Sir Geoff Hurst praises ‘remarkable’ West Ham United comeback v Arsenal and delivers relegation prediction
Sir Geoff Hurst has admitted he expects West Ham United to avoid Premier League relegation this season despite a disappointing season that has lacked cohesiveness.
The Hammers are currently 15th in the Premier League with eight games of their season remaining after coming from two goals behind to nick a draw against Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal last weekend at the London Stadium.
Speaking live on talkSPORT (Thursday, 20 April), the England World Cup winner praised David Moyes’ team for their “remarkable” comeback against the league leaders and admitted he expects the club to avoid the drop this year.
“I think the issue with West Ham is we lack a bit of cohesiveness and creating chances,” he said.
“We aren’t scoring many goals. Even the goals we scored recently, two free-kicks, a penalty. We are still lacking a bit of cohesiveness.
“The attitude, and that is the important thing about a team, the attitude they showed after going down by two after five minutes was a remarkable effort.
“I think they are playing for their manager, so I do expect, as all West Ham fans expect, to get out of trouble.
“But this has been a very disappointing season, particularly after last season’s very good year, one we wouldn’t have expected.
“But that is football and everybody has their ups and downs, and naturally, I do expect us to get out of trouble.”
Vast improvement
As Hurst quite rightly said, it has been evident that the West Ham players have been fighting for Moyes all season long.
Every time the Scottish manager seems to be on his final life, the players pull off a result out of nowhere. The victories over Everton, Nottingham Forest and Fulham are all brilliant examples of the fighting attitude that the first team have shown this season.
Considering the marked improvement in performance against Arsenal last weekend, many fans will now hope the club can ease their way up the Premier League table and away from any final-day relegation drama.
However, with European Conference League commitments still going on, Moyes is going to have to be at his very best to utilise his squad correctly.
The West Ham United manager has often been accused of not giving the likes of Flynn Downes any opportunities to thrive on the first-team stage, but he will have to rely upon these types of players as the season draws to a close.