Arsenal v West Ham: recent games, performanecs and a naff away record

 

 

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By Bulldog Drummond

If we take a look at the top two clubs in the last six games and then the clubs that sit 15th and 16th we get a good comparison of form.   Arsenal and Liverpool are separated not by points, not by goal difference but because Liverppol have scored and conceded one more than Arsenal.  

Down in the nether reaches where good teams fail to tread, West Ham are below even Tottenham having won one in six and amassed a goal difference of minus 6.

 

Premier League Form (Last 6)

Pos	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
1	Liverpool	6	4	2	0	14	6	+8	14
2	Arsenal	6	4	2	0	13	5	+8	14
15	Tottenham Ho	6	2	0	4	8	9	-1	6
16	West Ham Un	6	1	1	4	6	12	-6	4

 

This is extraordinary for a club given their ground for nothing by Boris and who as far as I know still don’t pay any rent back to the state – which of course means you and me pay (if you are a UK resident).

If we were to look at the last ten games, Arsenal are top with seven wins and three draws, and WHAM are 17th with two wins and three draws and five defeats.

And yet, one of the notable things about West Ham is that they are each season generally expected to do better, but in fact don’t but,   And the recent run of results has been poor even by their low standards, although the journalists will always be there for them, expecting them to do more.  

In the last eight games in the League and in the Cup where they WHAM were knocked out by Villa (another team talked up a lot by the media but then failing to deliver in the longer term) we find one win, one draw (with Aston Villa) and six defeats for WHAM..  Liverpool thumped them 0-5 at the Taxpayers Stadium, and Manchester City knocked in four past them in the following match.  Villa have conceded 19 goals in the last eight games although to be fair in the last three they have drawn one and lost the other two by a single goal.

But they do sometimes get things together against Arsenal, and indeed the last time this happened was in 2023 when there was a draw at their ground in the league in April, and a win for WHAM in the league cup in November.  This was followed by an extraordinary away win for WHAM at Arsenal Stadium 0-2 at a time when Arsenal were second and West Ham seventh.   But it has been downhill all the way since then for the club whose nickname is indeed apposite; they are consistently hammered.

I suppose what has really beset the club, having been given the Olympic Stadium after the Games went, was that moving to the new ground brought a sense of entitlement.

Since returning to the Premier League in 2012 they have just once reached sixth place in the league, once seventh and once ninth.   All the rest of their positions have been in double figures, so their current position of 16th is pretty familiar territory. 

They won’t go down because the gap between them and Ipswich in 18th is ten points, but this is pretty much where they are at home these days, seven points behind Tottenham.  Vanessa Gold has put her share in the club up for sale.  No price is mentioned but I doubt if much is asked.  You could make an offer if you wish.

Meanwhile what we can do at this point is look at Arsenal at home and WHAM away… and as we can see WHAM do win away, but they also lose away.

 

 

Their last away win was 0-1 away to the mighty Southampton on Boxing Day although on 25 November they did beat Newcastle away, so such things are possible.  Arsenal’s last home win you might remember was by 5-1 against some northern team that likes to think they are invincible.  I can’t quite remember that club’s name, although I am sure I was there.