There's Only Two Months to Go

The fixtures were finally announced today to bring a lot of excitement to football fans across the country. Sadly, the season does not start for another two months, all fans can do at the minute is pencil in what games they would like to go or go on the editor of Football Manager and change the teams in each division.

On a Hammers note, Cardiff at home does not seem too bad on August 17th. However it was only two years ago when we were thinking that it was not such a bad fixture in the Championship only to go down 1-0 to a late Kenny Miller goal. Things have changed since that game two years ago, West Ham's home form is very good and sloppiness defensively has been eradicated. This is a game where the Hammers will be hoping to spoil the newly promoted side's party with a win.

Carroll and Nolan return to St James Park again on the 24 August, hopefully by then Joe Kinnear has disrupted so much at Newcastle that the team morale will have decreased and we can replicate the great win we had last season. A point from that match will be suffice enough.

The Hammers end the month of August with a home match with Stoke. Stoke will be starting to find their rhythm with new manager Mark Hughes at the helm. A hard game to call, hopefully a win for Allardyce's men but it will be hard to know the type of team Hughes will set up at the Britannia Stadium. Will Hughes keep the gritty play which his predecessor Pulis set up?

The month of death in my opinion is October, the Hammers start the month with an away trip to rivals Tottenham. White Hart Lane is not a ground where West Ham have excelled in recent years, as the last win against Tottenham away from home was in 1999 where Ian Wright and Marc Keller scored in a 2-1 win. Then the Hammers are at home to face Man City, where they played quite well last season in a 0-0 draw and were hurt by a wrongly disallowed Kevin Nolan goal. A tough game but if the Hammers play as well as they did last season we should be equipped enough. This depends on the line-up City put out, as they look to be more of a title-challenge to Man Utd which means City are bound to spend big with their new manager Pellegrini at the helm. Lastly, in October is a visit to the always difficult Liberty Stadium to face Michael Laudrup's Swansea City. Swansea humiliated West Ham last year, and were gifted two goals from mistakes by Jussi Jaaskelainen and James Collins. Ironically, Collins and Jaaskelainen were probably the two most improved players during the season. A tough game against Swansea, a result all comes down to tactics, sitting back and letting Swansea pass is the way to play then counter-attack them with pace from the wings.

That is the only month to be feared apart from the last one, where the Hammers will be hoping that they are safe or anything they are chasing is wrapped up as Tottenham at Home and City away are the last two games of the season. Allardyce will be wanting his boys to be getting all their business done early like the transfer window, as a relegation battle with those two games left will be hard. However, I feel West Ham will not be in that predicament this season and will look towards to another top-half finish without the worry of second-season syndrome. Winning early is the key, as from the first six games the Hammers can pick up maybe three or four wins.

Come On You Irons!