Why the London Stadium is better than Wembley

West Ham’s move the London Stadium last season brought a lot of media and fan attention – though mostly negative.

Many opposing supporters, particularly Leyton Orient and Tottenham Hotspur, were against the move with the great deal that both David Gold and David Sullivan got for the club.

The previous season of 2015-16 Slaven Bilic had excelled in taking us to a 7th place finish with nine wins at the Boleyn Ground and only three defeats.

Much pressure was on us to perform at the London Stadium, but it all got off to a negative start with elimination from the UEFA Europa League at home to Romanian minnows Astra Giurgiu, at home.

The Premier League season didn’t get much better – we were in a relegation battle for part of it and ended the season with eight home defeats and only seven wins at our new home.

Pressure of playing at the London Stadium? Or just the players we had? One of those victories however was against this weekend’s rivals, Tottenham. West Ham odds are currently out at 6.0 to pull off a repeat of last season’s victory.

Spurs decided to follow in our footsteps this season by moving to Wembley Stadium, albeit a temporary deal whilst White Hart Lane is being renovated.

Mauricio Pochettino’s side had performed unsuccessfully at the home of English football in last season’s Champions League as they dropped into the Europa League in a group they were widely-considered to win, versus AS Monaco, Bayer 04 Leverkusen and CSKA Moscow.

Then in the Europa League they were dumped out by Belgium First League A side, Gent, following a 2-2 draw at Wembley.

Spurs have started the 2017-18 Premier League season without a win at their temporary home. The first-ever Premier League game at Wembley saw them beaten 1-2 by Chelsea, before being held 1-1 by Burnley and 0-0 by Swansea – the latter two both expected to be in the bottom half if not battling relegation this season.

Pressure of playing at the national stadium? Unlucky? Simply a slow start to the season? Or the bigger pitch not suiting Pochettino’s tactics?

Unlike Spurs, we got a win on our opening home game this season – a solid performance in beating Huddersfield Town 2-0 on Monday night football. The first goals the newly-promoted Terriers had conceded this season.

Results aside, the graphic below from Betfair highlights that the London Stadium is much closer to the Boleyn compared to Wembley and White Hart Lane. Though this doesn’t affect Spurs fans greatly as most of them come from much further away.
What’s more, the pies and pints are also cheaper for the fans at our new stadium!





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