West Ham Till I Die
Comments
Opposition Q & A

Opposition Q&A with The Cherries

This weekend West Ham travel to Bournemouth, who like West Ham were dumped out of the Caraboa Cup midweek, although not humiliated! With both teams in the top six at this early stage of the season we return to a Saturday afternoon kick-off. We will be hoping for a better display than the dreadful one served up during the week. Ahead of the game I spoke to Peter Bell of the Cherry Chimes Blogspot to discuss the game and the coming season.
Hi Peter, for a short while last weekend, Bournemouth were sitting 3rd in the table, after two great wins against Everton and your south coast rivals Southampton, you must be thinking that you’ve got this Premier League cracked?
Hardly! Bournemouth are notorious for finding difficulty where there was none and just because we have had a run of a couple of wins, it doesn’t guarantee you anything in this league. I am optimistic about the home form holding up, but as usual AFC Bournemouth have not kept a clean sheet in the league and it puts a lot of pressure on the team knowing they have to score at least two goals to win a match.

Last season West Ham ended up 10th and Bournemouth 14th: this weekend we play each other sitting 5th and 6th respectively, where do you think Bournemouth and West Ham will both finish the season?
I was pretty conservative in my expectation for Bournemouth this season knowing in the summer that there were a lot of players still looking to get back from injury and that they wouldn’t even be in contention until October/November. So I predicted a 12th place finish for Bournemouth. I didn’t think about West Ham that much but I don’t see why they can’t improve on last season and finish about eight.

Talking of last season, what were the highlights for you?
It had to be the 4-0 home win against Chelsea. We were completely outplayed first half but got in 0-0 and then the counter-attacking football that was played in the second half was unbelievable, just about everything came off and we had a comfortable win over a top six club.

Conversely what were the moments of deep despair?
I suppose losing to Fulham 0-1 at home gave me pretty much an equal feeling of despair. But you couldn’t get much worse than a former player coming back to score against you in added time for Newcastle to earn a 2-2 draw against us – thanks Matt Ritchie!

How do you judge Eddie Howe’s signings of the summer? Do you think you are a better team? Although we are barely into the season, who looks like becoming a Bournemouth regular?
The jury is still out on some of the summer signings. Jack Stacey seems to be doing okay at right-back, but it is a big jump up for him from League One. Lloyd Kelly we have only seen in friendlies and we need him back fit to give us some left-back options. Arnaut Danjuma is a left-sided winger who again we saw in pre-season and then he got injured so he should be back soon. The star performers are obviously Philip Billing in centre-midfield who has been improving every game and Harry Wilson who has come in on loan from Liverpool. Harry has a fierce shot on him and whereas many of our players are slow to look up and shoot around the box, it always seems the first thing on Harry Wilson’s mind and he’s very accurate. I’d say we are stronger in that we have a solid crop of midfield players, but we are lacking top quality striker replacements on the bench and I don’’t see that the defence is much stronger than last season, because Adam Smith and Steve Cook and Nathan Aké are still starters if they are fit.

There is a lot of chat about Callum Wilson being a target for a bigger team, how do Bournemouth fans rate him, and how do you compare him to Josh King?
Callum does a lot of work in making runs and playing others in as well as getting on the end of moves. He has become a better finisher in the box and Bournemouth now rely on him to get the majority of goals. Josh King is playing on the wing at the moment and he is a bundle of energy when he puts his mind to it. When he has an off-game though you’ll struggle to find him on the pitch.

Already the Premier League looks like being a two horse race between Liverpool and Manchester City: can you see this changing? Which two other teams will join them to make up the top four come May?
Agreed, Liverpool and Man City are going to fight it out amongst themselves. I hope Liverpool do it this time. I did expect Leicester to be up there, but I had thought Wolves would be doing much better even with the burden of the Europa League. Still, it leaves room for teams like West Ham and Bournemouth to try and crash the party, but I don’t think Everton will be contenders for Europe this season. If I have to pick a to four I’ll say Chelsea third and Spurs fourth.

Who are your favourites for the drop at this early stage of the season?
I had said at the start of the season Brighton, Sheffield United and Aston Villa. I don’t see much reason to change my mind yet.

Which West Ham players, if any would you like to see turning out for Bournemouth, and why?
Andriy Yarmolenko has had a good impact for you already so I’m looking to see how good he is on the ball. But I suppose most of us will be very watchful of the big singing Haller who has made it difficult for defences.

Which two players of any clubs in the country do you most admire? Reasons?
That’s a tough one. I won’t include AFC Bournemouth players. I’d probably say Ashley Barnes at Burnley as he is an unfashionable striker who just has a habit of sticking the ball away with no fuss and I’ll go for a defender Van Arnaut at Crystal Palace who has great pace and a good left foot shot on him. There you go, I kept clear of Liverpool and Man City too!

How will Bournemouth line up against West Ham on Saturday? Team & Formation?
I expect an unchanged side even if Lewis Cook is going to be pushing for a start:
Ramsdale
Stacey S Cook Aké Rico
H Wilson Lerma Billing King
Wilson Solanke

You’ve had two wins on the bounce, are you confident that you can make it three out of three against West Ham? Prediction for score?
I’ll go for a 2-1 home win. We always concede at least one goal, but the team is going well with six goals in the last two games.

Many thanks again to Peter for his time. It seems a bit perverse to expect West Ham to win after shipping four against Oxford, but I’m praying that the rocket that was hopefully served up to the players after that game will lift them to get at least a draw, so I’m going for 2 – 2. COYI

Embed from Getty Images

About us

West Ham Till I Die is a website and blog designed for supporters of West Ham United to discuss the club, its fortunes and prospects. It is operated and hosted by West Ham season ticket holder, LBC radio presenter and political commentator Iain Dale.

More info

Follow us

Contact us

Iain Dale, WHTID, PO Box 663, Tunbridge Wells, TN9 9RZ

Visit iaindale.com, Iain Dale’s personal website & blog.

Get in touch

Copyright © 2024 Iain Dale Limited.