Another 3 pm kick off on a Saturday afternoon lies ahead for West Ham, who welcome promotion contenders Southampton to London Stadium.
Definitely another game to please the traditionalists after many seasons of messed up, rescheduled, haphazard weekend kick off times at the mercy of Sky TV’s weekend programming.
Alongside the lack of VAR, possibly one of the biggest bonuses of this ‘relegation season’ is the return of the Saturday afternoon footie. ‘Just like the old days’ of pre-Premier League, when every game was a Saturday afternoon kick off.
Sadly, just like the old days, it’s the second division for the Hammers this year.
And, win again today and another record – ‘just like the old days‘ – gets equalled – for it is not since Slaven Bilic’s tenure as West Ham manager at Upton Park in 2016 that West Ham last went so long without losing. Avoid defeat today against Southampton at the London Stadium and West Ham will reach that magic double-figure ten game unbeaten streak once again.
Slaven Bilic – the last West Ham manager to orchestrate a ten game unbeaten run
Not since 22nd August have West Ham been beaten in the league, after their 1-2 loss to local rivals Charlton Athletic. Nuno’s men have been on something of a journey, discovering how competitive this league is since those days, and hopefully their new found fighting spirit- evinced from the hard won attritional manner of their 0-1 away win at leaders Swansea City last weekend – will not desert them this afternoon.
How Nuno sets up and the team he selects to try and equal this 10-game unbeaten record will be published by Claret and Hugh first – as usual – 75 minutes ahead of kick off so check back here at 1345 hrs.