One year ago today West Ham sat in fifth place after a Boxing Day two-nil away defeat Chelsea. After 18 games last term we managed nine wins, four draws and five losses. We had 31 points and a goal difference of +8 conceding 21 goals but scoring 29 goals before Boxing Day 2014.
Fast forward 365 days, we have won six games, drawn eight games and lost four games. We have 26 points and a goal difference of +4, scoring 26 goals but conceding 22 in the opposite direction.
Of course it is dangerous to compare the style of Sam Allardyce with Slaven Bilic or put these two stats next to each other to tell us anything meaningful.
It is strange season where Leicester City lead the league at the time of writing, Crystal Palace sit in fifth place with 30 points and Manchester United drop to sixth after four losses on the trot and no win in seven games for the first time since 1990. Watford are also a surprise package sitting in seventh place above us.
Some have argued we were in a false position when we sat in third place earlier this season and a top six finish is unachievable this season. Our wins against Arsenal, Man City, Liverpool and Chelsea seem a distant memory.
We have have not won in eight games since we beat Chelsea on 24th October and today recorded our 5th draw in a row.
It is first time since October 1968 that West Ham have recorded five draws in a row in the top flight.
If you were wondering when is the last time we didn’t win in eight games it was only last season although it included the West Bromwich Albion game in the FA Cup. (7 league games and 1 FA Cup match) From Liverpool 31st Jan to Arsenal 14th March.
Before that it was eleven games without a win with three West Ham managers in charge. Avram Grant. Kevin Keen and Big Sam which included 9 losses and 2 draws. That bad run started with Stoke in the FA Cup 13th March. Keen took charge for the last game of the season which we lost 3-0 to Sunderland. Sam took charge first game of the following season and lost 1-0 to Cardiff City.
Before that run it was eight straight losses under Pardew 2006-07 includes 3 Cup games including 2 against Palermo. Roeder also had a twelve game run without a win. My thanks to Steve Marsh for the historic stats above.
Poor old Aston Villa are now winless in 17 Premier League games – only four teams have ever had a longer such run in the division (Derby 32, Sunderland 26, Norwich 21 and Nottingham Forest 19 – QPR also had a run of 17).
I am all for respecting the point but we need turn a corner very soon if we don’t want to slip further down the Premier League table.
I hear you loud and clear Sean, we have been on far worse runs than this in seasons gone bye.
i’m a Hammer for life, in the Prem era I’ve always looked at 28 points after 20 games as a barometer for a respectable season. Very rarely have my beloved Irons accomplished this from memory, so 26 points from 18 is par for me.
i believe that come May, we will have amassed at least 50 points, when was the last time we saw that ?
A new manager needs at least four transfer windows to shape a squad in his image, so until then I’ll be delighted with seeing us remain hard to beat ( two defeats in 15),
A handful more of rousing victories, I’ll take six more right now if offered and another eight draws by season end, for me that’d be job well done Super Slav in season one!
I didn’t see your article as negative myself, Sean. You are right, this is a long winless stretch but the reasons are obvious. Payet & Lazini have become central figures in our squad & are inspirational. It’s no surprise that we do not play as well without them. We are still a good squad that has not had a great deal of luck but we seem to lack a certain spark without those players. We can defend but we lack that something special in midfield & the killer instinct in the last third. That’s what got us hanging around in the top 6 earlier on. Confidence feeds on itself. You are right, we need to start taking more than one point a game soon or we slide slowly back into the pack but you can be sure Bilic knows all of this. This is just the strangest season in my experience, Chelsea, Man U, Leicester, Arsenal flogged 4-0, even Man City. You just can’t pick what’s gonna’ happen this year. No consistency in anyone. Bilic will have us up & running when players start coming fit again. Not long now, back to winning ways.
Not intended to be negative just stating a fact that we are dropping down the league table mainly due to our injuries and a comparison to last season where our wheels came off after a similar injury blight
I hope you are going to compare the stats at the end of the season for the remainder of this season with last.
It was about now AC returned and the wheels fell off……! Slaven has had multiple knock backs and we have still only lost 4 games all season. We are in transition, re-building or what ever you like to call it, We have not been put to the sword by anyone without half the first team available. Sorry these stats are completely out of order under the circumstances. Perhaps a little negative, but, So long as we are out of the bottom three in May we go into the OS as a Premiership Club, Job done.
Besides we are only one win off, of 6th place, its really not a crisis.
Fully agree with the above. I watch the game with my son here in Oz as soon as i saw Mike Dean was in charge, West Ham were getting nothing. It appears playing for Villa you can have 3 or 4 decent fouls on the opposition and get a warning, but being a West Ham player you commit one and you find yourself in his book. Now I’m not blaming him for a very poor performance by West Ham, out played for most of the game, I’m supprised as over the past couple of seasons we have fought just as hard, being in roughly the same position, perhaps a belated present for the opposition. I was not suprised by Deans ability to **** up our results by giving a penalty, but then to deny a blatant hand ball in the last 5 mins again without consulting his assistant sums up his ability to manage a premiership football match dissapointed with the result unfortunately i see a loss at home against Southampton but with so many players injured i find it hard to see where we will score, but it appears that the deliberate cynical tackle from behind on Poyet put paid to our time in the top 5. Mike Dean shoild be asked to explain his constant bias towards everyone that plays West Ham. Still we will be in the premiership next year and onward we march Forever an Irons fan………COYI
All the football ‘experts’ predicted a draw & as it turns out, they were right. We could have won but then so could have Villa. A point each was fair, unlike Mike Dean who was not. We are only 3 or 4 points off a Europa League place & with 6 players out you just can’t expect the same level of quality. That’s just the way it is but that is about to improve. We didn’t hold the ball in midfield & Villa had wave after wave of attack because of that. If it weren’t for Collins & Adrian we would have lost. They were grandiose. This is our first year under Bilic, we have changed our style of play & even though we are dropping slowly down the table we are still in touch & with our best players returning we will start winning again. This is a crazy year for form & we are seeing results we would have not thought possible last year. We are half way through & teams like Villa & Newcastle are starting to sort their problems out, but so will we.
Our midfield was a total mess in the 1-1 draw against Villa!
Bilic should have started the game with Alex Song; Pedro Obiang was lively, but not in the same class as Song.
I am concerned that Slav has taken a quiet dislike to this very talented play-maker.
COYI
Maxie
Slav’s too big to say “it’s because of injuries” but we all know that’s exactly what it is, we’re just riding the rough seas at the moment but I can see calm waters in the distance COYI ⚒⚒⚒⚒