West Ham United are clearly a team which get under their opponents’ skin.
West Ham used to be famed for being everyone’s second favourite team.
And while it may have been a patronising turn of phrase, it appears the charm has worn off both on and off the pitch.
A lot of rival fans appear to have changed their opinion on the East Londoners since their return to the top flight under the pragmatic footballing style of Sam Allardyce in 2012.
The club’s subsequent controversial move to the London Stadium has done little to improve relations with the neutrals either.
And that appears to have translated onto the pitch with opponents kicking lumps out of West Ham according to findings from betting aggregator Bet-BonusCode.co.uk.
That’s because the Irons are the most sinned-against team in the Premier League with opponents receiving 22 red cards against them in the last five years.
The most recent one came in the 3-2 defeat to bitter rivals Tottenham Hotspur last month.
Serge Aurier of Tottenham Hotspur sent off against West Ham at the London Stadium
Only Chelsea – another club for whom rivals have little love lost – come close, with 21.
Roman Abramovich’s expensively assembled squad have been able to take advantage in two of those five seasons though, by lifting the Premier League title.
West Ham’s highest finish in that time came in Slaven Bilic’s first season in charge as the Hammers recorded their highest ever Premier League points total to finish seventh, just four points off the Champions League.
Football fans often write teams off once they go down to 10-men, a worrying outlook considering referees are stricter than ever this season.
After all with the extra man teams should be able to take advantage, with every Premier League point priceless.
And according to the research West Ham stay true to the age-old footballing parlance on struggling when down to 10 men, winning just 17% of the 18 matches they have played with a man less.
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