April 8th, 2018. That was where the Hammers began their final push of the EPL season. They were away at Stamford Bridge with hopes of the top 7 fading away. It had seemed that every time West Ham got close to that coveted 7th place they would let it slip away.
To dampen fans hopes, even more, the Hammers ended March with devastating losses to Cardiff City (now relegated) and Everton with there only bright spots coming in the shape of wins against Newcastle and a late comeback against also now relegated, Huddersfield Town.
Coming into April many West Ham fans, including myself, thought the outlook was looking very bleak. Out of the remaining 6 matches, West Ham would have to face off against 5 of those teams who were in a better table position than them. I wrote an article at that time with my “predictions” of how I hoped it would go. The word prediction was fitting as the truth was somewhat far from my hopes.
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To be honest, how we have done has been far better than what many Hammers fans predicted. We go back to that Monday night away against Chelsea where we lost 2-0. It was a matchup that was never really going to be in our favor and we looked good at points never really to get it going in the end.
Just 6 days later, West Ham found themselves at Old Trafford, a place that is never an easy visit. To say we got robbed is an understatement with two horrifying calls. Even still, with the loss and now zero points in 3 matches, you could see the train rolling in the right direction for the Irons.
We then took on Leicester City at home where more controversy followed. It was back and forth all match until the 78th minute when Lucas Perez came on; four minutes later, West Ham have the lead. You remember the rest as a bad offside call yields a Hammers no goal which led to an injury-time tie by Leicester.
In comes Spurs and their new fortress. Potentially the match of the season as West Ham became the first to win, first to score an away goal, and first to blank out the Spurs at their new home. For the first time in 3 games, the Hammers got the points we deserved.
Last week at home in our final home match West Ham looked as dominant as they had in previous weeks. Offense, defense, and managing took center stage in a well-orchestrated event that saw the Irons get their second consecutive win and clean sheet.
When I wrote the previous article, I gave West Ham 8 points to finish out the season with, including a draw against Watford this week. Times have obviously changed as I think we will close out the season on a 3 game win streak and head into the long night of the offseason happy. We currently have 7 points since the start of April and could end with 10 and over 50 points on the year. The finale on Sunday has much at stake for the Irons as they look to head into the long night with their heads held high. From now ’till then, COME ON YOU IRONS!