Can history repeat itself?

Chelsea at home on Saturday…it’s a fixture we won last season, but can lightning strike twice? By all logic it shouldn’t; West Ham are struggling for goals, struggling for confidence and Chelsea have one of the most expensively assembled squads in Premier League history.

I actually reckon we have a decent chance on Saturday night live in front of the Sky camera’s of getting at least a point; and this somewhat delusional belief lies in the fact that the international break will favour us over the Billionaires from the King’s road.

Chelsea’s star-studded squad will have been globe-trotting to put it mildly; representing their respective countries during the international break; their training ground must’ve been emptier than the club’s pockets till Roman rocked up. Hardly the perfect preparation for a big London derby and a fixture in which they got tonked last season is it?

West Ham however have had the bulk of their squad at Chadwell Heath working on this fixture since the humbling at Norwich City. Now I’m not saying it’s going to be easy; it’ll be far from that, but what I am saying is that if ever there was a good time to play Chelsea it’s surely just after an international break.

We’ll be written off before Saturday night and I reckon that’ll play into the hands of Sam Allardyce and the players, no-one and I mean no-one thought that we would triumph at White Hart Lane; a ground we hadn’t tasted sweet victory on in 13 long years; we relished the under-dog title that day and hopefully a similar outcome will lie in wait on Saturday night.

Without a doubt last season’s 3-1 victory over Chelsea almost a year ago was the most impressive result notched by West Ham last season. On that infamous day the under-dog triumphed over the over-whelming favourite and I see no reason with the international break favouring us over Chelsea why history can’t repeat itself.

To quote the ‘special’ one himself when making remarks about the last international break: ‘I didn’t like the period. Four players to train. For the kids it is nice. But from the team perspective it is bad. You are playing well, you win some matches consecutively, you want to win again but the players disappear. They go to China, they go to Africa, they play important matches for qualification.

‘We lost against Everton and Basle immediately after that period, it always puts some question marks.’

With all that that being said, Come on you Irons…