West Ham United continued their giant killing spree in the Premier League as Liverpool went down 3-0 at Anfield yesterday. That was the second win for the Hammers this season, ironically both these wins have been away from home and against the best of the league.
Much to the surprise of West Ham fans, the other two matches that they played at home against much lower ranked teams. The Hammers managed to lose them both first against Leicester City, then against the newly promoted Bournemouth.
On the one hand West Ham defeated two of the Premier League big guns and on the other losing against newly promoted sides. With such results, it make it extremely difficult to say whether the Hammers are on a roll or they just got lucky.
West Ham win clean against Arsenal and Liverpool
A common factor in both those games was that West Ham did not concede a single goal. Maybe, that is the trick for the Hammers, if they manage to keep opposition from scoring they are less under pressure and can concentrate fully on attacking the ball in the opposition net.
Quite obviously, avoiding conceding a goal is already half the job done to ensure success. However, it is not just the ability of stop the attacks from being converted but also utilizing their limited chances at scoring. The lack of ability to score frustrates the home side, also the fans and thus in attempt to try harder lose their grip over the defence.
The opening day fixture at the Emirates stadium, hardly anyone would have expected the kind of performance that West Ham put up to win 2-0. The Gunners were left completely taken off their footing. At Anfield it was slightly different, Liverpool had made good progress this season winning their first two fixtures and a draw against the Gunners. But, when they were up against West Ham their tricks seemed to be completely ineffective.
It may not be only West Ham, this season has seen too many losses for the home teams so far. A possible cause could be the amount of pressure on home team is increasing and they are unable to cope with it.
Every team wants to do well at home, but this season very few have managed to actually achieve it.
>