West Ham United Blog | Analysis & News
News, Results, Transfers, Gossip
West Ham United took another step towards Premier League safety this weekend when they secured another valuable point by drawing 1-1 away to a Southampton team on an excellent run.
Mauricio Pochettino has really turned things around for The Saints and after a fine run of form they are now level on 38-points with West Ham after hovering just above the drop zone under former manager Nigel Adkins. [Read more…]
West Ham host London neighbours Chelsea in the Premier League this Saturday with the game being shown live on SkySports 2 for a 12:45 ko.
Sam Allardyce’s men are coming off two straight away defeats in the Premier League, having lost 3-1 to Tottenham last weekend and 1-0 to Manchester United midweek in a much improved performance with Robin van Persie’s fortunate deflected goal being the difference between the teams.
Chelsea will be under the charge of new interim boss Rafa Benitez, with Chelsea having failed to score since the Fat Spanish Waiter took over from Roberto Di Matteo with both previous outings ending in a goalless draw.
West Ham will need to keep an eye on Fernando Torres, even though he can’t hit a barn door against anyone else it seems the Spaniard has netted 6 times in 6 appearances against the Hammers’. However we have Andy Carroll who will be looking to build on his first goal for the club which he scored against Tottenham last week.
Interesting stat is that Torres and Carroll have netted just 18 league goals in 114 games combined since they fetched £85million in transfer fees! Makes your eyes water!
There will also be no love lost between Allardyce and Benitez with the two far from friends during their Bolton and Liverpool days.
West Ham News
Mark Noble is back from suspension and will be a welcome addition to the teamsheet as we missed him at Old Trafford.
Ricardo Vaz Te, Alou Diarra and Jack Collison all remain sidelined, while Yossi Benayoun is not available for selection due to loan restrictions from his parent club Chelsea.
Chelsea News
Chelsea will be without Englan trio John Terry, Frank Lampard and Daniel Sturridge through injury while Brazillian defender David Luiz is suspended.
It looks like a good time to be playing Chelsea but with the quality of individuals they have you can never be too sure, lets hope we can something out of this game and start moving up the able again. COYI!
West Ham today won their first game of the pre-season with a 3-0 win over Southend United.
Nicky Maynard headed in a wicked Matty Taylor corner kick in the 22nd minute to give the visitors a 1-0 advantage.
Jordan Spence then doubled the lead as he romped clear of the Southend defence to fire home, and Sam Baldock came off the bench to score his 3rd goal in as many pre-season games to give The Hammers an emphatic victory.
After a loss in Austria and a draw to Boreham Wood it was nice to taste victory, lets hope the pre-season gets better and better for West Ham.
According to SkySports West Ham have made a move to sign Sochaux striker Modibo Maiga.
Rumours earlier this week suggested West Ham were chasing the highly rated Mali international whose move to Newcastle fell apart last season.
West Ham now look to have stole a march on their rivals for the strikers signature with Stoke and Reading rumoured to be interested.
£4 Million is the price being touted with the striker expected in England next week to finalise a deal if the rumours are true.
Nicky Maynard says he made the right move choosing West Ham and his decision has been justified with The Hammers winning promotion.
The striker took some stick following his move to West Ham with some disgruntled supporters suggesting it was purely for money reasons, as some Premier League clubs were also interested in him at the time.
Maynard didn’t make the kind of impact expected, partly because of the success of Ricardo Vaz Te who was a revelation, but still managed to score 3 goals including a cracker past Cardiff in the play-off semi-finals.
Speaking with London 24 Maynard said:
“It is every English footballer’s dream to play in the Premier League and that is the main reason I left Bristol City.”
“I wanted to play in the Premier League as quickly as possible. West Ham came in for me, who were in the Championship at the time, but I knew that they would go into the Premier League.
“I am here now and it is down to me to produce and stay in the top flight with West Ham.”
Lets hope he gets a chance and finds those prolific scoring boots for West Ham this season.
