West Ham recorded back-to-back wins for the first time in nearly a year but you wouldn’t have known it from the London Stadium atmosphere.
Leicester City put in one of the most feeble performances seen at the London Stadium for some time.
Besides West Ham over the last 14 months of course.
The Hammers have been dismal until Graham Potter’s arrival.
Things have indisputably improved since the ex Chelsea boss took over from Julen Lopetegui.
Key statistics and metrics are all up.
Performances, on the whole, are much improved, the best being the away win at Arsenal last weekend.
The Hammers have kept back-to-back clean sheets – which have been just as rare as wins since West Ham fell off a cliff following a 2-0 win at the Emirates on December 28th 2023.
Potter has brought new hope, clarity, organisation and a clear identity.
Much of what he has implemented bears some of the hallmarks of the best years of David Moyes’ tenure in that regard.
That is no bad thing given how easy West Ham had become to play against in the last year or so.
Fans expect and want more, though.
Some fan groans after West Ham wins
After all that is why many wanted to move in a different direction from Moyes in the first place.
That direction has been down as the Hammers got it all wrong with the Lopetegui appointment and summer rebuild.
Potter has got West Ham moving up, one place at least – above Moyes’ Everton.
But it doesn’t yet feel like everyone is totally convinced at the London Stadium.
Now Potter has made a brutally honest West Ham admission amid some fan groans.
Hammers fans are often criticised for being hard to please.
It’s a touch unfair, though. And there is a difference between being demanding and hard to please.
Fans of the likes of Spurs, Villa, Newcastle and even Brighton, Bournemouth and Palace nowadays seem to be perfectly entitled to expect entertaining football and results.
Yet when it is the Hammers, sneering pundits, journalists and rival fans usually resort to mocking the West Ham way.
The simple fact is, West Ham fans want to be entertained.
Style murmurings at deathly quiet London Stadium
Style murmurings at deathly quiet London Stadium
And the win over Leicester was far from entertaining.
But it was a win and West Ham have not had many of those in recent times.
Leicester were so awful, it is difficult to judge the Hammers’ display.
The team did answer questions about being able to beat teams who sit off them and defend in a low block.
The London Stadium was deathly quiet throughout the game, though.
There is yet to be that spark among supporters being swept up in Potter’s approach.
Even after the win at Arsenal some grumbled about the way West Ham sat back when the Gunners went down to 10 men.
The manager will clearly need to bring his own players in to make this West Ham “his”.
More energy, power, pace and guile is desperately needed in the summer.
There have been murmurings about the style of play on fan forums and social media.
And murmurings were about as loud as things got inside the ground against the Foxes too.
Thankfully West Ham appear to have a realist as manager.
Potter makes brutally honest West Ham admission six weeks in
Just six weeks in to the job, Potter knows this is a work in progress.
The 49-year-old was honest enough to confront the elephant in the room.
The manager was keen to accentuate the clear positives from the last two games.
However, he knows fans expect and want more in the long run.
And Potter says he will keep working to get the right blend of entertainment and results.
“I don’t think it was champagne football by any stretch,” Potter told West Ham’s website.
“But it was professional and importantly we got the job done.
“We knew that the game was going to be completely different away at Arsenal compared to home, with the greatest respect, against Leicester.
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