da fezbet： West Ham are going in to this summer with a new sense of optimism after two extremely underwhelming seasons since switching to London Stadium from the Boleyn Ground.
da poker： Their relocation has been nothing short of catastrophic but this pre-season fans will be hoping new Hammers manager Manuel Pellegrini can put some promising foundations in place to ensure they do not suffer a third consecutive battle against relegation.
Last term, the Hammers were forced to play their opening four games of the season away from Stratford due to a pre-arranged athletics tournament taking place in the summer – the time it takes to convert London Stadium from athletics to football mode takes longer than initially thought.
That won’t be the case this season, though, and the Hammers will be keen to continue what was a strong end to the season with a strong start to the 2018/19 campaign. They ended 17/18 with a run of three games unbeaten and just two defeats in eight, including impressive victories over Leicester City at King Power Stadium and Everton at home on the final day.
With a number of exciting players being linked with moves to East London this summer, the coming season promises to be an interesting one for West Ham.
Their opening fixtures of the 2018/19 Premier League season, now officially confirmed, will give Hammers fans an indication of how likely that is…
11th August – Liverpool (A)
18th August – Bournemouth (H)
25th August – Arsenal (A)
1st September – Wolverhampton (H)
15th September – Everton (A)
22nd September – Chelsea (H)
[brid autoplay=”true” video=”255853″ player=”12034″ title=”Watch West Ham’s opening fixtures for the 201819 Premier League season”]
Verdict
Pellegrini’s West Ham spell faces a tricky start. The Hammers have won at Anfield just once during the last half century, while Goodison Park is never an easy away day either.
Throw in two London derbies with Arsenal and Chelsea and there are certainly challenges for the Irons new boss to overcome – ones that will test his commitment to attacking football and his ability to implement it quickly enough on the training pitch to ensure the east Londoners are effective enough at it to really have a go at the bigger teams.
They should get some joy out of Bournemouth though during Pellegrini’s first home game, while Wolves may still be adapting to Premier League life by the time the Hammers host them on September 1st.