The 2016/2017 Premier League season drew to a close last week with West Ham beating Burnley 2-1 at Turf Moor, where the home side have only lost five times there previous to Sunday’s game this season.
Although it was a positive end to the season, it has been a forgettable season for West Ham and the Hammers faithful and it all started in the summer where Slaven Bilic and the board failed to sign a £30m goalscorer which was promised at the end of the previous season.
Instead of the headline goalscorer everyone hoped for, West Ham signed the likes of Simone Zaza, Jonathan Calleri, Andre Ayew and Ashley Fletcher who combined have only scored 7 goals combined in all competitions this season. Plus, the fact that Edimilson Fernandes claimed signing of the season, speaks volumes as he was signed for the future and has only played 627 minutes this season.
From August to December, it was a roller-coaster ride for West Ham, starting with being knocked out by Astra Giurgiu in the Europa League Play-Off and things didn’t get much better, with various disappointing results against Watford, West Brom, Southampton, Tottenham and Arsenal in the league.
However, things started to look positive, with wins against Burnley, Hull and Hull in December which followed a 2-2 draw away to Liverpool.
Now here comes the 12th January, one of the most significant days in West Ham’s season when Slaven Bilic in his pre-match press conference before Crystal Palace announces that star man and 2015/16 Hammer of the Year, Dimitri Payet, no longer wanted to play for The Hammers, he subsequently left West Ham for his old club Marseille for £25m on the 29th January.
This whole saga boosted West Ham and their fans, as they go on to win three games in a row, scoring nine and only conceding two against Crystal Palace (where Andy Carroll scored his wonder bicycle kick which won West Ham’s goal of the season and won the Premier League goal of the month), Middlesbrough and Southampton
Another disappointing run of results followed this, with no wins in seven games with various bad results against easy teams such as West Brom, Watford, Bournemouth and Hull which made some fans question Slaven Bilic’s position as manager.
A 1-0 win against Swansea ended this run which picked up everyone’s confidence going into the final stretch of the season, where West Ham won two, drew three and lost one of their last six games of the season. One of those wins came in the memorable 1-0 victory over London rivals Tottenham Hotspur which confirmed West Ham’s Premier League safety and gave Tottenham little-to-no hope in winning the Premier League.
Overall, it has been a decent season if you take everything such as the transfers, the ground, the Payet saga and the injuries into consideration and an 11th isn’t too bad and it probably flatters West Ham a little as West Ham have looked Championship quality at times this season.
