If West Ham were one of the worst teams to watch last season (and we were) then without a doubt this season’s West Ham is one of the most thrilling, exciting and enthralling teams the Premier League has to offer.
The progression and transformation of this side is just phenomenal and yet another example of it was dished out as an unbelievable 2nd half from Sam Allardyce’s boys blitzed Burnley with a dazzling display of attacking football and clinical finishing.
The difference between us and Burnley was simple; whilst they had all the ball, all the pressure and completely dominated possession in the first half, they had no cutting edge, no goal threat whatsoever and whilst we were a bit fortunate got get in level at the break, the cutting edge and quality we now possess was displayed in ruthless and devastating fashion as two quality crosses from Aaron Creswell and Carl Jenkinson respectively, met the foreheads of Diafra Sakho and Enner Valencia.
Previous West Ham sides simply wouldn’t have had the goals within them to recover from such a sluggish first half performance, but that is the beauty of the class of 2014/15 even if the performance is below par we now have the goals in our side to swing games in our favour.
There is an incredible openness about this Hammers side, and it seems each game we partake in is becoming a bit of an epic; certainly the games against Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool, Manchester United, Crystal Palace and now Burnley have been end-to-end encounters with the feeling amongst the Irons that they now have the ammunition/quality to go toe-to-toe with just about any side in the league, and this approach is certainly making for some very entertaining contests.
Sam Allardyce deserves so much credit for the season thus far, he has moulded, gelled and shaped an incredible amount of fresh faces into a cohesive team which is now playing some of the best football in the land as well as getting some great results. Big Sam is proof that simply changing your manager isn’t always the solution to a football club’s problems and it may be early days but the possibility of a new deal at the season’s end is certainly looking more and more likely for the birthday boy from Dudley.
The fans are happy, the players are happy, the football is wonderful as are the results and I think it’s safe to say that the champions are in for one the biggest tests of their title credentials so far when they travel to the Boleyn Ground next Saturday lunchtime.
How far can this side go? It’s still very early days but West Ham are a team that have all the tools to go far in the FA cup and maybe just maybe sneak into the top seven, the top 4/5 are fairly obvious, however, I’m not convinced that Spurs or Everton will finish above us; especially with their Europa League commitments.
Happy birthday Big Sam, surely only a matter of time before his name is sung by even his harshest of critics.
Naïve ramblings !!!