Burnley and time for a victory roll!
By Allen Cummings
Burnley are back and no doubt the Clarets will be hoping for a repeat of their visit last season when they took all three points in a comprehensive 3-0 victory.
Everyone connected with West Ham on the other hand will be hoping for anything BUT a repeat of a game that was the lowest point of an often difficult, frequently disappointing and regularly traumatic nine months of football.
If the result last March wasn’t bad enough, the shameful scenes inside the ground, disgraced not only the perpetrators, but cast a huge shadow over the whole club.
Now ‘under new management’, this Saturday provides the perfect opportunity to dispense that dark day into the rubbish bin. It’s An opportunity to get the Manuel Pellegrini ‘revolution’ back on the roll.
Burnley are nowhere near the efficient, well-organised football unit they were last season. They sit two places below us in the Premier League. have conceded nine goals in the last two league games and 21, five more than us, in the league so far this season. All of that leads me to believe they are there for the taking.
No game in this league is easy of course but if the complaint has been that our fixtures so far have been less than kind, pitting us against almost exclusively top 10 opposition so far, this game gives us the opportunity to face a side at the other end of the table.
‘Must win game’ is a phrase used too frequently in my opinion, especially this early in the season but it is certainly one we need to win.
Against the spuds in the league, the majority of opinion agreed, we were the better side on the day – and but for a super show from Hugo Lloris, we would almost certainly taken all three points.
At Leicester it was a fantastic battling display from our 10 men and we were denied another three points by a wicked 89th minute deflection. Two games six points deserved but only one collected. (Forget Wednesday night – different competition different players.)
It’s frustrating we haven’t been getting the just rewards our endeavours have deserved. Saturday presents itself as an ideal opportunity to change that.
I believe we are a better team with better players than Burnley. We’re playing the Pellegrini brand of attacking football that’s designed to be pleasing on the eye, and is certainly more encouraging than we were forced to endure last season.
Unfortunately it’s not yet paying dividends. Saturday provides the ideal opportunity to change that!