WHUFC vs Southampton -- February 29th, 2020

well being as February only has 28 days and this game will be on the 29th... perhaps it'll be easy to forget.

you lucky people in the UK won't be able to see the game, so I'll be doing me sterling duty from the couch to keep you all updated and entertained as it happens live before my naked, steaming eyes... or that should probably be steaming...

I was thinking about next year... fortunately Disney's ESPN+ seems to cary all of the Championship games so i guess I just have to change my subscription from NBC to the house of mouse and I'll still be able to support from the comfort of an overseas armchair.

just read my musings on the return fixture back in December... weird... Pelligrini in charge, Martin in goal... a barely deserved 1-0 to the Cockney Boys... but nothing to cheer about either from the result or the manager...

be interesting to see how much has changed in the meantime... if anything...

the useless twat we have in charge is unshakably the worst performing manager we've ever had in our history... so as much as we all wanted Pellgrini sacked... be careful what you wish for - especially with the tossers in charge as their decision making bona fides are seriously questionable.

Soucek is out for three weeks - which is about typical for anyone putting in a shift.

Bowen will play - whether he turns out to be a total Jonah - having lost ever Premier League game he's ever played - or get his personal hoodoo nixed, remains to be seen.

Yarmolenko still isn't fit.

the guardian is suggesting a 1 up top formation with no Haller. It makes no sense what so ever , unless you follow West Ham and realize that putting out your best team or playing to a formation that works to your strengths is just not something we do.

Ngakia was our best player against Liverpool... his reward for his first outing's good showing was to be dropped form the squad for the next game... I'm guessing injuries will force M*yes hand this time so even he can't make such a boneheaded selection debacle.

This is the must-win game of the week in a season of must-win games...

see y'all in the morning.

wow... that sucks.

didn't realize there was a Friday night game on today - can't they be banned or something?

anyway... seems Norwich just achieved the impossible and won a game... so they might be on played 28 - which is a game ahead of us and have a goal difference 10 worse than ours... but they won... which means they are now only 3 points behind us and Watford.

which means, the one "guaranteed filled" relegation place might not be as guaranteed as everyone was thinking...

so there's sill 3 relegation spots to play for... and boy, do we need to start playing.

okay... so since Norwich didn't do us any favors... how're the rest of the games in the morning going to help/hinder us?

(I know.... I know... I said I wasn't going to post till the morning, but poor old Arnold Schwarzenegger just isn't captivating enough to keep me away from you guys)

Brighton vs Crystal Palace
kicks off as the early game so we'll at least know how this one finishes before we take to the pitch.
Brighton are currently 4 points ahead of us, Palace, 9... so there's nothing really to say here except that Palace need to win and win big.

Bournemouth vs Chelsea
Another no-brainer result please... Bournemouth are two points above us and we'll never catch the Chelski... so hopefully they can pull this off in our favor.

Newcastle vs Burnley
somehow, Burnley are in the lofty heights of 10th and a staggering 13 points ahead of us... The Toon are 7 points better off than us so I guess the best result for us would be a Burnley win

West Ham vs Southampton
This is the game we want and there's only one result that will satisfy.

Watford vs Liverpool
for the love of Christmas there can't be any chance that the Hornets could do what we couldn't... is there? I mean, it'd be the upset of the season and the perfect footballing fairytale... but please... Liverpool... don't drop any points in this one... please.

the tale of the tape doesn't make particularly comforting reading either:

West Ham loan signing Tomas Soucek faces three weeks out after sustaining a hip injury.

Ryan Fredericks had surgery on his damaged shoulder ligaments earlier this week and is expected to be out for around six weeks.

and it looks like we're selling Holland in the summer despite him scoring for fun on loan at Oxford.

West Ham are looking for a fifth consecutive league win over Southampton.

The Hammers have won 17 Premier League games against Southampton, more than against any other side.

The last three meetings at the London Stadium have ended 3-0, with West Ham winning on the two most recent occasions.

West Ham have lost four of their last five league games and are winless in seven.

They won their first two competitive fixtures under David Moyes, but are since winless in eight matches in all competitions (D2, L6).

The Hammers have earned just 12 points at the London Stadium this season - no other Premier League side has picked up fewer points at home.

They have lost their last 17 Premier League games when conceding the first goal, the longest current run in the division.

In all, West Ham have dropped an unrivalled 22 points from leading positions in the Premier League this season.

The Hammers have used 28 players in the Premier League in 2019-20 - only Tottenham have used more.

Jarrod Bowen has finished on the losing team in all nine of his Premier League appearances: seven for Hull City, two for West Ham. (he's going to turn out to be the buy of the season if this stat doesn't change soon)

Saints have won a league-high 59% of their points away from home this term - 20 from 34.

They are bidding for a seventh away win this season, which would equal the club's top-flight record.

Southampton are aiming to keep consecutive Premier League clean sheets for the first time since October 2018.

Only Liverpool and Manchester City have earned more points over the last 10 Premier League games than Southampton's 19.

I would love us to just put a team out to just attack because we haven`t got anything to lose really let`s be honest.

Well I'm going this afternoon and would also like to see an attacking team. 4-3-3 for me, Antonio, Haller and Bowen up front,
3 in midfield and 4 at the back.

Charlie Ham wrote:Well I'm going this afternoon and would also like to see an attacking team. 4-3-3 for me, Antonio, Haller and Bowen up front,
3 in midfield and 4 at the back.

Well looking at the team sheet for todays game it looks like we could be going with a 4-3-3 .

Fabianski
Ngakia
Diop
Ogbonna
Cresswell
Rice
Noble(C)
Fornals
Antonio
Haller
Bowen

SUBS Randolph,Zabaleta,Masuaku,Balbuena,Snodgrass,Anderson,Lanzini

I'm late.. I know... 4 minutes in.. no score...

morning Charlie, morning Arran...

Ngakia is in the thick of things os at least he got picked for more than 1 game in a row...

Bowen is out there so all we can do is hope he's not an actual Jonah and we break his Premier League hoodoo today.

we're definitely 'up' for it... but that doesn't mean it's not all a bit squiffy - a terrible back pass almost puts Fabianski in a 'mare... Soton have a corner..

apologies, I'm still trying to catch up and wake up...

Soton are on 66% possession after 10 minutes... no one's had a shot on or off target...

being late and watching in the Staes there was no mention of the protests... did anything happen?

G&S are both shown sitting watching...

Soton have their second corner.

the Soton corner lead to a West Ham breakaway of three on one... Antonio played the ball wide to Bowen who was then forced out of a shot by two returning Soon players...
Cresswell takes the resulting corner...

that would have been a fine way for Bowen to break his jinx.

now Soton are on the counter from our corner...

Holy shit... he did it...

our corner... Soton counter, lose possession, we come back at them...

Soton try to clear but the ball out is piss poor...

It looks like Fornals intercepts... plays the ball into the box for Bowen to run onto and from an acute angle he clips it past the defenders and keeper for his first West Ham goal...

anyway... team news:

1 Fabianski
52 Ngakia
23 Diop
21 Ogbonna
3 Cresswell
16 Noble
41 Rice
17 Bowen
18 Fornals
30 Antonio
22 Haller

Subs:

4 Balbuena
5 Zabaleta
8 Felipe Anderson
10 Lanzini
11 Snodgrass
26 Masuaku
35 Randolph

So, Arran had the skinny on the team selects... pity for Snoddy... I know people don't rate him but he always puts in a shift - which is more than the likes of Haller and Anderson and (lately) Lanzini have done.

Haller heads from close range from an Antonio cross but it's soft and straight at the keeper... but we're attacking... which is nice.

terrible back pass makes Fab run out of his area to clear... but it puts us in an attacking position again... but we do nothing with it.

20 minutes gone.

Palace did us a favor this morning by winning their game so thus far... it's all going our way.

from the BBC:

"GOAL - West Ham 1-0 Southampton
Jarrod Bowen
First start, first goal!

Southampton give the ball away carelessly and Declan Rice lays off for Pablo Fornals.

The Spaniard plays a lovely through-ball to Bowen who makes a clever run in between the left-back and centre-back and lifts over Alex McCarthy into the far corner.

He's off the mark in a West Ham shirt."

"That is just the start that West Ham and Jarrod Bowen will have wanted.
Despite that goal it's gone very quiet at the London Stadium."

"West Ham need to be careful though. They've lost 22 points from winning positions this season."

Bowen tries to do it all himself but his selfishness results in a weak shot that trickles into the keeper's arms...

slow your roll boy... you're not Pele just yet.

25 minutes gone...

twitter seems to take great delight in pointing out that the goal came form the two players M*yes has not been too keen to give a start to...

so let me jump on that bandwagon.




Free-kick to Soton

think this is my favorite tweet thus far:

"Replying to
@WestHam
Moysey what's the score
Moysey MOYSEH Look whose scored.
Moyseeeee you minge"

and would you believe it... as I'm taking delight in savaging M*yes.... Soton go and equalize....

a cross from deep on the right... a player (Obafemi) unmarked in the middle and boom... it's all square at 1-1

solon's possession stats are up to 70 now...

2 west ham free kicks in a row and we do nothing from either....

Soton on the attack again but fortunately they do nothing at our end either...