Best Excellent Content
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MM - Home to Fulham, Saturday 27th December
2 guesses each.
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West Ham v Fulham, Saturday 27th December, 15:00
In our favor, you cannot say we haven’t been consistant……….ummmmm -
January Transfer speculation, (it will be here before you know it)
My question as a striker would be to simply ask how they planned to integrate me into their style of play, I thought that Haller, Scamacca and yes, even Fullkrug and Wilson were pretty good options, they know their craft, but imo, it never seemed that we were set up to make the best use of them. -
West Ham v Fulham, Saturday 27th December, 15:00
Fulham are 4th for league form over the last six games, 4 wins (Sunderland H, Spurs A, Burnley A, Forest H) and 2 loses (City H, Palace A) although you can also throw in losing away to Newcastle in the Carabao quarters.
The squad is almost unchanged from last season, only one regular starter left, 29yo Brazilian CM Andreas Pereira joined Palmeiras and a few fringe players have gone
Fulham did break their club record by signing Brazilian U20 LW Kevin from Shakhtar Donetsk for £34.6m. He'd only had three starts in the Premier League before Iwobi and Samuel Chukwueze (on loan from AC Milan) left for the AFCON but since then he's started both games against Newcastle and Forest.
As Buffy said Calvin Bassey is also at the AFCON and he's been replaced with Jorge Cuenca who joined summer 2024 but has only had 20 appearances to date.
The only other new arrivals are Swedish U21 CF Jonah Kusi-Asare (on loan Bayern Munich) who has made just 5 appearances with no starts and back up GK Benjamin Lecomte (£0.5m Montpelier) who has been in goal for Cup games
LB Ryan Sessegnon and CF Rodrigo Muniz are both injured. Top scorer Harry Wilson had to be substituted on Monday with a knee problem, was replaced by Adam Traore and will be assessed this week
Starting XI v Forest
Leno
Tete Anderson Cuenca Robinson
Lukic Berge
Wilson Smith-Rowe Kevin
Jimenez
Marco Silva is the 3rd longest serving Premier League manager, only Pep and Arteta have been in their jobs longer
Stability, etc. -
West Ham v Fulham, Saturday 27th December, 15:00
I was one of those 2 or 3 -
January Transfer speculation, (it will be here before you know it)
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West Ham v Fulham, Saturday 27th December, 15:00
It's ages since I've started a match thread, and I'm hoping to go on a long run this time.
The first of three games in a short space of time, so come on lads, let's get the ball rolling with a win
COYI -
It's a dirty job, but someone's gotta do it...........Away to Man City SAT 20th Dec 3pm
Personally, I don’t think it’s particularly likely that we’ll string results together, but it was also unlikely that Leeds would have done so a month ago. It was also unlikely that Bournemouth would go 7 without a win, or that Arsenal would be pegged back from an 8pt lead so quickly. It’s too early to be so certain of anything, IMO. -
It's a dirty job, but someone's gotta do it...........Away to Man City SAT 20th Dec 3pm
This match against City is not going to change any season, we always lose to City away. If we get 9 points from the next four matches we will be in a decent position, It's a huge ask with our AFCON players missing but not impossible. Wolves are very poor, we have beaten Forest away already and so if we can get a result against Fulham at home it's not impossible. I am not down playing the task but a lot of people are ending the season at game 17 not game 38. If you look at it this way I don't think it looks quite so impossible.
In the next 21 matches can we get 7 points more than Leeds?
In the next 21 matches can we get 6 points more than Forest ?
In the next 21 matches can we not get 3 points less than Burnley
In the next 21 matches Can we not get 12 points less than Wolves?
We would need meet only three of those four targets.
This is definitely possible in my view, but it does start in the next four matches. -
It's a dirty job, but someone's gotta do it...........Away to Man City SAT 20th Dec 3pm
Our last win against City was 27 October 2021 at home in the League Cup, our last win the Premier League was 19 September 2015 at the Etihad when Keven De Bruyne scored his first goal for City on his first start.
Ten years later De Bruyne has gone to Napoli and our record in the Premier League against City is lost 16, drawn 3 with our last draw 15 May 2022
Other big names that left in summer were Ederson, Walker, Gundogan and Grealish. In came Reijnders (£46m), Ait-Nouri (£36m), Cherki (£34m) and Donnarumma (£26m) but otherwise it’s the same side as last season with the average age slightly reduced
Haaland is top scorer, Foden 2nd but just about everyone other than Donnarumma has scored a goal or two.
One name that got overshadowed in the big moves was CB Manuel Akanji who made 40 appearances (35 starts) in all competitions last season but was allowed to join Inter on a season long loan with a £13m option to buy with reports that Inter have already decided to make the move permanent at the end of the season
In the other direction GK James Trafford returned from Burnley as back-up for Donnarumma at double the price they sold him for two years ago
There will be a few absences, Ait-Nouri and Marmoush are off to the African Cup of Nations while Kovacic, Rodri, Doku, Stones and Bobb are injured.
Guardiola made seven changes for the Carabao Cup win over Brentford although only Reijnders played the full 90 minutes on Sunday and Wednesday
One familiar name we won't see is Kalvin Phillips who hasn’t played since he came on in the 83rd minute against Huddersfield in September, stayed on the bench for the visit to Swansea in October and hasn't been seen since.
Two years ago he started for England against Italy in a Euro qualifier, a strange journey from Wembley to the Kirklees Stadium
