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"After A Storm, There Must Be A Calm..."

As Desmond Dekker once sang, “After a storm there must be a calm” – West Ham United seem to have been navigating stormy waters since the summer of 2016, with events reaching a head in March this year with the protests at the Burnley game. Survival was ultimately successfully secured but a new manager and mass incomings over the summer mean the club has yet to reach that period of calm.

After Saturday’s result and performance, supporters must try to remain calm. I have been of the belief since before a ball was kicked that this season will, for long periods, be one of transition. Players need to get to know their new manager’s ways, new players from different leagues and countries need to settle and it is unlikely, in my opinion, that we will even challenge the top eight in 2018/19, let alone the top six that I have read many supporters clamouring for. Top ten has to be hoped for, but I feel we may be an 11th-15th-placed team again this season.

There are a few reasons for this that won’t make for appealing reading but, I hope, are words of realism rather than pessimism. The Premier League is unforgiving – not all of our new signings will work out and the new boys will need time, patience and, crucially, support. An opening fixture list including Liverpool, Arsenal, Everton, Chelsea, Man Utd and Tottenham in the first nine games mean we were likely to be in a tricky position in any case without the upheaval of the playing staff. Add in Bournemouth (who finished above us in the last two seasons), newly-promoted Wolves and Brighton (a tough proposition at the AMEX as they proved yesterday) – we will, most likely, be playing catch-up come the end of October. We have, on paper, a kinder run of games in December but this is a month in which we historically lose players to injury and suspension – the quality of the depth in our squad will be tested around the Christmas period. Three of our final six games include trips to Stamford Bridge, Old Trafford and the new White Hart Lane.

Difficult fixtures at crucial periods of the season, coupled with a necessary ‘bedding-in’ period for the new management and playing personnel, are the main reasons why I feel we will struggle to meet the inflated expectations of many supporters this season. Manuel Pellegrini will need a few transfer windows to get it right at West Ham and there may be periods of storm that need to be weathered during this campaign – we may be in one already!

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We, as supporters, need to provide that calm in order for this bedding-in process to be as seamless as possible. Felipe Anderson has come in for criticism since Saturday, which I found to be unfair. He provided a great pass to create what turned out to be the penalty for our goal and worked hard on his debut at Liverpool. Some foreign players, like Dimitri Payet, hit the ground running in the Premier League – others, such as Dennis Bergkamp and Robert Pires, require more time. Anderson, like Marko Arnautovic, looks like the type of player who will feed off the love of West Ham supporters, rather than their wrath. It is important to note too that he has been played on the left wing in the opening two fixtures – a position he did not play in at all for Lazio last season and only appeared on two occasions the season before. He was a regular on the left in 2015/16 but is adapting to a new culture, new style of play and a new language while playing in a position he has not featured regularly in for two seasons. I am confident he will prove to be a long-term success but will require patience and support in the meantime.

Saturday’s match saw us have a decent spell around the time we scored the penalty but Bournemouth always looked threatening – only two good saves from Lukasz Fabianski and a crucial block by Angelo Ogbonna kept the clean sheet intact until Callum Wilson scored yet another goal against us. Robert Snodgrass gifted possession to the Cherries and, one pass later, defence had been turned into attack and our back four was in retreat. Fabian Balbuena’s attempt to halt Wilson’s run was more tickle than tackle and Pablo Zabaleta unnecessarily went to ground, leaving Wilson clean through to slot between Fabianski’s legs. Ogbonna failed to cover himself in glory when conceding the free-kick six minutes later, and again in his attempt at marking Steve Cook who headed home the winner.

Pellegrini is now in a Catch-22 situation. A goalkeeper and his back four need to develop an understanding, and quickly – does he stick and allow a possibly favoured back four to develop that understanding, or twist again in the hope of discovering a better blend? Balbuena is another new boy who needs to get used to the Premier League but we have Issa Diop sitting on the bench, awaiting an opportunity to impress. Ogbonna may have been poor on Saturday but was arguably our best defender last season and, in my opinion, should retain his place – a pairing of Diop and Balbuena is, after all, totally devoid of Premier League experience. I’d keep faith with Zabaleta at this stage, again for his Premier League experience while, for me, Aaron Cresswell has to come in for Arthur Masuaku at left-back. Masuaku is great on the ball but is often lacking in end product and does not release the ball early enough. Cresswell is the better defender of the two and hopefully, after another week of training, he will be ready to take his place in the starting XI at the Emirates.

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Fabianski’s saves on Saturday made him my West Ham Man of the Match – I have had my concerns regarding his signing and they will not be fully extinguished after just 180 minutes of football but he did his job in keeping the score down for us. I was very surprised to see Marko Arnautovic replace captain Mark Noble on penalty duties, not least because I had Nobes down for our first goal in the Predictor – there has often been a spot-kick in this fixture over the last few seasons and I fancied there would be on Saturday, hence why I had the skipper down for the first goal! Considering Noble’s record from the spot, Arnie had to score if he was going to assume the role and he duly did.

Snodgrass had a couple of decent moments during the match but gave the ball away cheaply for the equaliser and was eclipsed by the performance of substitute Andriy Yarmolenko. I was stunned to see Snodgrass’ name in the starting XI – Pellegrini certainly seems to have seen something in the Scot this pre-season but surely, if fit, the Ukrainian has to start on Saturday. I think it would be interesting to see Arnautovic perhaps playing a number 10 role on Saturday behind Chicharito, rather than up top in a two with him – however, will the Austrian track back sufficiently to be the extra man in midfield when we don’t have the ball?

Finally, we come to the skipper. I am one of Mark Noble’s biggest fans; he’s been one of my favourite players for years. He still has an awful lot to bring to the table but he is also very similar to Jack Wilshere and, on the basis of the first two games, the pair are struggling to be effective when we don’t have the ball. I was not a fan of the Carlos Sanchez signing but he is a disciplined holding midfielder by trade and could be what we need in a game at the Emirates.

My team for Saturday would be:

Fabianski
Zabaleta, Diop, Ogbonna, Cresswell
Sanchez, Wilshere
Anderson, Arnautovic, Yarmolenko
Chicharito

With Anderson struggling in the last game, I’d move him to the position he has played in more regularly in recent seasons, with Yarmolenko starting on the left. With Arsenal looking for their first points of the season, Saturday is going to be a very tough fixture and I fear things could get worse before they get better. We must try to remain calm in the face of the storm…

COYI

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