West Ham’s Premiership fixtures for the 2018/19 season were officially announced this morning.
The Hammers kick off the season with a difficult away trip to Champions League finalists Liverpool. The next fixture will see Bournemouth as the first visitors at the London Stadium. Followed by the first London Derby of the season with a trip to the Emirates to play Arsenal. The fourth fixture sees Championship winners Wolverhampton Wanderers as visitors to Stratford with Everton next up for West Ham at Goodison. West Ham’s sixth fixture will see London rivals Chelsea make the journey across London and the visit of Man United next will make up what will be a tough opening seven fixtures for the Hammers.
The fans will be hoping new manager Manuel Pellegrini can navigate these opening fixtures and get the team off to good a start.
West Ham fans would have been keen for an opening day fixture at home as they are yet again faced with an away game. This has happened every season since their move from the Boleyn Ground. Last season they were forced to play their opening FOUR fixtures away due to an athletics event held at the stadium. Many believe this coincided with the poor season the fans had to endure.
The fans are faced with having to travel yet again in the traditional boxing day fixture. This time seeing a trip to St Mary’s Stadium to play Southampton. It will be the third season in a row that the Hammers have been forced to play away from the London Stadium. Many fans believe it is due to an agreement in place with the Westfield Centre to avoid congestion in and around the centre on what is deemed the busiest shopping day of the year. However, CEO Karren Brady has denied there is any such agreement in place.
The last home game sees Southampton visit the London Stadium in the penultimate game of the season before a trip across the capital to Vicarage Road to play Watford in the last game.
Other fixtures of note would be the visit of London rivals Tottenham (20th October), Champions Man City (24th November), newly promoted Cardiff (4th December) and Play-Off winners Fulham (23rd February).
A full list of the fixtures can be found here.
Tony Close