With only nine games remaining in the 2021/22 Premier League campaign for David Moyes’ West Ham United side, it’s looking like it’ll be another year of success for the London Stadium outfit as another foray into European football is definitely on the cards.
With 29 games played, The Hammers again find themselves sat in sixth place in the table whilst they also continue to battle away in the latter stages of the Europa League, and although Arsenal’s games in hand give them a clear advantage at this point, if results go the right way between now and May, it’s not entirely inconceivable that fourth place couldn’t be unexpectedly snared and the Europa League could be upgraded to a much vaunted and far more lucrative Champions League adventure next season. Fans of Betway who like a flutter would no doubt find good odds for that outcome.
Moyes and fans alike won’t really be thinking that far ahead at this point though as nine games is a good chunk of football that remains to be played and although there are some very winnable games in the final run of fixtures that would naturally boost hopes of a very strong finish, West Ham do still have to face Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester City and obviously the Arsenal tie could be pivotal to how the table finally looks at the end of this campaign.
Having unfortunately, but maybe expectedly, lost to Liverpool at the beginning of the month, it was crucial Moyes saw his side pick up all three points as they welcomed Aston Villa for the return fixture of the year and, of course, the manner of the victory with emotional Ukraine international Andriy Yarmolenko opening the scoring to set them on their way will last in history and in some ways could in fact prove to be the perfect kind of confidence boost that pushes the whole squad on to end the season in good form, despite what looks like a troubling but growing injury situation for the club with both Aaron Cresswell and Michail Antonio needing to be substituted in the clash with Villa having picked up issues of their own.
Yarmolenko will, however, continue to take the headlines for himself for the next few days until the Round of 16 second leg clash with Sevilla is completed later this week. So Andriy can have the final words here.
“It was so emotional for me because of the situation in my country. It is so difficult for me right now in this moment thinking about football because every day, the Russian army is killing Ukrainian people. I just want to say thank you to my team-mates, who support me all the time, every day. To West Ham fans, they also support me and Ukrainian people and also to all British people, because we feel you support us. I felt the support from the fans and I tried to give everything on the pitch because I know how important the game was for us today. I’m not ready for 100% because the last two weeks I train maybe three or four times. Since 26 February, I had to rest for four days because it was impossible to train; I was just thinking about my family and my people. I just tried to give everything on the pitch.”
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