West Ham vs Stoke City (H) Match Thread 16.04.2018
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Comments
We're currently 7 ahead of them, plus a 15 goal GD, so effectively 8 points clear
That's a good point (npi) Grey, I'd never thought of it that way. ;ok
City will probably blitz us whichever string of team they have out, *working on the assumption they get knocked out of the Champions League* . (but a few of their players might be hoping to avoid injury for the world cup)
Man Utd by the time we play them their season will be over anyway with second place maybe all but secured in which case half their players will be trying to avoid injury for the world cup.
Leicester and Everton - Depends if either of them turn up with both of their seasons effectively over already, both are likely to play some bench players to get some experience and you imagine some cries from players who want to go to the world cup asking for a rest or trying to avoid injury.
And beat Spurs in the Semi Final! ;whistle
we still gotta beat Stoke ;pray
Win win. ;lol
0 points against the Potters
Https://talksport.com/football/every-premier-league-teams-201718-season-run-hardest-easiest-180410278519?p=0
https://talksport.com/football/premier-league-201718-table-super-computer-predicts-end-season-final-standings-april-update?p=8
Rice - Ogbonna - Cresswell
Zabaleta - Noble - Kouyate - Mario - Masuaku
Hernandez
Arnautovic
Adrian, Evra, Cullen, Fernandes, Lanzini, Carroll, Hugill
Stoke have had a funny old season. I think from an outsider, they look like they just haven't invested over the past few years. Seems like they've had the same squad for the past decade. Adam, Crouch, Shawcross, Pieters, Johnson, Cameron, Ireland. All players in their last match day squad, seem to have been there forever.
Shaqiri and Allen are obviously the stand out players, and Butland is a talented keeper but obviously error prone given his age. Other than those three there isn't a lot there and doing quick maths their 18 against Spurs certainly doesn't add up to anything substantial in terms of money spent on the players. I think we spent more on Arnie than they currently have in the last few windows.
They seem to have improved slightly under Lambert, in the sense that they seem to now avoid getting soundly beaten like they were under Hughes. But they have only won the one game since he was appointed and that was against Huddersfield, who are arguably the worst side in the league squad wise. Given that they play Burnley and Crystal Palace at home, and Swansea away, after us, they will probably be happy with a point on Monday. They probably need 10/11 points from their remaining 5 games to stay up, highly unlikely given their form over 33 games but not impossible. I'm sure they will come to us making noises that they want the three points, but I'm sure deep down Lambert would be happy with 1 and then look to attack the Burnley and Palace home games. A win on the final day at Swansea could then see them survive.
In terms of us, we mustn't lose. A win will all-but confirm our survival. I was interested to see that we have one of the best conversion rates in the league (shots to goals), and without doing a complete analysis I would put that down to Arnie and Hernandez in the main. So it makes sense to go with both of them for this match. But I would play Hernandez slightly deeper, because I think it is important that Arnie occupies the more physical CBs throughout the game, otherwise Hernandez is going to struggle to make an impact.
After beating Huddersfield 2-0, they had 5 games on the spin to salvage their season before the slightly tougher fixtures of City, Everton, Arsenal and Spurs in recent weeks. They played Watford (h), Bournemouth (a), Brighton (h), Leicester (a) and Southampton (a). They took 4 points from 15. I think if we focus on being sound at the back, the smart money is on Arnie demolishing them after 90 mins of abuse from the Potters faithful. But we've see too many home games (Brighton, Newcastle, Burnley) to get complacent.
It's a big weekend for us. Given that we play last. WBA are gone, Southampton play Chelsea and then we play the Potters. Should Chelsea avoid defeat at Saints, it gives us the chance to pull 7/8 clear of Saints and 10 clear of Stoke with a better GD than both. We would be safe IMO.
Anyway, back to the theme of this thread (forgive me for such a sin) we win on Monday we go 12th
It's a must win ;wahoo
No... seriously it is!!! ;sofa
I really mean this ;pray