Apparently, Newham Council have designated the London Stadium as a giant morgue. West Ham fans have know this since 2016. A good source says that Karren Brady wants to charge £700 for each body, if the West Ham schedule is disrupted and the West Ham mascot package will be adapted to demonstrate this is real value for money.
The glass barriers in front of GSB will finally be put to good use, as it will help them to isolate themselves from the virus. We want them to survive this pandemic, don’t we?
OK, this is black humour, but we, West Ham fans, surely must appreciate this kind of comedy and also have a good dose of being able to laugh at ourselves.
Anyway, I spent Saturday morning in Waitrose trying to buy a cake for International Women’s Day, but the cake shelf was cleared , as people were panic buying in case they had to arrange a funeral. I went home and baked a cake instead and froze it, in case my wife needs it. I grabbed the last pack of toilet rolls and I have absolutely no idea why I did that.
I’m just over seventy, so I will be quarantined shortly and not allowed to attend a football match. This may be excellent for the recovery of my mental health, although I now have obsessive- compulsive disorder, as, thanks to Boris Johnson, I am washing my hands every ten minutes. My own solution is for the Government to manufacture Star Wars Storm Trooper outfits, as this would seem the best solution for avoiding the virus, together with tasers to prevent anyone from getting within two metres.
I didn’t expect us to beat Arsenal. I was at the Emirates in 2015, when we beat them and there was a little bit of hope hiding somewhere at the back of my brain.
But, you can’t win a game of football if you don’t score goals. With three up front and the team showing plenty of effort, we had our chances. Bowen, in particular, stood out and it looks as if he has a bright future. When he sees the goal, he strikes.
Unfortunately, that cannot be said of Haller, who seems to have a dreadful loss of confidence, or, even worse, does not have the ability. His positioning at times is awful. Just when Antonio had the opportunity to give him a tap in, he runs onto the arms of the goalkeeper. In other games, I’ve seen him pass instead of having a go himself. And he doesn’t seem to have learnt from Antoniou that he has the strength to get stuck into to defences. My advice to him would be to get stuck in.
Rice is getting back to his best and he definitely reminds me of Bobby Moore, with his ability to understand the game. When he moves forward, he looks dangerous and I’d like to see more of that.
What we missed badly was Anderson. There is no doubt he is out of form. But we need his ingenuity, even genius. I don’t think it can be helpful to his mentality by bringing him on in the eightieth minute. I think Moyes is trying to compete with Pellegrini as to who has the worst understanding of how to use substitutes.
Soucek is back, thank goodness and he should replace Noble, who hasn’t been up to the job for a long time. He spent a season passing the ball sideways or backwards. Then, there was an improvement, but, against Arsenal, he looked a bit like a headless chicken. Why did he stand right by the ball, when Cresswell was taking a free kick just outside the Arsenal area? It can’t be good for Cresswell’s concentration.
People believe Noble is a good captain, but, perhaps, he could have done more to prevent the departure of Payet and Arnautovic. And then there was the incident with the bust up with Ogbonna on the pitch, with the latter appearing to be quite a mild character.
We have fixtures against Watford, Burnley, Norwich and Aston Villa. David Moyes have brought the team on, so that all of us think there is potential and these fixtures, should see us home and dry together with a couple of points from other games.