West Ham are going into the Christmas period sitting in 8th place in the league table, which is right where we would like to be around and very much in head to head battle with the teams around us.
It’s no secret that West Ham have put together some of the best away wins the Premier League has seen this season against the likes of Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester city. But it’s been our home form that has let us down a bit so far only winning 2 of the 8 games we’ve played at the Boleyn.
The fact we have now played most of the top teams away already, we go into the new year with Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City all coming to the Boleyn. We managed to win all 3 of them games, however If we don’t re produce these kind of results they will mean less no matter how glamorous they were at the time, after all come the end of the season you win by getting points not by having the most exiting wins.
We need to now convert them fantastic away wins into performances at home, because we have already beaten them we know we have the ability to do it, but we just need to be more confident and clinical at home now. It’s because of the away wins against these top teams that we are in a good place on the table, but to sustain that we now need to do the same as well as turn these draws into wins when with respect we play teams that we should be beaten, especially with the ambition of a top 6/8 finish.
There are potentially several reasons for the home form not being as good, maybe the most crucial one of them is the fact that this is our last ever season at the Boleyn Ground and the players are feeling the pressure from the sell out crowds every match day. Even if that is the case, Bilic and his assistants need to try and sort this out otherwise like last season the good can turn into the bad very quickly and clearly that is not wanted.
I’m not saying we should be winning every single game we play, but we’ve done it already so why can’t we again? The home games have mainly consisted of teams that are generally below us in the table and it’s a disappointment that we’ve only managed to beat 2 of them out of the 8 games we have played at home. Dropping points to newly promoted clubs as both Norwich and Bournemouth have done is slightly disappointing, even more so because of the teams we have beaten away. But this all shows how hard and competitive the Premier League is getting, anyone can beat anyone.