Crushing blow for West Ham ahead of Brentford after Premier League announcement sickener

On Saturday, West Ham United will travel to West London to play Brentford in the Premier League.

In order to relieve some of his current tension, Julen Lopetegui needs to lead West Ham against Brentford in the Premier League to a victory. Lopetegui is now under a lot of strain.

The London Stadium is now in a rather dismal situation, and it has been stated that Lopetegui needs to win this weekend’s game against the Bees.

Although I believe we can all agree that it’s a bit early in the season to declare games as must-wins, Lopetegui surely needs his players to step up.

We need to see the Hammers establish a distinct playing identity, at the very least. I don’t really care if that is a possession-based strategy, a counterattacking strategy, a high-press strategy, or anything else!

All I could ask for is for everyone to be pulled in the same direction under a precise and well-defined framework.

A victory over Brentford would drastically alter the course of events, but we’ve already suffered a serious setback before the game has even begun.

Brentford trails West Ham following the Premier League announcement.

There’s really no two ways about it—the Hammers need to win this weekend.

The official Premier League website has revealed that our match against Brentford on Saturday will be officiated by Simon Hooper.

Hooper will be well known to Hammers supporters. He was assigned to VAR for our 2022–2023 season draw against Southampton. Following the game, we were charged by the FA for obstructing the referee.

This occurred after VAR officer Hooper neglected to step in when referee Peter Bankes strangely prevented Jarrod Bowen from intercepting a Southampton player just before they scored.

Following the game, David Moyes angrily attacked the 42-year-old, saying he “should have gone to specsavers” and calling the whole thing “ridiculous” because it appeared the official had not even witnessed the event (The Sun).

David Coote has been appointed as the VAR chief in the meantime.

When we lost 2-0 against Tottenham in 2020, Coote made a heinous mistake by allowing Tomas Soucek’s own goal to stand, even though Davinson Sanchez had handled the ball before it reached the Czech international (Sky Sports).

In April, he assisted with video assistant refereeing our 4–3 loss at Newcastle, and he made the appalling call to give the Toon a penalty in the second half, even though Anthony Gordon had really kicked Kalvin Phillips.

In my opinion, West Ham has been dealt a really terrible double booking for the Brentford match, which could have a significant impact on Lopetegui’s future at the London Stadium.

West Ham records by David Coote and Simon Hooper

In fact, the Hammers have a great track record when Hooper officiates our games.

In the 12 games he has officiated for us so far, we have won eight of them.

But in my perspective, the errors he has made during our games much outweigh that record.

Out of the 12 games that Coote has officiated for us, West Ham has only triumphed in two of them.

I find it heartbreaking that those two men will decide our fate this weekend.

The Premier League consistently assigns awful referees to West Ham games, and this weekend’s matchup with Brentford is no exception.

After the game, hopefully neither Hooper nor Coote will be on the topic.

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