This is an important campaign for West Ham United, with a move to the Olympic Stadium next season a landmark in the London club’s history.

Ahead of the significant stadium move, a successful and progressive 2015-16 was required to give the club’s fans something to be optimistic about and to say goodbye to the long-serving Upton Park.

The appointment of Slaven Bilic was followed by an aggressive summer recruitment policy, with a host of new faces heading to the Hammers.

Of the new men to join the London club, the likes of Dimitri Payet and Manual Lanzini have stood out, while Victor Moses and others have also played their part so far.

[ffc-gal cat=”west-ham” no=”5″]

With West Ham sitting sixth and only four points off the top four after 20 games, few would disagree that it has been a successful campaign to date, with memorable away wins at Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City making it all the sweeter.

One of the key features of this success has been strength in depth after the summer signings, which has been put to the test of late.

Bilic has bemoaned his situation as a crux of key men have been sent to the treatment table, with the Hammers down to their bare bones over the manic festive season fixture schedule – especially in attack.

This has given another summer signing that had been somewhat forgotten about a chance to play and proved that he can be an influential member of the team both for the rest of the current campaign and for seasons to come.

Michail Antonio joined West Ham from Nottingham Forest after proving himself as a dangerous attacking force in the Championship over a solitary campaign with the City Ground outfit.

Something of a journeyman before his move to the Midlands outfit, the 25-year-old lived up to his potential at Forest and looks capable of continuing this in the Premier League.

A winger with sparkling pace and footwork, Antonio’s eye for goal stood out during his time in Nottingham, with the versatile attacker striking 14 times in the 2014-15 campaign. This was backed up by 12 assists, with Antonio’s drive and desire too much for most opposition full-backs to handle.

WANT MORE? >> West Ham transfer news | Latest transfer news

Given the competition for places in wide areas at West Ham, the star will find it tough to play week-in, week-out; but over recent weeks he has shown that he can be an important player for Bilic’s men.

During five starts and a number of substitute appearances for West Ham in quick succession, Antonio has scored a number of important goals and added an extra dimension to the team’s attacking play.

The club are clearly eager to play with pace on at least one flank, with the former Forest man offering this in abundance with Moses not available.

It will be interesting to see just what line-up Bilic opts for when some of his missing men return to availability, but so far Antonio has taken his opportunity to play with two hands.

[ad_pod id=’writeforus’ align=’center’]

Mark Hughes should be commended for the job he has undertaken at Stoke City, with the Potters played some excellent football in recent months and climbing up the table.

The Welshman was handed the task of reinventing the Britannia Stadium outfit upon his arrival, with Tony Pulis’ direct and physical approach giving the team a certain reputation and starving the club’s fans of silky football.

Hughes has taken time to change this ethos but the playing squad have now turned their attention to getting the ball down and playing rather than looking for a domineering striker to play it long to.

[ffc-gal cat=”stoke-city” no=”5″]

Stoke’s recruitment has been key to the alteration in style, with the Potters now able to boast some international calibre attacking footballers full of technique and skill.

Offensive pair Xherdan Shaqiri and Bojan Krkic most commonly are heralded as a reason for an upturn in the Potteries and hog the headlines given their feats of individualism.

There is no doubting the calibre of the duo, who have both been in scintillating form this season.

However, a third member of the Stoke attacking trident must also be recognised for a remarkable upturn in form, with Marko Arnautovic proving himself to be just as important as his more distinguished team-mates.

The Austria international’s unique blend of power and precision, coupled with a thunderbolt shot, has seen him become a favourite with the Stoke fans. Some of the side’s major achievements this season have had Arnautovic right at the core of them.

Stoke outplayed and defeated both Manchester sides at the Britannia Stadium, while also beating Premier League champions Chelsea on home soil.

On all three of these occasions the former Twente, Werder Bremen and Inter Milan attacker hit the back of the net and put in memorable performances.

Arnautovic is Stoke’s top scorer with seven goals this season and adds a clinical edge to the delicate interplay of Shaqiri and Bojan.

Against Everton in their last outing, it was the Austrian that made clever runs in front of and in behind the home side’s defence, bamboozling John Stones in the process. He also won and scored the decisive penalty to give the visitors a memorable 4-3 win.

Cutting in from the left wing, Arnautovic’s menace off the ball kept the Toffees’ back four honest and allowed Bojan to drop deep to pick up possession and turn.

The 26-year-old developed something of a bad-boy reputation at former clubs, with Jose Mourinho and Steve McClaren both speaking out about his questionable character and personality.

However, since joining Stoke Arnautovic has answered his critics on the pitch and is starting to look decidedly at home with Hughes’ men.

His air of entitlement, the way he carries himself and even his appearance are not dissimilar to Zlatan Ibrahimovic and it is clear to see that the Austrian can be a devastating attacking weapon when given the ball and full of confidence.

Stoke’s journey to the top eight looks set to reach destination this season, with a new footballing ethos delighting the club’s fans.

Although Bojan and Shaqiri are poster boys for the new-look Stoke, Arnautovic’s aggression and footballing intelligence should not be overlooked as a reason for their success.

[ad_pod id=’writeforus’ align=’center’]

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has insisted that he will not sell injury-plagued striker Daniel Sturridge.

Sturridge has been recently linked with a move away from Anfield, with reports suggesting that Klopp has become frustrated with the England international’s constant injury problems.

West Ham United have been touted as one of the clubs interested in Sturridge, despite the striker already having his comeback delayed on three occasions due to niggling problems.

However, Klopp is adamant that he will not give up on the former Chelsea star, pointing to the example of Ilkay Gundogan, who spent over a year out injured during his time in charge of Borussia Dortmund.

He is quoted by The Mirror: “We have to patient. That’s not my best skill, to be honest, but in this case I have no other choice.

“To have a player like Daniel in your squad is always a good situation, and when it’s not possible to use him, it’s not a good situation.

“We all know it’s pretty easy for him when he’s fit, but at this moment he isn’t. We cannot change this and I am not thinking about making a general decision (about him) at the moment.

“I had 15 months with Ilkay Gundogan where we had to all wait. It was his back and we had no chance to force it. It’s not a back problem with Daniel, but it’s the muscle.

“Out of responsibility, we have to do everything we can to give him the physical strength to be able to play Premier League football.”

Sturridge has only made six appearances in all competitions this season, but when he has featured he has been incredibly effective, scoring on four occasions.

The Reds will travel to Carrow Road to face Norwich City on Saturday hoping to end their three-game winless streak.

[ad_pod id=’writeforus’ align=’center’]

After watching Reading v Crystal Palace on Friday, one player that caught the eye was the Royal’s Dutch midfielder Ola John. The youngster, on loan from Benfica, was unplayable against the Premier League defence at times, and although he wasted a lot of key chances, was definitely their stand out player.

With three goals and five assists in 20 games, it isn’t stand out form but still promising. Quite how Reading got the promising player on loan from the Portuguese side is beyond me, but it looks to be a good signing. Although Reading’s form has been very inconsistent this season, they still made it to the quarter-final stage of the FA Cup.

The FA Cup success of course can’t be put solely down to John, but he is a player that has been fairly well known since he FC Twente days. At Twente he scored nine goals in 46 appearances, and then netted three goals in 55 outings for Benfica. He could be a lot better if he was given consistent playing time at Reading, rather than substitute appearances.

With six games to go, he has the chance to prove himself to bigger teams. It’s obvious at Benfica that he was struggling to get the game time that he craves in order to be a better player. Considering his quick adaptation to the English game, he should be looking for a permanent move to England.

If not one of the big teams, then he should look to extend his loan to Reading for another year. With Brian McDermott now back in charge after Steve Clarke’s shaky reign, Reading could enjoy the consistency needed for them to mount a serious promotion push next season.

Although he has struggled for success for the national team, John is one move away from getting into the fold. As a winger, he will certainly be in demand. At a team like Palace he could become one of the next big things, especially if they sell Yannick Bolasie.  Even at a team like Newcastle if they stay up this season, John could prove to be a good addition.

The Dutchman may be far from the finished article, but if he can get a move away and regular playtime, then he could improve. But with the skills that he showed against Palace, he has the potential to be a great player.

Like so many quality players when they were starting out, all he needs is consistency: rather than just being brought on as a sub, he needs to start games and have managers build a team around him.

[ad_pod id=’writeforus’ align=’center’]

Tottenham Hotspur boss Mauricio Pochettino has lavished praise on star striker Harry Kane, who scored a brace in their 3-0 victory over Bournemouth on Sunday, according to reports from the Daily Mail.

Spurs knew that nothing but a victory was enough when they hosted the Cherries at White Hart Lane, with Leicester City eight points ahead of them on the table prior to kick-off.

However, inside the first minute, Kane got on the score-sheet before adding a second just 15 minutes later, and he helped see out the tie by having a shot in the second half saved but rebounded in by team-mate Christian Eriksen.

And Pochettino had nothing but praise for the England international, who he believes is one of the world’s best centre forwards after another fantastic display.

“Harry is one of the best,” said Pochettino. “I’ve told you before. He’s one of the best strikers of a ball and his performance was fantastic today. It was a really good game for him.

“It’s maybe difficult to say he’s the best, but he’s one of the best.”

The Argentine went on to add that it will be tough trying to catch Leicester, but they will not give up despite being five points behind.

“It’s true they have a good advantage, but we need to fight and believe,” he continued.

“We have to keep our standards up and go into the next game looking to perform like this again.

“This season we’ve played a lot of good games and today was complete. It helped us to score early. We managed the game and had control after that. We did very well.

“When you come through a very busy period, playing a lot of games as we have over the last few weeks, you can feel very proud.

“The way we played showed maturity and energy — fantastic.”

[ad_pod id=’writeforus’ align=’center’]

West Ham’s brilliant season has been somewhat overlooked considering the ground-breaking Leicester City story.

Slaven Bilic has built a well-organised and aesthetically pleasing Hammers side and won over a group of fans that had grown irritated with Sam Allardyce’s one-dimensional approach to the beautiful game. The success of this season could yet see the Irons sneak into the Champions League qualification zone ahead of their move to the Olympic Stadium, too. The club is flying in the right direction.

Everything looks set fair for West Ham in the remainder of 2016. Their team is settled, the owners are willing to invest and the manager is clearly committed. Yet, for some unknown reason, Roy Hodgson seems to passionately oppose placing faith in West Ham’s stars for England. Mark Noble, James Tomkins and Aaron Cresswell all deserve at least a shot at proving themselves as international footballers, but Hodgson seems reluctant to even give them a run out.

In an era of English football where the left-field picks are getting more than a fair share of caps, it seems odd that West Ham’s leading names are yet to really have been given a chance. Tomkins, for instance, has made 22 Premier League starts for West Ham this season and averaged five interceptions and tackles per game. The England set-up is hardly blessed with top central defenders at the moment and Tomkins must be the next one in line to pull on the Three Lions jersey, yet a cap has not made it to his doorstep thus far. West Ham have previously produced some of England’s greatest ever players, but, after a yo-yoing few years, there isn’t the same vogue around the club.

Allardyce’s tenure set the building blocks for Bilic’s rejuvenation, but the damage that has done to the image of the club is still affecting many of these players. West Ham are yet to re-establish themselves as a ‘fashionable’ team and it could be some time until they are back in the reckoning as a club to select England players from.

Hodgson has blatantly refused to recognise Andy Carroll as an England option for this summer – well, not in as many words. Carroll, due to injury and strength in depth, will not feel as hard done by as some of his team-mates.

Noble has been knocking on the Three-Lion-embossed England door for years and this year of all years he is most deserving of a call-up. Danny Drinkwater has been given his chance in the spotlight and Michael Carrick is still being considered, yet Noble can’t even get a call-up, something isn’t quite fair. England have a clear weakness in central midfield and Noble would make an ideal foil for the attacking exploits of Dele Alli – so why hasn’t Hodgson picked him? Perhaps the England boss will give the West Ham skipper a go in the upcoming friendlies, but I wouldn’t hold your breath, Hammers. Noble would previously have represented the ‘nearly men’ of international football, now he is as deserving of a call-up as anyone.

Moving on to Cresswell. England have a lot of depth at left-back, admittedly, but Cresswell has arguably been the best of the lot. Of the contenders, Ryan Bertrand is the only other who has been playing regularly and showing good form. There is a definite fashionability about certain clubs and specific times and, although West Ham are on their way out of this, there is a cloud hanging over the club at the moment. Hodgson seems disinterested in selecting players who have out-performed many of their more established counterparts, despite largely overhauling the England squad of late.

The most bizarre part of it all is that Hodgson has been willing to throw players like Alli, Ross Barkley and Eric Dier in at the deep end. This England manager is not afraid to take risks with squad selection, nor is he bound by who the media say he should pick. Previous England bosses have always stuck to the big names as they are afraid to upset anyone, not Hodgson.

It all seem to surround West Ham’s time under Allardyce. ‘Big Sam’ leaves clubs in a solid position, but their reputation as a producer of quality football(ers) is diminished. It will take some time to rebuild this and that may be too little, too late for players like Mark Noble.

[ad_pod id=’ffc-poll-2′ align=’center’]

[ad_pod id=’arsenal-eur

opcar’ align=’center’]

An empty stadium, jaded players presented before a jaded fanbase, a manager speaking to no one in a sad farewell. Not emotionally sad. Just sad. Tragic. Embarrassing. Typical City, sad.

Manuel Pellegrini’s successes, a League Cup victory and a Champions League semi final, is Manchester City’s lot this season. It has been a terrible yet trailblazing season. Breaking new ground in Europe whilst succumbing to the worst league showing since Roberto Mancini took over as manager.

The arrival of Pep Guardiola is perhaps already the catalyst for a bleak showing in east Manchester. His presence needs to have a stabilising effect at a club falling fast. If City are to finish outside of the Champions League places, then his mission will start from a lower ebb than anyone thought was even possible. In the end, a Boleyn Ground farewell may have been the only thing standing between Pep and the ignominy of the Europa League.

His task – like that of no other manager in footballing history – has always been to deliver triple success. Everywhere he has been, success has been a must, but success is measured differently for the golden Guardiola. Not just to be the best, but to prove it with silver trinkets and to continue to prove it season after season, as if no other football clubs existed.

This City side, however, are paying the price for limp performances over the past six months or so. Ever since their stunning performances in the first month of the league campaign started to fade.

The sheer glee of those reveling in the thought of Guardiola leading City in the Europa League shows the scale of the challenge he faces. It’s not just the fact that the playing squad that he is taking over is so close to dropping out of the top four, but it is also the baying hoards, drenched in shadenfreude who already call him a failure at Bayern, and will be looking for any excuse do him down. That’s the cross Pep carries, but success – given the current state of the club – would be miraculous.

But that’s just the footballing reality of the job he has taken on. The ‘real’ reality – football doesn’t usually deal in such facetiousness, it deals in hyperbole and rhetoric – is different.

Whatever sense of disappointment befell City upon hearing the final whistle in Madrid was surely put into perspective the next morning. Whatever disappointment befalls Manchester City at the end of the season will have to be put into perspective then, too – whether that’s the disappointment of finishing fourth or the disappointment of something even worse. The footballing reality of the moment is simply part of a wider ‘real’ context.

City came within inches of a Champions League final: had a Sergio Aguero thunderbolt dipped just under the bar instead of flying just over it, City would be gearing up to face Atletico Madrid in Milan in three weeks after beating Real on away goals. An undeserved place in a final for sure, given the limp performance in the Bernabeu – but do Real Madrid really deserve their place, given how poor they’ve been in the competition this season? But there’s reality and there’s narrative. Whether they deserve it or not, there they be.

But for City, the morning after the night before marked the 20 year anniversary of the day they were relegated from the Premier League in 1996. 2-0 down to Liverpool, City mounted a late comeback, but instead of searching for a winner, they started to waste time at 2-2. It turned out they needed to win, not draw: they couldn’t find a winner, and City were relegated. ‘Peak Typical City’ as one Twitter account put it. They achieved an amazing feat to stage the comeback, but they were comically bitch-slapped by fate and their own fecklessness.

It’s the perspective that counts. City’s plight was comical and that has become an identity for the club. They were relegated and relegated again, yet just 13 years after the 1998/99 season was spent in the third tier, City were claiming their third league title.

A lovable loser, inevitably failing when it was easier to succeed but slipping on an inflatable banana skin in slapstick fashion, turned nouveau riche dandy strutting with Europe’s elite.

What was probably impossible became improbably possible for little City, the Stan Laurel of English football. And the poster boy for Aristotelian theories of art.

But it’s a rags to riches story, of course. When Aristotle wrote, ‘With respect to the requirement of art, the probable impossible is always preferable to the improbable possible,’ he meant that fiction should be stranger than reality. The Manchester City story is one he would have written – but strictly fiction. Science fiction, perhaps. In life, it’s probably impossible. The ‘real’ reality, for once, trumps football’s hype.

The club that was once the very definition of hapless was turned into a major power through a series of fortunate events. Everything came together. The probable impossibility became an improbable possibility – a stunning reality, in fact.

The ‘real’ reality and the footballing reality came together, too. And left Manchester City swimming around in a bottomless pit of money, surfacing only for air and trophies.

They came out of the third tier thanks to two late, late goals and a penalty shoot-out win. They were gifted a new stadium, kept competitive by a beneficent Manchester City Council, and bought out by Arab billionaires. The final, defining miracle precipitated by the first few minor miracles.

So there is, understandably, a nagging sense that one day everything will crumble. An inexplicable surge of imposter syndrome, one that should pass with sustained success, but one that needs to be eradicated through the imposition of a footballing identity beyond ‘Typical City’.

That’s why Guardiola has been summoned.

City are building something, even though this season – like last – has become an exercise in dealing with indifference and frustration. A mix that could only happen at City.

They’ve won trophies, but they’ve never dominated. Even in the years they won the title, they were taken to the final day of the season. They picked up a title that Manchester United threw away, one that Liverpool threw away. In fact, City are the only Champions since Chelsea in 09/10 to have been taken to the final day. Every other team who has won the league since then has done so by more than three points.

The ‘Typical City’ identity is paradoxical. It is both victory from the jaws of defeat and defeat from the jaws of victory. It is both horrendous bad luck and shining good fortune. It is winning a title because others threw it away.

Or, if you prefer, it is winning a title because Mario Balotelli decided to pass for the only time in his career – his only assist in a City shirt came on 93:20 that day in May 2012.

It is losing an FA Cup final in last minute to a side who should have been beaten easily. It is qualifying for the Champions League because West Ham fought so ferociously to leave Upton Park on a high. It is luck, sheer and pure; and in all its guises.

Save City from City is Guardiola’s brief. The miracle will be to instil a grand sense of a victorious identity into a club whose present identity is built around failure. A club whose entire history, both positive and negative, has come down to luck and being in the right – or wrong – place at the right time.

His appointment is a cross for Guardiola to bear, but a miracle at Golgotha was something Christ himself did not perform.

And City, so often the loser from a winning situation – and winner from a losing situation – are perhaps the only club who could win the lottery time and time again and lose despite everything. Win a new stadium, untold riches and perhaps the best manager the game has ever had, and still somehow lose it all in an Aristotelian frenzy.

Either way, over the next few seasons, the probably impossible will become the impossibly probable.

[ad_pod id=’ffc-poll-2′ align=’center’][ad_pod id=’prem-flops’ align=’center’]

The arrivals of Nolito and – probably – Leroy Sane must have left Raheem Sterling questioning his role at Manchester City.

From the expensive teenage star to a player cruelly victimised by the tabloid media, Sterling’s stock has fallen at an alarming rate over the past 12 months. His reputation has been not just tarnished, it is been decimated with the ugly, brute force of the media against a player who, on the whole, doesn’t do a great deal wrong.

Sterling’s quality should simply not be in question. His star potential was there for all to see, it has just been a troubled season under Manuel Pellegrini that has not done his prospects much good. The next step for Sterling sees one of the all-time great coaches arrive at Manchester City and this, for most, would be a wonderful thing for his career.

However, Sterling is set to compete with a number of players in the forward line and Guardiola will not show the stubborn patience that many others would. This is down in part to the fact that Guardiola will have far higher calibre alternatives than many other managers. The pressure is on Sterling to succeed, there is competition for places in the Manchester City squad that has not been there for a couple of years.

A challenging first campaign at City was perhaps down to style, perhaps it was down to pressure, either way it continued into the Euros where Sterling was underwhelming. The cringeworthy tirades in the papers were far from justified, but his performances, as he’d surely admit, were not up to the superb standard that made him such a wonderful prospect. During his time at Liverpool, Sterling seemed a couple of yards quicker than anyone on the field and his final ball was a dangerous as anyone’s.

The arrival of Nolito raises more questions than it answers for Sterling. Yes, Guardiola will rotate, but it leaves Sterling in a pressurised position. He could thrive under such circumstances, he might find that brilliance that tempted City into spending such a figure on him last summer, or he could suffer from a lack of patience as Guardiola thrives for early success at City.

If the Spaniard opts for his 4-3-3 system, Sterling could end up competing with several other players for the two wide forward roles. With David Silva, Samir Nasri, Kevin de Bruyne, Nolito and the possibility of Leroy Sane, City are spoilt for choice in these positions.

A depth of squad that would have even the world’s biggest clubs swooning, Sterling is a growing fish in an enormous pond right now.

The future for Sterling is much like a hazy Spring day. The potential to be bright, but the underlying risk that a storm is coming. The England winger is about to enter a season that is enormous in both his development his career trajectory.

Many believe Guardiola to be the man to take Sterling to the next level, yet that is not guaranteed as yet. There is still a lot to prove for the dazzling winger, at both club and international, and the competition for places at Manchester City could make that considerably harder.

[ad_pod id=’playwire’ align=’center’]

[ad_pod id=’greatest-players’ align=’center’]

Tottenham Hotspur have sealed a last-minute transfer deal for Newcastle United midfielder Moussa Sissoko, according to reports from London Evening Standard.

In a chaotic summer Deadline Day for the France international, Spurs were linked with a swoop earlier in the day.

But the 26-year-old appeared set for a move to Everton instead after Sky Sports reported that he was en route to Merseyside to undergo a medical ahead of a £30million transfer.

However, Spurs soon matched Everton’s offer for the powerful midfielder, which quickly convinced the Goodison Park outfit to withdraw their interest.

And Sissoko essentially confirmed his move to White Hart Lane on social media, tweeting a picture of himself posing with a Spurs jersey.

Although Spurs are yet to confirm the deal, London Evening Standard believe it went through just before the 11pm cut-off.

He’s believed to have signed a five-year contract with Mauricio Pochettino’s side, who will be competing in the Champions League this season.

And the Frenchman isn’t the only Deadline Day arrival in north London; Spurs have also sealed deals for goalkeeper Pau Lopez and winger Georges-Kevin N’Koudou.

Your browser does not support iframes.

Another weekend of Premier League action is upon us and it brings with it another huge game.

Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve been treated to a Manchester Derby and Liverpool’s trip to Chelsea and this Saturday sees another pair of the Premier League’s big guns go head to head in the evening fixture.

Before that, though, there are plenty of other fixtures to whet the appetite, with managers’ jobs becoming increasingly precarious.

There are teams that are looking to finally get their seasons going and as well as that, others looking to capitalise on what’s been a good start for them and aiming to prove they’re in it for the long haul.

There’s plenty to look forward to, then, as there always is with a weekend of top flight football and FootballFanCast have got the FIVE things you need to look out for most of all right here…

A London Derby – Arsenal vs. Chelsea

This is the weekend’s main event as fierce rivals Arsenal and Chelsea duke it out at the Emirates. The Blues go into the game on the back of a fairly humbling defeat against Liverpool whilst the Gunners’ season is starting to get into gear.

A win here for Arsenal would be a real step in the right direction after their own loss to Liverpool whilst Chelsea need their players to show that last season’s form isn’t about to return.

Stoke to get going? – Stoke vs. West Brom

Stoke have been woeful this year, there can be no escaping it, but as football so often does, a rather neat script is being concocted. The Potters host West Brom now managed by their former boss Tony Pulis who was sacked as the club looked to play more expansive football.

Ironically, going into the game they now need the Welshman’s gritty tactics to help them get out of their rut whilst the Baggies are arriving after putting four past West Ham. Sometimes, you really couldn’t make it up.

Liverpool’s credentials to be tested – Liverpool vs. Hull City

Liverpool, as they once again demonstrated against Chelsea, are great at playing against the biggest sides. There is clearly no problem with that and whilst that performance has led some to think they could win the title, it’s games like the one this weekend that will really see where the Reds are.

They face Hull at Anfield on Saturday in a game that reeks of one they’d fail to win in recent years. It’s time to prove people wrong.

How far have Everton come? – Bournemouth vs. Everton

Everton travel to Bournemouth in a repeat of one of the games of the season from last year. A number of last minute goals saw the result swing from an Everton victory to a draw in a match that the Toffees should have put to bed much earlier.

That was under Roberto Martinez though and should they find themselves in front this time around they’ll be hoping to hold on. It’s a good benchmark to see just how much Ronald Koeman has helped the team out.

Hammers home comforts at last? – West Ham vs. Southampton

It’s been a nightmare start for the Hammers at the London Stadium with the issues there well documented. It has to work at some point though and it could come against a Southampton side that are still finding their feet themselves under Claude Puel.

The Saints come into the game on the back of a 1-0 win but West Ham will be going all guns blazing trying to make the stadium a fortress.