By CandH’s top blogger Allen Cummings
Home wins are the basis of a season free from relegation worries but more importantly of battling for valuable places at the top end of the league table.
After a shaky start to the season at the London Stadium, David Moyes and his team will go in search of their third successive Premier League home victory when Bournemouth are our visitors on Monday evening.
The confidence-building run of six victories and a draw from our previous seven games in domestic and European football came to a disappointing end at Anfield on Wednesday.
So it’s vitally important the team start building a new run as quickly as possible and Bournemouth look to provide an ideal opportunity to do just that.
The Cherries last Premier League visit to east London was also David Moyes’ first game as West Ham manager in his second stint at the club.
At that time we sat in a precarious 17th place in the league, just one point clear of the relegation zone. It was the first day of the new year, 2020 – and signalled the first day of a new era under Moyes.
We have come a long way in the two and a half years since then. That game finished in an emphatic 4-0 victory for the Hammers and how the manager would welcome a repeat of that score line.
None of the scorers that day (Mark Noble 2, Sebastian Haller and Felipe Anderson} remain at the club. But with seven goals from the last three home games in the league and Europe, hitting the back of the net is looking less of a problem at home than earlier in the season.
Moyes is likely to be without the attacking threat of Maxwel Cornet and Lucas Paqueta but if the defensive calm and solidarity of Craig Dawson is restored, the team’s confidence to press forward will be greatly increased.
Moyes will hope Gianluca Scamacca will have his shooting boots with him after drawing a blank at Anfield and going close but not close enough on several occasions at St Mary’s against Southampton.
Jarrod Bowen will also no doubt to be looking to get back on the goal trail and at the same time put the disappointment of that penalty failure against Liverpool behind him.
West Ham’s lack of goal scoring in the first 45 minutes of games – a statistic that will obviously concern the manager.
It’s nice to score early and settle the nerves of those watching but it’s the outcome of the 90 minutes which matters
Another 4-0 score line would be very nice – but another three points is the real prize up for grabs.
“At that time we sat in a precarious 17th place in the league, just one point clear of the relegation zone. It was the first day of the new year, 2020 – and signalled the first day of a new era under Moyes.”
And so, two and a half years later, we are now in 13th position and TWO points above the relegation zone. Let’s hope that David can start the ball rolling again on a tremendous run of wins so that we can climb further up the ladder towards that top six that we’re always talking about. No more sitting back in the first half waiting to concede the first goal. Let’s go you Irons, attack, attack, attack!