West Ham United claimed a narrow 1-0 win against Swansea City at the London Stadium.
Diafra Sakho
Paul Merson has told Soccer Saturday on Sky Sports (broadcast on 30th September 2017 from 12:00 pm) that he feels that Diafra Sakho’s late winner against Swansea has probably saved Slaven Bilic’s job as West Ham manager.
The Hammers went into the clash with the Swans having not won in the Premier League since beating Huddersfield earlier in the month.
Slaven Bilic
Bilic’s future seemed to be a topic for debate once again in the days leading up to the game, with the Daily Mirror reporting earlier this week that Carlo Ancelotti has been linked with succeeding the Croatian following his departure from Bayern Munich.
Bilic’s critics would have certainly been getting louder as the game at the London Stadium wore on as the Swans looked comfortable while the home side failed to ask many questions of Paul Clement’s men until the 90th minute when Sakho found the back of the net to break the deadlock and give West Ham a much-needed three points.
And Merson suggested that Bilic’s future would look a lot bleaker had Sakho not scored in the dying minutes.
“I turned round to Charlie [Nicholas] with about 10 minutes to go and I said, ‘Slaven could be in trouble here’. It was the performance, and then he made the substitutions. He brought off Hernandez and the crowd went mad and you’re thinking then, ‘if this doesn’t go right…’, but the subs came on and it worked a treat.”
With the international break now ahead, Bilic may feel that the time off will prove beneficial as while the team can reflect positively on the fact that they secured three points, they have enough time to make the improvements that may allow them to forget about the manner of the win against Swansea.
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