West Ham’s victory over Chelsea was the latest big scalp to go with the wins over Man City, Arsenal & Liverpool. What was your favourite and why?
Brian Williams: The best win of the season has to be Chelsea for me. I hated them long before Terry and Mourinho came along. Where I was brought up, all the other kids supported Chelsea. I was the only Hammer for miles. They made my life a misery. I hope all those kids still support Chelski — they would have been gutted when Big Andy got the winner.
James Longman: Finally winning at Anfield will always be massive highlight, and finding out we had won when I got off the plane in Ibiza set me, and Chris my fellow KUMB podcaster, up for quite a celebratory night involving a giant inflatable swan. However, Chelsea was dreamland and for the big man to score the winner was a moment to cherish for a long time.
Geoff Hillyer: You could make a case for any of these wins. Even though a couple of those wins were by greater margins, I’m going for the game against Chelsea. It was very unWest Ham like. It was a team out of form visiting us, which is normally a banker defeat for West Ham, and our winner a few minutes from the end. And you felt that we could go places afterwards.
James Jones: The Chelsea one has to be my favourite as I didn’t get to the away wins. The atmosphere at the Boleyn that day was unbelievable and certainly a great memory we’ll cherish once we move.
David Meagher: The Man City result was the most remarkable given their form prior to the game but the Chelsea win was truly delicious. The manner of the victory was thrilling, culminating in Andy Carroll brushing Chelsea’s much-lauded centre backs aside to score a late winner. The forlorn image of the Special One up in the stands surrounded by ecstatic Hammers was one that will remain in the memory for a long time!
Andy Carroll was on the scoresheet against the Blues, does he get in your starting XI?
BW: The way we’re playing under Super Slav, Sakho has to start if he’s fit. He’s got the pace to pull defenders out of position when he runs the channels and gives the midfield some space to exploit. Carroll’s fantastic in the air but he tends to offer a static target and the fluidity goes out of our passing game.
JL: As proved against Watford, we really do need Sakho to start up top as his work rate is second to none and the way Bilic sets us up plays to his strength. I am a huge fan of Andy Carroll and an impact sub roll is perfect for him. When he starts we lose some of our rhythm.
GH: No, he doesn’t. I view him as an option when things need changing. I think our tendency is to knock it long when Carroll’s in the side, but that bypasses our midfield which has been crucial to our success this season. However, he’s useful to come on and mix things up a bit when things aren’t going our way.
JJ: At home, maybe. But on our travels we need pace rather than a target man to complement our counter attacking style. Still, I think even at home Carroll can have a bigger impact off the bench, as he showed against Chelsea.
DM: No. It’s a measure of how strong our squad has become that Andy will have to dig his way back into a starting position. Diafra Sakho has not maintained the sensational scoring run that characterised his first 10 games at West Ham but he has remained a potent force and his work rate is second to none. Andy has undoubted abilities and his impact as a substitute is immense but for now, my vote goes to Sakho.
How many points do you think West Ham will get in November, the Hammers have home games against Everton and West Brom either side of a trip to Spurs.
BW: Perform like we did against Chelski and the likes of Everton, West Brom and Spurs should hold no fears. A repeat of what happened at Vicarage Road and we’ll get nothing. I’d take six points right now if they were offered on condition that three of them were against Tottenham.
JL: I am going to remain stupidly optimistic and go for seven. There are banana skins everywhere as Everton are always tricky, Pulis is my managerial nemesis and Spuds can always go either way.
GH: I think November is going to be tough. Everton and Spurs will not be easy teams to play against and if we could get any more than three points out of them, I would be delighted. West Brom won’t be easy either. That game could be another Watford, with them frustrating us.
JJ: Six at the very least, but I’d love to see us get maximum points. That said, part of me would swap a win at Spurs for losses to Everton and West Brom.
DM: Right now we are upside down in our results. With that in mind, an away win at Spurs seems likely, we’ll beat Everton and then the Baggies could well turn us over. I’d settle for six or seven points.
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