Just like Mikel Arteta became the touchstone for any struggling manager arguing he deserves more time to turn things around, West Ham United and other underperforming sides may look to Aston Villa for inspiration.
Arteta famously led Arsenal to a pair of eighth place finishes before turning the perennial underachievers into genuine Premier League title challengers in his fourth season at the helm.
A useful posterboy, certainly, for coaches looking to show remind their impatient owners what can be achieved with a little more faith and a few hundred million.
Unai Emery, Arteta’s Emirates predecessor, did not need quite so much time to transform Aston Villa, though. Even when things threatened to unravel at the start of the season, one of the most underrated managers in European football slammed his foot onto the accelerator, revved the engine, and sent Villa motoring into a potential title fight.
Villa came from behind to beat West Ham United on Sunday. Their tenth win in eleven league matches, and their ninth in a row across all competitions. And, a week after captain Jarrod Bowen bemoaned the Hammers’ failure to hold onto a lead away to Bournemouth, 1-0 and a 2-1 advantages were both squandered at the London Stadium.
How FAR can Mateus Fernandes go at West Ham?
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Though, one of the biggest beneficiaries of Nuno Espirito Santo’s appointment, Mateus Fernandes feels a brighter future is looming. If Aston Villa can follow up no wins in five with ten in eleven, then why can West Ham not embark on a similar rise up the table?
Mateus Fernandes says Aston Villa must be an inspiration for West Ham United
Well, there are plenty of reasons ‘why’, of course.
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Emery has the benefit of a solid backline full of depth, for one. Aston Villa were without Pau Torres and Tyrone Mings last weekend, but the uber-experienced Victor Lindelof stepped in nicely. As Lucas Paqueta produced arguably his worst display in a claret and blue shirt, meanwhile, the opposition playmaker Morgan Rogers added another devastating attacking play to his growing collection.
Speaking on the Remi Martins podcast, though, Fernandes insists that Aston Villa’s remarkable resurgence should be an inspiration to West Ham, rather than a brutal reminder of how far the two clubs have moved in alternate directions.
West Ham United v Aston Villa - Premier League
Photo by MB Media/Getty Images
“I don’t believe we’ve thrown in the towel too early, because three consecutive wins quickly change the landscape of the table,” Fernandes says. “Especially [in England], where we can beat any team in the standings.
“It ends up being, ‘OK, game by game, step by step, the next game is the most important’.”
Unfortunately for Fernandes and West Ham, that ‘next game’ sees Nuno’s side host Manchester City. Opposition they have not beaten since 2015.
Lose that, and should Leeds beat Crystal Palace at Elland Road, the Hammers will be six points from safety.
“We’ve seen, for example, the case of Aston Villa,” adds Fernandes. “They started very badly and now they’re in second or third place. Things change very quickly, week by week.
“It’s about trusting the process, trusting in what the staff and colleagues work on. There’s still a lot of noise, especially since we’re dealing with a lot of media attention, but the truth is that we think we’re shielded from that and we know what we’re doing.
“We try to look at the next game, look at what we did less well and try to improve. We know that on the other side, there are always teams with a lot of quality as well. We never play an easy game because it’s the Premier League, which is the most competitive league in the world, for me.
“It’s the most fun to play and to watch because it has that unpredictability. Nobody ever knows who’s going to win, which also makes everything more beautiful.”
Can you work out the three MISSING PLAYERS from our 2-1 win over Man City in 2015? 🕵️♂️
A clue: Two of the these mystery men scored the goals for Slaven Bilic's side…
West Ham v Man City missing players line up
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Nuno Espirito Santo has a plan to help improve the Hammers’ London Stadium form
Former Aston Villa skipper Gabby Agbonlahor thinks Leeds’ Elland Road record gives them the advantage over West Ham in a battle that is likely to run and run all the way from now until May. Should Erling Haaland and co triumph on Saturday – and it would be a massive shock if they didn’t – the Hammers will have won just two of their nine home matches while losing the other seven.
Fernandes, though, believes successive London Stadium victories over Newcastle and Burnley in November is proof that this home hoodoo can be overcome.
“We hadn’t been winning at home for many months,” he says. “The first approach the coach [Nuno] had, when we talked about this topic, was that it was all a mental thing. Meaning, getting rid of those ghosts in your head.
“I personally never went onto the pitch thinking about that, that we haven’t won at home for months. Every home game was an opportunity to show our worth, and we tried to win.
“The truth is that it ended up happening with Newcastle. I think that was our best game up to that point. This game, in terms of gameplay quality, was something we also managed to show well in the next game too.
“Then, there was the international break, and we ended up playing Liverpool at home. Unfortunately, we lost, but I think the team showed its identity again.”
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