For everybody connected with West Ham the start of the Premier League campaign must have been a perplexing one.
Their team thrived in Slaven Bilic’s debut campaign as Hammers boss, finishing seventh in the Premier League and just missing out on the Champions League spots.
Fast forward to this season and the league campaign has started in a calamitous manner, with the Irons winning one of their six Premier League games so far. Even worse they have suffered five losses in the process.
The move to the London Stadium was supposed to be the start of a bright new future for the men from the East end, but the Irons new ground seems to have turned into a bad omen for Bilic’s side of late.
West Ham have played at their new home just three times this season in the top-flight, wining once and suffering defeats in their last outings at the stadium.
One thing that may come out of West ham’s situation for neutrals is that the Hammers are great entertaining value and they offer value in the over 2.5 goal market in virtually every game.
Amazingly there has been over 2.5 goals scored in 15 of West Ham’s last 16 Premier League games, including their last four outings in the top-flight.
This weekend the Hammers welcome another goal-friendly team to the London Stadium in Middlesbrough. The top-flight new boys have suffered defeat in their last three Premier League games, with over 2.5 goals scored in all three of those games.
Neither side seem in confident mood heading into this game, but something has to give. Surely West Ham’s quality attacking players must step-up to the plate in the near future?
The likes of Dimitri Payet and Manuel Lanzini were outstanding for the Hammers last season. However, Payet’s participation at Euro 2016 and injury to Lanzini have meant that both players started the campaign slightly late.
Middlesbrough will be looking at this game as a chance to end their losing run in the top-flight. Aitor Karanka’s team are likely to approach this game in a slightly cautious manner. They may sit back and as a consequence there may be fewer goals, but this is West Ham people there will be goals.
This could be a crucial game for West Ham boss Slaven Bilic, who now seems to be under immense pressure. With every poor result the Croatian’s odds of being the next top-flight boss to leave his position shorten.
Luckily for Bilic I really do believe that the quality players in his team will finally shine this weekend and they will probably gain three points to move themselves out of the relegation zone. If not then Bilic will be closer and closer to that West Ham exit door.
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