Tuesday 12 January 2016

What's happened to Hammer's early away form?

West Ham were top of the charts early season for away wins with successful days against Arsenal, Liverpool and Man City. With that kind of record it must have been a joy to be a West Ham fan and yet of late they have struggled a bit on their travels with their last three away fixtures result in draws. That does not sound to bad until you see that two of those matches were against Swansea and Aston Villa. The other match was against Man Utd and for that game they had Andy Carroll back but he has been finding it easier to score at home.
West Ham players at Upton Park when they played AFCB earlier this season.
Sadly for AFCB, West Ham will have much more firepower up front than they had against Swansea and Aston Villa. Andy Carroll is the striker that Steve Cook and Tommy Elphick will probably have to play extremely well against if they are to stop the Hammers from improving their return of away points. There are not many players like him in the Premier League and if he is supplied well with deep crosses he rarely misses more than one chance in the air. AFCB have to try and stop his supply or they will be bullied out of the game.

It may have taken West Ham and Slaven Bilic a few games to see his side get the best out of Carroll, but I can't help thinking they would be even higher in the table if they had not had injuries to Carroll and Dimitri Payet and Chiekou Kuyate. They'll be strong throughout the team with the likes of Mark Noble, Alex Song, Michail Antonio and Manuel Lanzini, so it is a match where AFCB will need to be physically up for the challenge.

It is noteworthy that West Ham have scored no more than two goals in their last five away games.
If they can find the speed of attack that they hit Liverpool on the break with in their last home match they will have a chance of getting something at Dean Court, but if we get the kind of performance that they put in against Swansea at the Liberty stadium then the Cherries could find that West Ham are the first side that they do the double against this season.

AFCB's defence has also tightened up in the last few home games as well conceding five goals in their last four at Dean Court and three of those came in the Everton 3-3 draw. 

Now that Slaven Bilic has players coming back though this is just as hard a game as the last home match had against Crystal Palace.

West Ham Away Form
LLDDD

AFCB Home Form
LLDWD



You can also read my latest article on  the Shoot website - Afobe can make a name for himself like Vardy and Ighalo


So what's your score prediction for tonights game? Send them in on Twitter to @PeterBell19 & follow.

Win a 2016 diary and some AFCB stickers by predicting the correct score. If more than one fan gets it correct there will be a draw made from correct entries. Thanks to our sponsors AltamiraBroomhill Garden Buildings and Natterjacks Vets.


No comments:

Post a Comment

tag: