West Ham United
After finishing 12th last season, manager Sam Allardyce’s contract was never renewed and he left club, paving the way for Slaven Bilic. And despite being knocked out of the Europa league before their campaign had hardly begun, West Ham got their Premier League season off to a very impressive start, taking some stuff opening fixtures right into their stride, beating Arsenal away on the first day of the season and going on to beat Liverpool and City in the opening 5 games. They’re now trailing of slightly, and sit in 8th, but are still dark horses to claim a Champions League spot this year, especially when their star signing of the summer, Dimirti Payet, returns from injury.
High point – August 29th – 3-0 win at Anfield stuns Kop
Low point – May 24th – Sam Allardyce leaves Upton Park 3 minutes after 2014/15 season ends
Overall score for 2015 – 7/10
Overall, 2015 has been a fantastic year for Premier League football, we saw Chelsea crowned Premier League champions but are now 14th in the table after 19 games. Steven Gerrard left Liverpool after 28 years, and was whacked 6-1 by Stoke in the last game. Leicester escaped relegation in May and are now 2nd in the league going into 2016. Stoke signed Xherdan Shaqiri, a player chased by some of Europe’s top clubs. Bournemouth got into the top division of English football for the first time, and all of that is the tip of the iceberg for a crazy year of football.
With any luck, 2016 will be just as exciting.
By Ben Kelly – @benkelly_10
