Brighton striker Glenn Murray suggested that he could feel the tension emanating from the West Ham fans when his team played at the London Stadium on Saturday, when speaking on The Monday Night Club on BBC Radio 5 Live (03/02/20 at 19:55 pm).
The Hammers twice threw away a two goal lead against the Seagulls, and in the end had to settle for a 3-3 draw.
It was a game that West Ham really needed to win, however, with fixtures against Manchester City, Liverpool, Arsenal, Wolves, Tottenham and Chelsea to come in their next seven outings.
All doom and gloom in east London
The east London outfit are in real trouble at the moment. The are currently sitting in 18th spot in the Premier League table, one point adrift of safety, and they need to channel the spirit showed by the team in 2007 when Alan Curbishley’s men performed the great escape.
In order for that to happen, the fans really need to get behind the players, and put their beef with the board to one side.
That is not always the case at the London Stadium, however. The fans seem to be very quick to get on the players’ backs.
And Glenn Murray, who scored his side’s equaliser against West Ham, highlighted how the tense atmosphere at the stadium on Saturday was obvious, when speaking to The Monday Night Club on BBC Radio 5 Live (03/02/20 at 19:55 pm):
“We leave that stadium losing then they go above us. And then the pressure seems a little heavier on our shoulders and thankfully we managed to rescue a point. But we definitely left that stadium the happier of the two teams and the club in general. I mean, you could feel the tension in the ground when we left from the West Ham fans, to be honest.”
Mission impossible?
West Ham quite simply must make the London Stadium a fortress between now and the end of the season.
Out of their remaining 13 league games, six are at home. They face Southampton, Wolves, Chelsea, Burnley, Watford and Aston Villa. And the Hammers absolutely must be targeting at leas four wins from those games, if they are going to avoid the drop.
It seems like mission impossible. But it’s far from that. West Ham have the players good enough to finish mid-table.
They now just need to get the fans on side.
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