It's mystifying why The Apprentice's Karren Brady and co thought alienating the loyal customer base was a sensible business move. It's also good that the already expensive season ticket prices have been frozen. One of my pals finds all this a bit suspicious and wonders if the club are softening us up for a takeover by Elon Musk and the London Stadium being relocated to Mars. But right now it seems the board has simply decided to do the right thing. A shame it took so long.
Brian Dear and Geoff Pike are on the pitch before kick-off sharing memories of Ronnie Boyce, along with some replays of his FA Cup winning goal in 1964. I'm joined by Matt, still trying to understand the rules of rugby and how to depart from Twickenham, Lisa, Nigel, Michael and Big Sam.
Matt is on fine form asking us which player on the pitch has a sibling who is an MP. It is of course Bobby de Cordova-Reid, whose sister Marsha de Cordova is MP for Battersea. Not a lot of people know that.
Up against a team that has lost ten out of 11 matches, what could possibly go wrong? The stadium is strangely subdued as if the crowd sense a possible banana skin. It's an unchanged side from Arsenal, with Scarles and Wan-Bissaka high up the pitch as wing-backs. Leicester have an early shot through Ndidi, but after that it's all West Ham probing, albeit rather slowly at times.
West Ham take the lead after Bowen and Soucek initiate an attack on the right, the ball is cleared, Creswwell crosses for Kudus to fire against Hermansen and Tomas Soucek taps home the rebound. No-one celebrates that much awaiting VAR to deem it offside, but in fact Vestergaard is playing Kudus onside. Tomas wheels away to celebrate his sixth goal of the season dreaming of extra potato salad on his 30th birthday.
Bowen shoots wide after good work from Wan-Bissaka and Ward-Prowse. The second duly arrives when Ward-Prowse's corner causes confusion in the box. Bowen gathers the ball on the byline and shoots across goal from a tight angle, the ball deflecting in off Vestergaard. Credit to Bowen for his improvisation, but it's another poor goal for hapless Leicester to concede.
We're anticipating a possible thrashing to boost our goal difference in the second half, but West Ham start to showboat a bit and seem to have settled for a two-goal win. The 38-year-old Jamie Vardy has lost his pace and Areola has very little to do. The Leicester fans celebrate a corner with ironic abandon.
The Greek Bloke, Emerson and Soler come on for Todibo, who has looked solid again, Scarles and Alvarez and the side's rhythm is further disrupted. Eventually Ferguson comes on too and he should score after Bowen sets him up with a great run from his own half. But the Brighton loanee takes three touches instead of two and allows a tackle to come in - the sign of a player lacking in confidence.
Still, it's a professional win against a side that looks certain to go down and it's hard to complain about six points and two clean sheets in five days even if it wasn't great fare for the TNT viewers. These are WHU's first back to back wins since last March. At the final whistle I'm prepared to predict that we'll stay up now we're 16 points clear of Ipswich.
We head to Ye Olde Black Bull for a swift pint of Brixton Pale for me and a Wherry for Matt that isn't Wherry good. The consensus is that the Premier League is in a poor state when you can predict the bottom three and champions in February. But a win is a win and it's now very much a case of finishing as high as WHU can and preparing for next season. Irons!
PLAYER RATINGS: Areola 6; Wan-Bissaka 6, Todibo 6 (Mavropanos 6), Kilman 6, Cresswell 6, Scarles 6 (Emerson 5); Soucek 7 (Irving n/a), Alvarez 6 (Soler 5), Ward-Prowse 6; Kudus 7 (Ferguson 5), Bowen 8.
Sid Lowe interviews Julen Lopetegui in Sunday's Observer and the former West Ham gaffer seems to be in denial about the reasons he was sacked. He argues: "We weren't in danger and we were adapting, learning, taking steps." Though not too many fans could see signs of progress, whereas Potter seems to have created a more organised side and better team spirit in a matter of weeks. Loppy's sacking came after a 5-0 home defeat to Liverpool and a 4-1 defeat at Man City. The only really impressive performance was the win at Newcastle, but even allowing for trying to change the the Hammers to a possession-based side, there were too many dispiriting defeats and poor performances.
The way Lopetegui was sacked was certainly very undignified however and you do feel sorry for him in that, as the piece implies, most of the signings were from Tim Steidten, "but few signings worked out, Lopetegui not convinced." When asked about the now departed Steidten Lopetegui says: "I prefer not talk about the Tim subject. That's the past, internal issues..." Click on the link to read the whole interview.
It's an undercover mission for this one, dodging down Drayton Park and then sitting among the Gooners on the halfway line. Potter reverts to a five-man defence, drops Mavropanos for Todibo and brings in Ollie Scarles at left back and Ward-Prowse in midfield. But without Paqueta West Ham's chances seem slim.
Early on there's a dangerous cross from Trossard and a shot from Calafiori straight at Areola. But with the game goalless after 15 minutes something strange is happening — West Ham are playing rather well. Wan-Bissaka plays a give and go with Alvarez and makes a fine dash down the right to cross for Bowen who scuffs a good chance wide. Soucek has a header just over the bar.
This is more like Potterball. Cresswell is marshalling the five man defence well, Todibo is looking like the solid defender we thought he should be, Ward-Prowse is playing simply and effectively in midfield and Kudus is holding the ball up well.
Arsenal's makeshift forward line of Trossard and Merino is struggling and young Scarles is doing really well against wonderkid Nwaneri. Meanwhile the West Ham fans are suggesting that Declan Rice should have looked for a larger employer on LinkedIn.
On 44 minutes the unthinkable happens. Cresswell wins a tackle in the box and releases Bowen who finds Wan-Bissaka racing from his own half. The full-back uses all his speed to get down the line, fool Calafiori with a couple of stepovers and cross for Jarrod Bowen to head home having got beyond Declan Rice. Blimey. I have to keep quiet among the disgruntled Gooners. A great time to score.
More strange things happen in the second half. After some premature "oles" from the Irons' fans, a great tackle from Ward-Prowse releases Cresswell whose cross is just missed by Bowen. The anticipated Arsenal siege begins with Trossard shooting against the legs of Areola. Rice is subbed and Mavropanos comes on for Todibo, who's had a good game.
IT'S QUIET IN THE LIBRARY
"Mikel Arteta it must be the ball!" sing the Hammers fans on 73 minutes as the impressive Kudus nicks the ball away from Lewis-Skelly on the halfway line. The young fullback brings him down and is booked. Only Raya is way off his line and Kudus would surely have got a shot away, VAR intervenes and Craig Pawson goes to the screen and opts for a red card as the Arsenal fans throw down their books in disgust. Match of the Day later proves this to be a correct decision.
Ten-man Arsenal still come at the Hammers as the home crowd gets nervy. But every Hammer is putting their body on the line to block and head danger away. A free kick from Odegaard is deflected to Gabriel who fires over.
There's a nerve-wracking eight minutes of added time as Kudus gets away again only for sub Ferguson to prove not quite sharp enough and turn into traffic. Ben White blazes wide and then incredibly it's all over. What a contrast to last week's loss to Brentford.
My WhatsApp tells me that Nigel is dancing in the streets of Bromley with the teacake-wielding Harrogate away crew and Matt is trying to understand rugby in the Calcutta Cup while dancing in the streets of Twickenham.
It's a happy trek to my north London safe house, where Gooner Peter is consoled with herb tea and biscuits. This was a really fine disciplined performance where every player did well. We've inflicted Arsenal's first home defeat of the season. Football, bloody hell. Irons!
PLAYER RATINGS: Areola 7: Wan-Bissaka 8, Todibo 7 (Mavropanos 7), Kilman 7, Cresswell 8, Scarles 8; Alvarez 7 (Soler n/a), Soucek 7, Ward-Prowse 8; Kudus 8, Bowen 9 (Ferguson 6).
There's a four-piece band outside the stadium playing Tequila but replacing the chorus with "Paqueta!", which is about as good as it gets. I'm joined by Nigel, fresh from the new Led Zeppelin movie, Michael and Big Sam, who has trekked from deepest Wales.
Before kick-off we have a minute's applause in memory of Ronnie "Ticker" Boyce and a decent atmosphere. That changes after three minutes as a simple ball over the top sees Mbuemo nick the ball past Emerson, Schade shoot, Areola make two good saves only for the Brentford man's third effort to cross the line. It's the tenth goal that West Ham have conceded in the first ten minutes this season.
A tardy Matt and Lisa are arriving at this point, having raced from watching a defeat for the WHU Under 21s. We discover that Matt, a true romantic, has for Valentine's Day taken Lisa to watch the Under-18s rather than Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy.
It's a dire first half from the Hammers, with the side looking way off the pace against a sharp Brentford. Areola has to make a decent stop from Mbuemo. A terrible crossfield pass from Paqueta sees Wissa net only to be ruled just offside. Soler is fouled as West Ham break but the ref allows play to continue as Schade hits the post to a chorus of boos. Mavropanos has to make a great saving tackle. After more intricate passing Brentford net again only to have it correctly ruled out for a narrow offside.
The best West Ham have offered is a couple of dangerous crosses from Jarrod Bowen and even worse, Nigel has forgotten his lucky banana, claiming that his choice of snack might not make a difference to our results.
Potter has to do something at half time and brings on Ferguson, Ward-Prowse and Scarles for Soler, Soucek and Emerson. Young Evan Ferguson looks a little like Leo Woodall, Bridget Jones' new love interest, though so far West Ham have sent most of us to the edge of reason.
The Irons play like a different team in the second half and get stuck in. Some neat ball juggling from Bowen releases Ferguson who shows a good burst of speed to get to the line and pull back for Kudus to fire over a gaping goal. That should have been 1-1 and Mo seems struggling for form and confidence.
James Ward-Prowse plays sensibly and looks like Lionel Messi compared to what's come before, as West Ham threaten the Brentford goal. Paqueta wins a free kick on the edge of the box which is deflected wide, with the ref not even giving a corner. Bowen has a penalty appeal refused and Ferguson uses his strength to hold off three defenders and fire a shot at Flekken. We've looked a lot better with a young mobile target man.
Ward-Prowse gets a round of applause every time he takes a corner, though without Soucek there's not too much to aim at. At times we make the Brentford defence seem as impregnable as that of FC Astra. The Bus Stop from Hounslow players see out the game fairly comfortably.
We head to the Eagle for London Pride from the fridge. Matt wants to know which one of our mates has seen a game in Uzbekistan (it's Lisa obviously) and we then end up discussing the work of Nick Hornby and Gill Hornby, and whether an artist's early works are their best. All better than talking about the match. To compound our gloom the TV is showing Everton winning at Crystal Palace under bright young manager David Moyes.
If we lose to Leicester we really will be in the relegation mix. With 13 games left some wins are needed urgently to save the season.
PLAYER RATINGS: Areola 6; Wan-Bissaka 5, Kilman 5, Mavropanos 5 (Guilherme n/a); Emerson 5 (Scarles 6); Alvarez 5, Soler 4 (Ferguson 7), Soucek 4 (Ward-Prowse 6), Paqueta 6; Kudus 5, Bowen 6.
At this rate Jarrod might end up as the landlord of the Queen Vic when he retires. Though some of the regulars need to brush up on their trivia knowledge as in the West Ham quiz they struggled to name Billy Bonds as the oldest player to appear for the Irons.
This has to rank up there in great WHU TV moments alongside the cast of Gavin and Stacey wearing vintage West Ham shirts for Smithy's stag night, Leo Woodall's Essex geezer Jack singing Bubbles in season two of White Lotus and Donna Noble saying she learned to whistle "up West Ham" in Doctor Who.
Season is the story of two characters, the Old Man and the Young Man, who find themselves sitting next to each other each week and develop a slow companionship. The Old Man is struggling with age and the decline of his wife, while the Young Man is fatherless, in a new relationship with a troubled girlfriend and struggling to find his goal in life.
The novel is cleverly structured, having a chapter for each of the 38 games in a Premier League season. It's based loosely around Harrison's team of Norwich City, though they are never named. To make it generic he uses the nationalities of those involved rather than names. The team is managed by the German and the players are the Norwegian, the Finn, the Englishman, the Irishman, the Argentinian, the Dutchman and so on.
There's even a relegation struggle to make us feel at home and a trip to a corporate bowl in London, though the suggestion is the home fans are not too friendly. Really it's a book about loneliness, dodgy refs and the rituals of football. To use my quote on the back cover it, "perfectly captures the comforting rituals of football for taciturn males, both old and young." Though obviously none of my football gang would ever sublimate their emotions in favour of discussing football trivia over a post-match pint.
Season has already received good reviews in the Daily Telegraph, the Mail on Sunday and the Irish Times and is well worth a read during this fortnight free of West Ham action.
So technical director Tim Steidten has officially left West Ham to euphemistically, "pursue new opportunities." Graham Potter has brought in his own recruitment man in Kyle Macaulay.
What will not have impressed David Sullivan and Karren Brady will have been Steidten's role in recruiting Julen Lopetegui. It's also possible that David Moyes might have stayed had West Ham not appointed a technical director. Moyes was all set to sign a new contract in December 2023 with the club sixth in the Premier League. Yet something changed and the season imploded with the club approaching Lopetegui while Moyes was still in charge.
Steidten's role in recruitment has been mixed since he arrived in the summer of 2023. The decent to good buys have included Alvarez, Ward-Prowse, Kudus and Wan-Bissaka. The bad deals have been Dinos Mavropanos, Kalvin Phillips, Guido Rodriguez, Niclas Fullkrug (in terms of age and injuries rather than ability), Luis Guilherme (who might develop but was overpriced) and probably Soler. While the jury remains out on Summerville, Kilman and Todibo. It could also be argued that a lot of good players departed who might have had something more to offer, such as Fornals, Benrahma, Aguerd, Kehrer and Ward-Prowse (who has now returned).
Its not an overly impressive record, though Steidten undoubtedly recruited well at German champions Bayer Leverkusen. But for whatever reason he found the Premier League a much harder proposition.
Chelsea 2 West Ham 1
I'm with my sports book group at Nonos Greek restaurant in Judd Street (not run by the Mavropanos family) discussing the podcast Heroes and Humans of Football for this one. News of Jarrod Bowen's goal at half-time brings an unexpected bit of hope to the menu as misfiring Chelsea consider buying Souvlaki, Dolomades and Moussaka.
Paqueta and Alvarez are injured, so Potter gives Andy Irving his first start and sticks with four full-backs alongside Kilman at the back.
The highlights reveal there's some predictable pressure from Chelsea in the first half, with Madueke and Fernandez firing just wide. But West Ham's formation troubles Chelsea and for the Irons Irving volleys over and Bowen fires against Jorgensen's legs.
West Ham take the lead on 42 minutes. Colwill, under pressure from Kudus, plays a blind back pass in to the path of Bowen. The returning talisman takes it brilliantly gliding a left-foot finish into the corner. Just before the break Areola makes a superb save to tip over Palmer's free kick.Could it be a gritty 1-0 away victory?
Chelsea bring on Neto who makes a difference, though their equaliser should surely have disallowed.as Colwill fouls Bowen with a blatant push in the back in the build up. As Neto crosses, Cucurella also seems to be offside as he plays the ball, though VAR rules that a defender has touched the ball first rather than Guiu. In the resulting pinball after Fernandez's shot is saved, Neto fires home the rebound.
At 1-1 Andy Irving plays in a fine cross which Kudus heads against the outside of the post, possibly from an offside position. Abandoning my soccerarti pals I arrive at the Mabel pub just in time to pay £7.85 for a pint of Neck Oil and see Chelsea score a lucky winner. The impressive Palmer glides into the box, where his cross from the left wing takes a huge deflection off Wan-Bissaka's boot and spins up and over Areola.
Palmer curls a shot just wide but West Ham give it a go late on. Potter isn't scared to send on kids Scarles and Orford while Guilherme does some good stuff on the right wing. Wan-Bissaka wastes a good chance to cross after a nice move. A surging run from Guilherme sees him find Bowen who crosses to Kudus, who spins and shoots but sees his goalbound effort blocked by Chalobah.
West Ham get a deserved ovation from the fans at the final whistle, We have almost got a result against a top four team with an injury-ravaged side, which is very different to the 3-0 capitulation at home to Chelsea earlier this season and last season's 5-0 defeat. Bowen is fit again and with Ferguson and Ward-Prowse added to the squad there's room for some optimism.
More good news is that James Ward-Prowse is returning from his loan spell at Nottingham Forest, where he's been stuck on the bench all season, bar one assist for an Awonyi goal at Wolves.
It was baffling why Julen Lopetegui loaned out JWP, a seasoned Premier League performer who scored seven goals and made 11 assists last season. That's a total of 18 goal involvements. True, he might have wanted a more dynamic or speedy central midfielder than steady James, but West Ham ended up with the one-paced Soler and Rodriguez as replacements, who have one goal and one assist between them. Even if Ward-Prowse wasn't going to be a regular starter for Loppy, he would have been a great player to bring off the bench for his free kicks and corners when WHU were seeking a breakthough.
There was no return clause in the loan deal with Forest so the club has done well to persuade Forest to let him go. Presumably Ward-Prowse told them he wanted to return after hardly featuring. Graham Potter seems to appreciate JWP's understated qualities. He's a good pro who trains well, rarely gets injured and never complains when dropped. As the club website says he will add "experience, depth and quality" to the squad. JWP is used to playing with Alvarez and Soucek and Tomas and co must be looking forward to getting on the end of his corners. And someday soon he has to score with a free kick. Ward-Prowse will be like a £30m signing - in fact he was a £30m signing the club seemed to forget about. Welcome home, JWP.
It's encouraging news that Brighton's Evan Ferguson is having a medical at West Ham prior to a loan move. At 20 the Ireland international is a good age. He looked a fantastic prospect when he made his debut at Brighton and scored a hat-trick against Newcastle when he was just 18. Ferguson has scored 19 goals in all competitions for Brighton though has mainly been used as a sub this season. He lost his way somewhat last season through injury and perhaps achieving success too early. There's no denying his potential though, and no less a judge than Alan Shearer said that Fergie seems to have it all: "Left foot, right foot, headers, pace, aggression, intuition; there is no obvious weakness to his game."
There will be some worries when a player as young as Ferguson gets injuries and also whether he did too well to quickly. But Potter knows him from his time as Brighton boss and as an empathetic man manager he should be be able to protect him from any sense of complacency. While his dad Barry Ferguson played for Coventry City and will offer solid advice. This might benefit Brighton in the long term, but for this season Ferguson solves a problem. Evan is six foot tall, mobile and positively cherubic compared to our old bloke strike force of Fullkrug and Ings. Could he finally be the answer to West Ham's striker hoodoo? It's exciting to think what he might do with crosses from Bowen, Kudus and Summerville plus through balls from Paqueta.
Aston Villa 1 West Ham 1
There's a mood of pessimism on my WhatsApp Irons group as the depleted Hammers line up with four full backs and no strikers. Though at least we're not Spurs. Areola is restored in goal, while in the absence of the suspended Greek Bloke Kilman is flanked by Coufal and Cresswell and Wan-Bissaka and Emerson play as wing-backs.
Villa's Unai Emery is banned and forced to watch from his technical coffin area, while the Villa dugout seems to have Rick Wakeman in charge, which will at least please prog-rocker Nigel.
It starts ominously on Sky as Villa play through the West Ham midfield and score after a one-two between Watkins and Ramsey, who outpaces Coufal rather too easily to slot home from a tight angle. It looks like being a roasting as only a great tackle from Kilman prevents a goal, Tielemans fires wide and Watkins just misses the target.
But slowly the Hammers get more of a foothold in the game as Paqueta starts to hold the ball up. Mings going off injured helps, as Digne looks unsure at centre back. West Ham force a couple of corners and Paqueta fires a volley wide before the interval. Lucas also appears to have been hit by the Grealish sniper when Digne elbows him in the chest, causing a big melee.
In the second half Potter gets his wing-backs to push up more as Villa tire after playing midweek in Monaco. West Ham start to play with some calmness and self-belief. The energetic Wan-Bissaka puts a lot of crosses in towards the back post. Soler has a shot cleared off the line by Konsa after Martinez spills a cross. Paqueta spins to shoot just wide.
A deserved equaliser arrives when Wan-Bissaka and Kudus find Alvarez, whose deep cross is headed home by Emerson. Emerson has proved too progressive for Wakeman. Edson and Emerson perform some dad dance moves in celebration.
What's impressive is that after a week's training Potter already seems to have installed a collective mindset. All three subs contribute. Ollie Scarles gets a chant of "He's one of our own!" with several good tackles and rampages down the left, Andy Irving is calm on the ball and almost sets up a late winner, while Danny Ings sends a decent strike just wide of the post. Soucek also has a good chance but puts his header over.
Alvarez is lucky to avoid a red card after a tug on Kamara and Potter sensibly subs him. Paqueta, who has had a great game, has the commentators drooling with a great piece of skill in the box and Lucas has the ball in the net at the end, though Soucek is correctly ruled offside.
It's a very creditable result for a team with no strikers and seven players absent. The new gaffer seems to have Paqueta performing again and backed by the experience of Cresswell and Coufal, Kilman has looked a lot more solid. This seems to be evidence that Potter knows what he's doing. Irons!
The Irons shouldn't be going for players who are the finished article, rather young players on the up. Better news on this front is that the Guardian reports Graham Potter has recruited his old Ostersund, Swansea, Brighton and Chelsea analyst Kyle Macauley, for compensation of around £1.5 million. Not sure if he can do a job up front, but new signing Macauley is likely to take a major role in recruitment if Tim Steidten is eased out. This is the team that recruited Brighton's Moses Caicedo on the cheap and then sold him to Chelsea for £115 million. Plus Brighton's other profitable sales of the likes of Trossard, Bissouma, Maupay, White, Burn, Mac Allister and more, so there's some cause for optimism.
Reports now suggest West Ham are close to completing a deal to buy the OH Leuven midfielder Ezechiel Banzuzi. The Dutch midfielder is 19 so a good age and at around £11 million would be affordable. Let's hope there's some positive activity soon.
In the Best Meze Cafe we find Nigel, Matt and Michael, who is gifting Lisa a signed programme of The Fizz (formerly Bucks Fizz, but with two new boys alongside Cheryl and Jay) from their concert in deepest Eastleigh. It seems Michael has now usurped Lisa as The Fizz's number one fan. Will West Ham's indecision take them from behind we wonder?
The conversation segues from obscure grounds Matt and Nigel have visited to how Palace used to be nicknamed the Glaziers and why West Brom are nicknamed both the Baggies and the Throstles. We head beneath grey skies to the London Stadium, as Michael makes the dangerous admission that for once he is looking forward to a game.
Bad news is that Soler isn't fit to start so Cresswell comes in to a five-man defence in a side that is already missing Bowen, Fullkrug, Summerville, Antonio and Todibo. The game is terrible from the off, a series of misplaced passes and the two sides cancelling each other out. Mateta has a shot well saved by Fabianski and that's about it. The Fulham game has clearly taken a lot out of the side with Paqueta uninspired, though that doesn't explain why Palace look fresher as they also played in midweek.
At half-time Matt has endured enough ribbing about his yellow hoodie matching the Crystal Palace's away kit and places his West Ham hoodie over the top of his Palace one, creating a sort of half-and-half hoodie effect. There's a sense of trepidation as we discover that Nigel has forgotten his lucky banana.
Soler comes on for Rodriguez at the break, but again West Ham concede just after half-time. Eze plays a fine through ball to Mateta, Kilman backs off too much and Mateta fires into the corner with a hard low shot from the edge of the area. Fabianski should perhaps have done a bit better too.
DINOS DISASTER
The Greek Bloke picks up a booking for pulling back Mateta after the Palace man has outsped him. There's a little improvement when Potter brings on youngsters Ollie Scarles and Lewis Orford, who is making his debut. Young Orford looks confident and does a decent job keeping his passes simple. Scarles gets in a couple of dangerous crosses, Kudus runs into three men most of the time and Alvarez has a shot wide. Though poor Danny Ings can only tilt at gigantic centre backs like the Don Quixote of E19.
Fabianski has to race out of goal to save at the feet of Palace sub Nketiah. The game is effectively over when the Greek Bloke is beaten by Mateta and then catches him in the chest with a raised boot. It's clumsy rather than malicious but poor old Dinos is an error waiting to happen. Matt wonders if the Greek custom of smashing plates was invented by the Mavropanos family.
All that's left is for Mateta, the sort of striker WHU need, to play in Nketiah, who is brought down by Fabianski, possibly unnecessarily, as Wan-Bissaka was also in with a chance of tackling. To round off our day a bad penalty squirms under Fabianski's body for two-nil. Nigel suspects the words "reality check" will be appearing in most match reports. We've not had a shot on target. Potter can now see the reasons why he got the job. He urgently needs to sign a striker, get some players back and tighten the defence.
We head to the Eagle, which is at least warm, has Meantime in the fridge and Arsenal versus Villa on the TV. Michael dispenses career advice on theatre and musical performance and Sinead, back from Ireland, sees we are in need of a tonic and brings over several glasses of Baby Guinness. The best result of the day.
PLAYER RATINGS: Fabianski 5; Wan-Bissaka 5, Kilman 5, Mavropanos 3, Cresswell 5 (Scarles 6), Emerson 5 (Orford 6); Rodriguez 4 (Soler 4), Alvarez 4 (Guilherme 5), Paqueta 4 (Ings 4); Kudus 5.
For the first time in ages we enter the London Stadium with a slight sense of optimism at having a new gaffer. I'm joined by Nigel, a tardy Matt, Lisa returning after six weeks of impact subbing, Michael in his plain-clothes policeman suit and Big Sam, who since he has moved to Wales is so hard he doesn't need a coat, just a replica Prague final shirt.
Paqueta is playing as a false nine with Kudus wide on the right in a frontline that is down to Harry Redknapp's bare bones. For the first twenty minutes Fulham dominate. They should go ahead when Iwobi gets behind the defence to cross for Wilson to hit the bar.
West Ham only start to get into the game when Kudus gets a bit more of the ball and makes some runs. Paqueta wins a free kick, Soler plays in a fine arcing ball and Kilman heads home, only to be ruled offside by Soucek's arm. But that gets the crowd going and the Irons press with more intensity.
On the half hour Leno rolls a short ball out and Alvarez pressures Pereira who plays a blind pass across the area. Carlos Soler does really well to hit it first time across the keeper and into the net.
Incredibly we score again. Kudus makes a run across the box to find Soler who crosses across the area to Wan-Bissaka on the right wing. Aaron's low cross is steered home by Tomas Soucek, who does his freewheeling potato salad all round twirling celebration. Welcome to Potterball.
It will be good for Soler's confidence to have scored and helped make a goal we reflect. Nigel wonders if there will be a Soler panel in tomorrow's papers. Though perhaps Potter is still working out his Soler system.
There's time for Jimenez to head against the angle of post and bar but at the break we have to be happy with 2-0. The big news is that Nigel is fruitless, having forgotten both his lucky banana and lucky tangerine. Though maybe Potter doesn't know the importance of Nigel's banana yet. We're joined by Alison from Clacton and Biff's brother Simon, who has bought along a copy of Massive for me to sign and is not a paid actor, whatever Matt says.
Potter gets a different glimpse of West Ham chaos theory after the break as six minutes in an Iwobi cross drifts over the defence and past a hesitant Fabianski, who has been distracted by Jimenez. West Ham have to dig in and Potter surprisingly replaces Kudus with Danny Ings.
SMELLS LIKE TEAM SPIRIT
Matt thinks this must now be the slowest West Ham team ever. Just as Matt and Nigel are both saying "prove me wrong Ings" the West Ham sub proves that Ings can only get better. He closes down a dawdling Leno and nicks the ball to Lucas Paqueta who strokes the ball into an empty net and runs to the corner flag.
Andy Irving is spotted on the pitch and does well to keep things simple. Can West Ham keep a two-goal lead this time? Of course not. Iwobi plays in an identical cross to the first goal. Mavropanos misses his header and Wilson confuses Fabianski again for the ball to drift in.
Fabianski has to save a low effort from Jimenez and it all gets very nervy. But Paqueta has shown a great energy and has his best game in ages. He does well holding up the ball and winning free kicks against the niggly Antonee Robinson. "Come on you Irons!" booms the crowd in a much-improved atmosphere. In a sign that Potter has really changed things Matt is even heard encouraging the Greek Bloke.
Cresswell fires a dangerous free kick across the box and Paqueta heads over. In added time it should be 3-3 when Fulham fire the ball across goal and sub Traore blazes over the bar, though credit to Ollie Scarles for closing him down. West Ham survive six minutes of added time for a great win. We go above Spurs!
According to Nigel this is the first WHU win against a top ten side since we beat Arsenal at the end of 2023. It's off to the Eagle to celebrate where the fridge (which is as unpredictable as Loppy's formations) contains Meantime and there's a pool tournament in progress. We leave trying not to heed Michael's warning that attics are not designed to take the weight of boxes of football programmes.
West Ham got lucky at times, but there certainly seemed to be more structure and energy to the side under Graham Potter and considering the injuries this was a great win. Get a result against Palace on Saturday and we can start to look upwards.
PLAYER RATINGS: Fabianski 5; Wan-Bissaka 7, Kilman 6, Mavropanos 6, Emerson 7 (Cresswell 6); Rodriguez 6 (Scarles 6), Alvarez 6, Soler 7 (Irving 6), Soucek 7, Kudus 6 (Ings 6); Paqueta 8.
Graham Potter was certainly impressive in his first pre-match press conference as West Ham manager - though whether his smile will remain after a few months at the Hammers we'll soon find out. But he dealt with the hacks in a confident and polite manner, joking and neatly sidestepping queries about signings, and it's always more difficult for a journalist to lay into someone whom they know is a good guy.
One of the takeaways is that Potter wants the crowd at the London Stadium to get going again, and he's aware of the disconnect this season under Lopetegui. The gaffer said: "The supporters have always been incredibly loyal, and behind the team. As an away manager London Stadium is a tough place to come, so we need to build and utilise that connection between the crowd and the players."
Another interesting comment was that he was aware of the possibility of using Mo Kudus as a false number nine which would temporarily solve the problem of Fullkrug and Bowen's absence. Potter was also encouraging about promoting youth, saying that "the starting point should always be to look at what we’ve already got here" and that he's looking forward to working with Mark Noble and Mark Robson.
Still on the managerial merry-go-round I'd like to wish good luck to David Moyes at Everton — apart from when they play West Ham. Yes, Moyes could set up too defensively at times, but it's still underestimated what he achieved at West Ham: three top half finishes, winning the Europa Conference League, reaching the semi-final and quarter final of the Europa League, three seasons in Europe and saving us from relegation twice.
For example he received huge abuse for taking off a tiring Antonio for Ben Johnson late last season and securing a point against Aston Villa, a team we've lost twice to this season. Lopetegui was not an upgrade. Moyes' counter attacking style was entertaining enough when it worked, the problems came in the second half of last season when West Ham stopped defending like a Moyes team. He'll do a good job for the Toffees.
Aston Villa 2 West Ham 1 (FA Cup)
Its over to Matt's gaff for this one where we're joined by another north London Iron in DC and offered beer, tea, crisps and fudge. The Hammers start off excellently under Potter's new reign. Wan-Bissaka and Summerville feed Paqueta who fires a great long distance shot just wide of the post. Nine minutes in and Fullkrug and Kudus set free Summerville on the right. His low cross is tucked away by Paqueta. Lucas does a guitar strumming celebration for some reason.
Villa look disjointed and West Ham seem to be holding on quite comfortably. Interestingly Potter is playing Summerville as a kind of right wing-back and has given Ollie Scarles a game at left back in the absence of Emerson. Scarles gets in some fine tackles and combines well with Paqueta. But then Fullkrug goes down with a tweaked hamstring as DC tells us that Fullkrug had missed more than 100 games with injury in his career before we signed him. It gets worse as Summerville also has to go off injured at the interval.
Villa step it up in the second half and are helped by subs Onana, Buendia and Ramsey. Fabianski has to make a fine low save from Maatsen. But the equaliser cones from a corner that should never have been given after Villa shoot wide without touching any West Ham players. From the corner the ball ricochets around the box and although Fabianski saves one effort but the ball rebounds off Soucek and Onana taps home.
Four minutes later Villa score again. Wan-Bissaka is too far upfield and Mavropanos can't close down Watkins as the Villa man crosse for Rogers to get across Kilman and fire home.
Rogers hits the angle but West Ham do show some spirit to threaten at the end. Cresswell has a shot blocked and sub Danny Ings has one scuffed shot blocked and then shoots wide when he fails to wrap his foot around the ball in a good position.
Still the evening hasn't been entirely wasted, Matt has been reading Inside The Academy: The Hopes Highs and Heartbreaks of West Ham's Youth and his discovered that the son of Culture Club's Mikey Craig once played for the Academy. DC then produces a picture of himself with Mikey Craig and Boy George at an exhibition of Boy George's paintings in Manchester in a pop trivia overload.
So it's concentrating on the league as another cup final breakfast at Nigel's gaff in Kew Gardens is postponed. And at the latest count we now have injuries to Bowen, Antonio, Fullkrug, Summerville, Areola, Emerson, Todibo and Mavropanos. Still, there was some evidence of a new manager bounce and the side seemed to put in more of a shift and show more tactical discipline than under Loppy. Though it's now going to be a struggle to field a decent side against Fulham on Tuesday.
So Graham Potter — Harry was unavailable — has finally been confirmed as West Ham's new manager. There were rumours he'd been offered an initial six-month contract but Potter was right to play hardball and hold out for a two and a half year deal.
It's a move that suits both Potter and the club. Like David Moyes Potter has something to prove after only lasting eight months at Chelsea — though with a 50-man squad of scattergun signings the Blues were hardly manageable. Already in his first interview Potter has seemed more inspiriing than half a season of Lopetegui.
He's a progressive coach who was a journeyman player, which is normally a good sign. In Sweden Potter took Ostersund from division four to the first division and a trophy, he had a mid-table season re-booting Swansea City and then stabalised Brighton from defensive relegation strugglers to an established Premier League club playing fluent football. Yes, he benefitted from Brighton's recruitment system, but also established the team that De Zerbi went on to take into Europe.
It's good that he's a bit different. Much of the modern game is about psychology and Potter has an MA in leadership and emotional intelligence, so should be able to understand both very angry geezers from Benfleet in the Bobby Moore Stand and the foibles of our modern superstars. Lopetegui had rows with Kudus and Todibo while other players apparently complained to Mark Noble, so Potter will have to employ all his man management skills.
In Sweden he once got his squad to put on a play in order to increase team bonding, so he might yet find a role for my fellow season ticket holder Michael the Playwright. Though any West Ham play would presumably be A Comedy of Errors. He's also had players trying ballet and rapping so it should be interesting. His former players speak highly of him so let's see what Graham can do with our lot. Encouragingly he likes to promote young players, which is good news for the Academy.
Praising the fans is always a good start, as Potter has just done, but he will face big challenges with the current squad. Initially the most important thing is that his arrival will lift the crowd as the London Stadium was drowning in apathy. It's a new start for both fans and players. Come on you Irons!
So it seems Julen Lopetegui might finally have gone. Once the news leaked that he was going to be sacked on Monday the board should have acted decisively. Whatever his flaws as a manager Lopetegui deserved to be treated with more dignity than left taking training while approaches were made to other managers. It seems likely that Graham Potter will come in though West Ham could yet be gazumped by Everton and the whole affair is reminiscent of the bungled Moyes exit and Avram Grant almost being replaced by Martin O'Neill.
It was never going to be easy for Loppy following David Moyes and implementing a more expansive style of play. But he has never convinced and part of the problem has been the language barrier. Fair play to him for learning English, but he wasn't as fluent as say Slot, Guardiola or Arteta and he struggled to convey the sense of passion that West Ham fans demand. He must have struggled to get his ideas across to the players too.
We never had a clear idea of what Loppy's playing style was and the side lacked identity. He never seemed to know his best side or what to do with the £27m Summerville. Keeping possession just seemed to make the attacks ponderous and we don't have good enough players to pass it out from the back. He was certainly unlucky with the injuries to Fullkrug and Antonio but having spent £100m it just hasn't been good enough, while the rebuilt defence has been leakier than last season. We'e lost by three goals or more to Liverpool (twice), Arsenal, Chelsea, Spurs and Nottingham Forest.
Tim Steidten must also take a lot of blame for the misfiring signings. He's overseen expenditure of £240 million in his one and a half seasons, partly offset by £105 million for Declan Rice. Kilman has looked ok at times but also struggled against the big teams, Todibo is promising but keeps getting injured, Rodriguez looks average and Soler hasn't really got going. Paying £23 million for the untried potential of Guilherme was way too expensive and Fullkrug, though a quality striker, is 31 years old. Wan-Bissaka has been the best of the the new recruits, but Loppy seemed to have him going all over the pitch rather than sticking to right-back. WHU only have three centre backs and there's also been a discipline problem with Kudus and Alvarez picking up needless red cards. Apart from that it's been quite good.
I'm not one to normally advocate sacking managers, but there's been no sign of things improving after 22 games and just six wins and Lopetegui surely had to go. But David Sullivan, Karren Brady and the board must also ask themselves how they have managed to repeat the Pellegrini mistake of sacking Moyes, the most successful manager since John Lyall, for a manager with a glamorous CV promising to play attacking football, only to see it all implode. How has Steidten managed to get banned from the training ground by both Moyes and Lopetegui? They should also ask themselves why smaller clubs like Brentford, Bournemouth, Brighton and Fulham are much better run than West Ham.
Now let's see who the new gaffer is and hope things improve.
Manchester City 4 West Ham 1
We're at the Dickens Museum in Doughty Street while this is played, without any Great Expectations of a result and fearing more Hard Times. It's been A Tale of Two Cities for Pep Guardiola this season, but West Ham are currently a good side to regain your confidence against.
At least a forward line with Summerville on the left, Fullkrug in the middle and Kudus on the right looks better balanced. Watching the highlights on Match of the Day West Ham have two great early chances. A neat back heel from Fullkrug frees Summerville who plays in Kudus for a sight of goal. His first touch is slightly heavy and Mo ends up hitting the side netting instead of scoring. Next a neat passing move sees Kudus cross for Soucek to scuff a great chance.
It all goes wrong after ten minutes though as Savinho's cross takes a rather lucky deflection off Vladimir Coufal into Areola's net. West Ham still have their chances at 1-0 down. Summerville tackles a dawdling Akanji and would be clear, only for the ref to spot a mystery foul. Kudus has another good break but shoots rather than passes, while Areola has to save well from Rico Lewis.
But as ever the Irons concede at a bad time, just before the break. Savinhio bamboozles Coufal and his fine cross sees Areola race into no-man's land and the ball go over his head to Haaland for a simple headed goal.
Todibo goes off injured to be replaced by the Greek Bloke and West Ham are 3-0 down soon after the break. Savinho is given too much space to play in Our Mutual Friend Erling Haaland, who slaloms past Kilman and scores with a brilliant chipped finish over Areola. It's 4-0 after 58 minutes. The Irons try to play it out from the back and Kudus's loose ball to Alvarez is gathered by De Bruyne, who sets up Foden for an easy goal.
At least the Irons keep going. We pull one back when Soucek's low cross is turned in by the left foot of Fullkrug. The big German then chests the ball to Summerville only for Crysencio to slip as he volleys. Late on Paqueta's snap shot grazes the post.
Looking at the stats West Ham have had 17 shots to City's ten but still ended up losing 4-1. There's been some signs of promise, such as the influence of Fullkrug and the times we got behind the City defence, but the defence has still looked porous and the bottom line is Lopetegui isn't winning matches. It's a Bleak House at the moment and we can't even call on A Christmas Carroll as he's in France. We really need to get a result in the FA Cup at Villa to save the season as Loppy is left hoping in Micawber-esque style that something will turn up.
The West Ham family is united in support of Ludek Miklosko, who sadly has terminal cancer, but hopefully has a few good years left yet. I've been lucky enough to meet the Big Boy twice. The first time was in 2006 on a trip with Philosophy Football and the British Council where we watched Tony Carr's West Ham kids - including James Tomkins - play against the youngsters of Sparta Prague in a giant communist-era training ground in Prague. Ludo was watching his wife and proved a real gentleman, reminiscing about that Ludo song and Tomas Repka.
The next time was at the Europa Conference League Final in Prague in 2023. Spotting Ludo in the posh seats my pal Denis grabbed him for a selfie or two after the final whistle, as did numerous other Hammers' fans. He was a happy man that night, though strangely seemed to think he didn't come from near Moscow. Here's the photographic evidence of Ludo with some happy Hammers. Best of luck Ludo, you'll always be a legend at West Ham.
