English Premier League: Part 4, Losers of the second weekend
West Ham United were another team who were totally chaotic over the weekend. In their match against Bolton Wanderers, West Ham did give a good account of themselves, but then again when opportunities present themselves in shape of a penalty kick, then one should capitalize on them. West Ham didn’t and they paid the price.
The eventual score of the match was three goals to one in favour of Bolton Wanderers. It is a sad situation at West Ham at the moment. Last season, West Ham entered the season under their new manager Gianfranco Zola. Zola, was a reputed player at Chelsea F.C and built his West Ham team into an entertaining outfit but sadly entertainment did not amount to success. His lack of experience as a manager cost him dearly as players lacked motivation and the team was an indication of a unit which suffered from an absence of cohesion.
Zola also brought in various players such as Diamanti and Guillermo Franco. However, this didn’t turn out for the best. These players seldom performed for the Hammers, who were already in a terrible financial situation due to the fact that they had been paying injured players such as Ljunberg and Kieran Dyer excessive amounts of wages. West Ham also faced a meltdown because their sponsors had gone bankrupt in the face of global recession.
With Zola at the helm, West Ham United pushed above their weight and eventually managed to earn themselves a place in the 2010-2011 English Premier League season. This happened after West Ham successfully pulled themselves out of relegation quicksand which surrounded them for the most of the 2009-2010 Season. In the 2009-2010 Season, West Ham only managed to obtain thirty-five points in the thirty-eight game season of the English League.
For the new season which began on 14th of August, 2010, West Ham appointed Avram Grant as their new manager after terminating Gianfranco Zola’s managerial contract with the club. Grant was given sufficient funds to strengthen the team in all departments and therefore the ex-Chelsea manager bought the likes of Frederic Piquionne and Pablo Barrera. Before the start of the season, West Ham fans might have thought that they might be at least challenging for a Europa League place this season under Grant, who has been known to work with smaller clubs.
However, this was not the case, as in their first league match of the season, West Ham United failed to impress against Aston Villa at Villa Park and against Bolton in their second league game. They were disastrous in defence. Grant now has a big task on his hands to somehow improve his demotivated West Ham team. It will certainly not be an easy task after the disappointment of the previous two league weekends and it will not be easy because the Hammers face Manchester United in their next Premier League match followed by Chelsea and Stoke. Some tough times are coming up ahead for West Ham and their season might just turn for the worse before any West Ham well wisher can hope for betterment.
Another club which was at an end of an explicit beating was Blackpool. Before Blackpool started their English Premier League season a lot of pundits had already written the Seasiders off as too weak to compete with the big boys. In their first league match, Blackpool demolished Wigan by four goals to nil but in their second match against Arsenal, the tangerines were in for a rude awakening. Blackpool’s defence conceded a healthy amount of fifty-eight goals last season in The Championship, so it was no surprise that they got shown their worth at the Emirates.
Arsene Wenger’s team scored six against Blackpool and it could have been a lot more if Marouane Chamakh was on target for the Gunners.
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