West Ham welcome Swansea City to Upton Park in the Premier League this weekend and the Hammers will be hoping to draw a line under a terrible start to 2013 and get a win in their first February fixture.
Following a disappointing 3-1 defeat to Fulham at Craven Cottage on Wednesday, West Ham have slipped to 13th in the table and are now just seven points away from the relegation zone, capping off a terrible January for the club.
The Hammers are undoubtedly going through a rough patch, winning only one of their last 11 games in all competitions. The Swans, however, travel to east London undefeated in their last seven league outings. So Swansea boss Michael Laudrup will definitely fancy his chances of getting another three points against Sam Allardyce’s men on Saturday.
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Be afraid
West Ham will be particularly wary of Swansea’s hypnotic passing game, especially given its similarity to Arsenal’s style and how badly the Hammers coped with that in their 5-1 defeat at the Emirates Stadium last Wednesday.
But it has not been Swansea’s intricate build-up play that the West Ham camp have been fretting over in the run-up to the game at the Boleyn Ground.
Instead, the likes of Allardyce and West Ham co-Chairman David Sullivan have focussed on the Swans’ excellent defence and away record this season; something Sullivan was eager to highlight in his article for the Daily Mail on Friday.
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“Do you know they [Swansea] have conceded the fewest number of goals away from home in the division?” asked Sullivan, rhetorically. “It’s nine, less than the champions, less than Manchester United and everyone else.”
Allardyce echoed the words of his employer during his pre-match press conference.
“If you look at the team we’re playing on Saturday, the reason they’re so successful is contrary to what you all think, it’s because they have the best defensive record in the league,” said the West Ham boss. “When they score a goal they win a game of football and they don’t concede many, in fact they hardly concede any. When you win, that brings you the greatest reward of all, because three points for a win and only one for a draw make a massive difference to anybody in the league.
“Swansea have been outstanding both in and out of possession, that’s what has impressed me the most,” he added.
So everyone associated with West Ham knows the team have their work cut out not only trying to get through Swansea’s resilient defence, but also in nullifying the threat of their neat counter-attacking play.
Taking into account the Hammers’ inability to find the opposition’s net regularly but also the fact they cannot defend their own goal as well as they’d hoped, West Ham fans could be in for a gruelling afternoon in the winter winds.
Don’t write us off
But we all know the cliché of football being a funny old game. So we cannot assume that Swansea will steamroller the Hammers simply because they have proven to be the better of the two sides so far this season.
Laudrup certainly is not making any assumptions; pointing out that Upton Park has been a tough place to visit for many Premier League sides.
“They are a team that have done well at home,” he said. “They have players who can play such as Noble, Jarvis, Nolan and Joe Cole, but they also have lots of power up front.
“They have the likes of Andy Carroll and Carlton Cole, but also [Marouane] Chamakh coming in gives them something different. So we know it will be a test, but they haven’t had a good run recently and it is a very important game for them.
“But we will look to try and extend our good run and whatever happens, we will put out yet another competitive team.”
As competitive as Laudrup may hope that team will be, it will not be without its weaknesses.
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Injuries
Similar to the Hammers, Swansea have three injuries preventing them from naming a full-strength side. First choice stopper Michel Vorm will struggle to make the line-up due to a knee injury, and Neil Taylor and Kemy Augustien are both suffering from ankle problems.
Big Sam has no fresh injury worries going into the game but will still be without Dan Potts (concussion) and long-term absentee George McCartney (knee ligaments). James Collins (hamstring) will probably also miss out but may make the bench.
Still, it is hoped that the recent reduction of West Ham absentees will lead to an improved performance from the home side.
The Hammers welcomed back Andy Carroll for the loss against Fulham, with the 23-year-old coming on in the second half but failing to make an impact – typical of his time in east London. Yet much has been made of his return to the side.
Speaking to West Ham’s official website in the wake of that defeat, the on-loan striker expressed his annoyance about how the game panned out on Wednesday night, and how the Hammers hope to put things right against the Swans.
“They put the first chance they created after our goal away and it’s disappointing for the lads, but we’ve got to keep at it and think about the next game now,” Carroll said.
“Straight away our focus goes on to Swansea at the weekend. We’ve had a tough run lately, we need to put points on the board, the lads know that, and I’m sure once we get that result, the others will follow.”
It is unlikely Carroll will start on Saturday, though, because Allardyce doesn’t think he is fully fit yet.
“I wouldn’t say Andy’s ready to play a full game, but he’s ready to play some part of the game,” he said. “Because he hasn’t played a competitive game, apart from the 15 minutes he got at Fulham, after eight or nine weeks out.
Of course, the last time West Ham played Swansea, Carroll was still a Liverpool player.
Last time we met: Swansea 3-0 West Ham
The Hammers faithful would rather forget the previous meeting with the Swans in the reverse league fixture at the Liberty Stadium back in August, but probably not as much as Jussi Jaaskelainen and James Collins.
The centre-back gifted the home side their second goal in the 3-0 defeat in south Wales when he scuffed a backpass to Jaaskelainen, letting the prolific Michu in one-on-one with the ‘keeper, and the Spanish sensation made no mistake with the finish past the Finn. Jaaskelainen was helpless then and, disappointingly, he was also helpless just nine minutes earlier when he let a tame Angel Rangel effort squirm under his body.
Danny Graham made sure of the win for the Swans when he scored their third on the 64th minute.
A repeat of that miserable day would do West Ham no favours whatsoever as they try to revive back into their ailing Premier League campaign.
Likely starting line-ups:
West Ham (4-5-1)
Jaaskelainen; Demel, O’Brien, Reid, Tomkins; Noble, Diame, J. Cole, Jarvis, Nolan; Chamakh.
Swansea (4-5-1)
Tremmel; Tiendalli, Davies, A. Williams, Chico; Ki, de Guzman, Britton, Hernandez, Routledge; Michu.
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