This weekend West Ham kick off the weekend early, hosting Brighton & Hove Albion at the London Stadium on Friday evening. Ahead of the fixture I had a chat with Scott McCarthy from WeAreBrighton to discuss the game amongst other things.
First welcome back to the top division. It’s been a while since you even flirted with promotion, when did you first start to think it could happen?
After we’d missed out on automatic promotion by one goal to Middlesbrough and then seen four players go off injured in the first leg of the play offs in 2016, I never thought it would happen! The Championship looked much stronger last year with Newcastle, Norwich and Villa all coming in and it seemed as though our best chance had gone. That was the most pleasing thing about last season – a lot of sides would’ve suffered a serious hangover after that sort of heartbreak yet we just dusted ourselves down and got on with it again. The Fulham away game at the turn of the year was a big moment. Fulham battered us for the entire game bar 90 seconds in which we scored twice and won 2-1. We took 7,000 to Craven Cottage that day and the general consensus after was that if we could be that outclassed by an opposition yet still find a way to win, then there was a real chance that promotion might actually happen.
What are the main differences you have noticed since coming back into the Premier League?
Mistakes get punished. We learnt that in our first game against Manchester City. Dale Stephens gave the ball away in what looks like a harmless position, as we would do last season. No problem, we’d always just win it back against a team in the Championship. This time though it goes through David Silva, Kevin De Bruyne and Sergio Aguero and it’s a goal.
Two wins and two draws is exactly the same as us in terms of results so far, are you pleased with your start?
I think we’ve got to be aiming for an average of a point a game, which is where we are. Our record at the Amex is pleasing, having only lost to Manchester City and even that 2-0 defeat looks a really good result now given the way they’ve been tearing times apart since. Burnley showed you can stay up on home form along but it would be nice to start picking up some points away from home – we’ve only got one so far and have only scored once on our travels.
I expect you’ll be looking forward to the Palace game in November? Any other games you’re looking forward to?
Having spent most of the last 30 years being largely rubbish, there are a load of clubs in the Premier League a generation of our supporters have never been to. We’ve already ticked off Arsenal away, but the trips to Manchester City, United, Everton, Chelsea and West Brom will all prove very popular.
Where do you think Brighton can finish in the Premier League this season?
Anywhere outside the relegation zone would do me. Realistically, I’d say 16th presuming we don’t get left behind by other clubs strengthening in January
Where do you think West Ham can realistically finish the season?
Anywhere between 7th and 20th. What we are seeing is that it is effectively two mini leagues again, nobody is going to crack that top six and everyone else looks pretty similar. On paper West Ham are far too good to go down but we’ve said that before about some big clubs. If I had to pick an exact position, I’d go for 12th.
Which three teams do you think will suffer relegation and who will lift the title this season?
Manchester City are going to take some stopping and Manchester United aren’t realistically going to do it as they won’t pick up enough points from the others in the top six due to José Mourinho’s love of sticking their team coach on the pitch. Relegation is ridiculously tough to call. Palace have a habit of managing to outdo us every season no matter what. We’ve finished above them twice in 20 years and in those two seasons they became the first ever visiting side to win at the Amex and then knocked us out in the play offs and won promotion. We could finish top 10 and they will still have one over us by being the only side to escape from such a hopeless position. Presuming that happens, I can see Huddersfield, Bournemouth and, erm, Swansea going.
Are you happy with the current make-up of your squad? Which positions do you think need strengthening?
Even Stevie Wonder can see we need a striker. We got lucky in getting through last season with only three senior forwards and it was obvious that wouldn’t last this time around – lo and behold Glenn Murray and Sam Baldock were injured at the same time Tomer Hemed was suspended. Of those three, only Murray has played even semi regularly in the top flight before. Pascal Gross has papered over the cracks slightly by being superb in the number 10 role but a proven Premier League goal getter will give us a much greater chance of staying up. Just as well they are cheap and easy to find.
Chris Hughton has done brilliantly to get you promoted. Are you going to stick with him or will you dump him if and when the going gets tough?
Tony Bloom is one of the most pragmatic and loyal chairmen in the league. He even tried to talk – and certainly delayed by a couple of weeks – Sami Hyppia out of resigning when we looked destined for League One under the Finn. Even if we were to go down I’d be shocked if Hughton went, especially as Burnley have shown what can be done with a little bit of loyalty to Sean Dyche who took them up, down, up again and now looks as if he can establish them in the top flight.
How do you rate West Ham’s Slaven Bilic as our manager?
I like Bilic but that might be more to do with the fact that he looks like he has just wandered out of a club at 3am and into the dugout. I don’t know much else about him as – and I’m sure this will come as a surprise to Sky Sports – being a Brighton fan there has never really been much need to pay attention to the Premier League before this season. One thing I would say is that I don’t think your owners with the pronouncements of top four football and the like have helped manage expectations at all and that will always make things difficult for a manager.
If you could have any current West Ham player in your first team who would you choose and why?
At the start of the season it would have been Joe Hart after David Stockdale decided he wanted to count a vast salary and signing on fee in a house overlooking Spaghetti Junction rather than play in the Premier League. Stockdale’s replacement Matty Ryan has been excellent though so I’d go for either Javier Hernandez or Andy Carroll. Carroll would thrive on the service from Anthony Knockaert and Solly March out wide as Murray did last season although given that our players “short term” injuries tend to last for at least six weeks, God knows what the medical team would do with him.
Which Brighton player(s) will be key to your hopes this season?
Lewis Dunk and Shane Duffy have been excellent this season and I don’t think there is a better centre back pairing outside of the top six. We aren’t going to score many goals so keeping them out is vital and on the way they have played so far, they are both clearly destined for bigger and better things than the Albion.
Any particular memories of West Ham/Brighton games of the past?
Well I’m hoping to last longer in the ground this time that I did on our last visit to Upton Park when I walked out after 20 minutes with you 3-0 up in favour of watching the Grand National in the pub. That proved to be a good decision as you went on to win 6-0. A far cry from when we won 1-0 under Mark McGhee with McGhee’s famous 10-0-0 formation. Guy Butters got the only goal in one of the most incredible backs to the wall performances I can remember and we had plenty of those back then.
How do you expect Brighton to setup against West Ham on Saturday/ Team/formation prediction?
4-2-3-1 seems to be the norm for Hughton this season with the only doubts being over Duffy who went off with a groin problem in Sunday’s draw with Everton. Seven of our 10 games so far this season have been level at the break so expect a pretty tight affair for the first half. I’m banking on a draw and probably a low scoring one at that, either 0-0 or 1-1.
Thanks to Scott for his time. Ever the optimist though, I think this will be the game that we can finally have a convincing win, I’m going for a 3 – 0 victory. Come on you Irons!