Despite proudly lifting the Europa Conference League trophy in the 2022/23 campaign, West Ham United’s Premier League form can be best described as woeful. Our preparations for the 2023/24 campaign were not simple either given the almost endless Declan Rice saga, and as he eventually moved on to Arsenal for £105 million, his departure was followed by Manuel Lanzini, Gianluca Scamacca and Nikola Vlasic.
Signings then proved to be a problem for manager David Moyes, amidst rumours of off pitch disagreements, but as August progressed we finally saw Edson Alvarez, James Ward-Prowse, Konstantinos Mavropanos and Mohammed Kudus arrive.
However, despite those distractions, we had started our domestic season on a high. An opening day draw with AFC Bournemouth was followed by straight victories over Chelsea, Brighton and Hove Albion, and mist recently, newly promoted Luton Town.
With four games played, for a short period of time we topped the Premier League table, but as other fixtures have played out this weekend, we are sat pretty in fourth place. With the international break now upon us there will be those fans who look for other small distractions, and there will be those who will be interested to know that Gamblizard has compiled a list of online casinos as it might save them a lot of time. But as the Hammers go into the break there is plenty of work to be done on the training ground, but everyone will be encouraged by our start, however, when football returns we have an incredibly tricky tie on home soil to reigning Champions Manchester City, and then we very quickly go into our Europa League Group A clash with Backa Topola, and for those who like a flutter, they will be hoping that come the full time whistle it will be time for a MrQ withdrawal time on their potential winnings.
After our experiences last year though, Moyes will be absolutely delighted with how the team, and some players in particular, have absolutely hit the ground running this season, and those thoughts featured highly in his post game comments following our victory over Luton on Friday evening.
“It was good. We were good against a tough team who are going to put teams under a lot of pressure. Overall I think we did a brilliant job tonight. It’s incredibly satisfying. I have got to say I am happy with the results. I think for any team you want to get a good start to the season. It makes things a lot easier and gives players more confidence. I thought the two centre-halves did a great job. There were times we could have dealt with things better but the whole team were great. Edson Alvarez and James Ward-Prowse were great in midfield tonight. We deserved to be in front in the second half, but it was never over and was always going to be a job that if you didn’t concentrate until the end.”
With three goals in four games so far this year, 26 year old Jarrod Bowen has had a flying start, but he knows the real tests lie ahead when the international break finishes.
“It’s been a great start for me and the team, we are actually annoyed to be sitting here with 10 points and not 12. It was a different game. We had more of the ball but we were under pressure. We had to defend a lot of long balls and then it was about winning the second ball. We managed the game well. I headed straight at the keeper so I got away with that one. I don’t score many headers! You want to go into the international break unbeaten, the real tests are to come. It’s down to us to mix it with the big boys and show what we’re about. This was the hardest game we’ve had so far this season. The atmosphere was bouncing in here.”
Let us simply see what happens next.
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