with the departure of Croatian manager Slaven Bilic. The big surprise was the successor was David Moyes but in fact English unknown quantity James McCarthy.

With six league games left, McCarthy has guided the Hammers to second in the table with a first ever League Cup with a 3-1 victory over Manchester City and an FA Cup Semi Final against Leicester. Here is how the Premier League is shaping up in the run-in and the Hammers' remaining fixtures attached.

These are the transfer dealings of players throughout the season and the planning has already begun for next season with 2 major incoming arrivals to boost midfield. Summer signing Marko Arnautovic however has left the club to join Leicester for £23.5 million after demands for first team football, with the Hammers making a profit of £3.5m in the space of a transfer window. Masuaku also left for pastures now to go to Fiorentina for £8.5m. Young players Martin Samuelsen and Moses Makasi left to join Walsall and Swindon respectively on loan.

In terms of incomings, 3 players arrived in the summer, with Spanish U21 international central midfielder Marc Roca arriving from Espanyol for £1.1m. Dutch right winger Anwar El-Ghazi signed from Lille for £5.75m and attacking midfielder and hot prospect David Brooks signed from Sheffield Utd for £2.8m. January saw 2 signings with winger Felipe Anderson signing from Lazio for £9.75m, and he has made a blistering start to life at the London Stadium with 7 goals in 9 appearances in all competitions. Completing the January incomings was the loan signing of left back Guilherme Siqueira from Atletico Madrid.

A couple of Bosman signings for next season have already occurred with the Hammers landing a couple of coups already in signing central midfielders Marcos Llorente from Real Madrid and Leon Goretzka from Schalke, both completely under the radar from other clubs.

Over the course of this season, there have been some significant departures with both Klopp and Conte leaving Liverpool and Chelsea respectively. Liverpool replace Klopp with former Barcelona manager Luis Enrique and Chelsea going for ex Benfica and Sporting boss Jorge Jesus.

Another former Barcelona boss in Gerardo Martino was in Merseyside as the initial successor to Ronald Koeman at Everton but he only lasted until December with Everton replacing him with Sean Dyche who was parachuted in from Burnley. Recent appointments in Claude Puel at Leicester and Roy Hodgson at Crystal Palace both were only short term fixes with Guus Hiddink in at the Foxes and Slaven Bilic at Selhurst Park, who also took his assistant from West Ham, Nikola Jurcevic.

Alan Pardew is at the helm at Turf Moor to guide Burnley after the success of Sean Dyche. Stoke have been cut adrift in bottom of the table for much of the season and got rid of Mark Hughes and replaced him with Ronald Koeman to keep Stoke afloat in the top flight. Mike Ashley is still in ownership of Newcastle and fired Rafa Benitez as they slipped into the drop zone and replaced him with Mexican Javier Aguirre to get them out of trouble. West Ham's new assistant is Mark Hughes' stalwart assistant Mark Bowen.

The Team and Formation


There are two main formations used one is an attacking 4-2-3-1 as this gives me the best opportunity for me to attack as per the philosophy of the West Ham Way. However for the big games I do tend to start with a counter-attacking 3-5-2, which does get changed if the result isn't going our way.

The main XI used is Hart in Goal, (to prove this is a game he hasn't made any mistakes), a defence of Zabaleta, Reid, Ogbonna and Cresswell. A central midfield partnership of Mark Noble and Pedro Obiang. An attacking midfield of Antonio who has 11 assists, 9 of which in the Premier League, which is currently the 2nd best along with Manuel Lanzini and January signing Felipe Anderson. The advanced forward role is done by Javier 'Chicarito' Hernandez who is blitzing the Premier League this season with 25 goals and has 31 goals in 34 appearances in all competitons. Subsitute options include Andre Ayew who has 11 goals in all competitions and has been unlucky to lose his place in the team and the less injury prone Andy Carroll (don't worry he still does get injured its just for a couple of weeks at a time instead of a couple of months) who can be used as a target man in a 4-2-4 if we need to go a bit dare I say it route one.

The 352 is again Hart in goal with a five man defence of Zabaleta and Cresswell as wing backs with Fonte coming is as a third centre back, a midfield trio of Noble, Obiang and Cheikhou Kouyate and a little and large combination of Hernandez and Carroll (or Diafra Sakho if Carroll is on one of his injury bouts)!

1-0 TO THE ARSENAL

Unfortunately not a good start to the run in with a 1-0 defeat to Arsenal, which moves us down 1 place to third with a goal from Giroud in the 26th minute. We went 3-5-2 which didn't work today for us, reverted back to 4-2-3-1 for the second half but were unlucky not to get anything from the game in the second half. Southampton now above is second place, looks like Manchester United will win back the Premier League title for the first time since Fergie. Next up for us is Tottenham at Wembley, we've already beaten them at the London Stadium 3-2 this season (coincidentally we were 2 down at half time!) and we've also been to Wembley to win the League Cup and will be off there again shortly after to face Leicester in the FA Cup Semi Final.

One thing I have noticed is despite our position, I will have to do a lot of rebuilding this summer, I will need a new goalkeeper, certainly some new full backs, centre midfield I think will be boosted with Goretzka and Llorente coming in. Reece Oxford will be back from his loan spell and will sadly be replacing the Ginger Pele, James Collins, as a centre back option and will certainly need I think another winger or two as a backups and some forwards to take the weight off Hernandez's shoulders. Diafra Sakho will be leaving on a free as he has only scored in the cups and you should know by now that we can't rely on Andy Carroll's fitness.

BACK ON THE ROAD TO WEMBLEY

Back to the scene of our League Cup triumph over Manchester City but this time in the league with another crucial away trip to a Champions League contender in Spurs in their temporary home of Wembley. West Ham won the home game 3-2 earlier this season, after coming from 2-0 down in the first half. 4-2-3-1 was back in due to a number of injuries with Cresswell and Felipe Anderson plus I did not want to risk Zabaleta as he had a slight knock which we didn't want to risk too much.

In truth, Tottenham dominated the game with most of the possession and a lot of the chances. We were on the ropes for most of the game and I was waiting for Tottenham to land the knockout blow. We did take the lead after a goalless first half, which after the troops were given a strong team talk, Manuel Lanzini took the lead for us. However as soon as we took the lead, we immediately conceded an equaliser from a corner with a Jan Vertonghen header for Spurs. After that it was like the first half with Tottenham going for it and us once again clinging on. We did however cling on for a crucial point to maintain our Champions League hopes.

As a result of this, we remain in 3rd and also gifted the title to Manchester United which was inevitable given how much they have dominated this season. But with wins for Arsenal and Manchester City, the race for Champions League has tightened even further. Southampton and ourselves are currently holding the unlikely position of the automatic Champions League qualification.

The roads to Wembley so far...

These have been the roads to Wembley for the League Cup and the FA Cup;

League Cup
ROUND 2 Milton Keynes 0 West Ham 2 (Haksabanovic, Sakho)
ROUND 3 Bournemouth 1 (King) West Ham 2 (Carroll, Sakho) AET
ROUND 4 Leicester 1 (Okazaki) West Ham (Obiang, Sakho)
QUARTER FINAL West Ham 4 (Ayew, Carroll, Quina, Martinez) Burnley 2 (Wood, Arfield) AET
SEMI FINAL 1ST LEG Huddersfield 1 (Van La Parra) West Ham 1 (Noble, pen)
SEMI FINAL 2ND LEG West Ham 3 (Hernandez, Noble, Ogbonna) Huddersfield 0 (WEST HAM WIN 4 - 1 ON AGGREGATE)
FINAL West Ham 3 (Hernandez, Anderson, Noble, pen) Manchester City 1 (Aguero)

FA Cup
ROUND 3 West Ham 1 (Haksabanovic) Millwall 0
ROUND 4 West Ham 4 (Sakho 2, Brooks 2) Fulham 1 (Johansen)
ROUND 5 West Ham 6 (Hernandez 2, Anderson 2, Noble, Antonio) Brighton 0
ROUND 6 West Ham 5 (Hernandez 2, Ayew 2, Reid) Newcastle 0