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There seems to be a bit of a pattern emerging when the big clubs come to the London Stadium of these ridiculous five or six-goal wins, in a way that very rarely used to happen at Upton Park.

For context, between 2000 and 2016 at Upton Park we conceded five or more goals on only one single occasion (a highly competitive 5-3 defeat to Manchester United). On the flip side, we have conceded five or more goals on seven separate occasions since moving to the London Stadium.




• 5-0 to Manchester City (twice)
• 5-1 to Newcastle United
• 5-1 to Arsenal
• 5-2 to Arsenal
• 6-0 to Arsenal
• 5-0 to Liverpool

Once in 16 years at the old place, seven times in nine years at the new place. That is quite damning.

So why is this all of a sudden happening? Well its certainly not because we had a much better team at Upton Park. Over that 16-year period, we had some truly shocking teams including two relegated sides under Glenn Roader and Avram Grant.

Then there was Gianfranco Zola's 2009/10 team that mustered a mere 34 points - yet we were never on the end of these regular thumpings that we now experience season in, season out at the London Stadium.

Don't get me wrong, we still used to lose regularly versus the elite at Upton Park, but they were by and large very competitive contests and when Manchester Utd/Liverpool/Chelsea/Arsenal did win, they'd come off the pitch knowing they'd been in for a tough night's work. Can anyone honestly say Salah, Diaz, Gakpo etc left the field on Sunday thinking it was a hard night's work?

The pitch size at the London Stadium is bigger than that at Upton Park, so your KDBs, Salahs, Saka etc have an extra couple of seconds on the ball which the players at Upton Park weren't allowed.

But I believe the main reason for this is that because we have totally lost our 'home advantage'. When the big boys came to Upton Park, especially for a night game, the atmosphere was off the charts. 'Bubbles' was always a few decibels louder which would then be followed by a massive roar at kick off - and then we would be right behind our boys from the off.

The opposition fans would get loads of abuse from the Chicken Run/TBL/ Chav Corner. Opposition players would get a ton of stick; Jose Mourinho, Arsene Wenger and Rafa Benitez would have chants about them.

Our players had their own songs: "Weve got Payet", "One Carlos Tevez", "Paolo Di Canio" etc would be sung - and I'm not talking by 10/20 fans, they used to be sung en masse so it could be heard in all corners of the ground. It was a hostile place and the players fed off that.

Compare that to Sunday and you genuinely couldn't get a more polar opposite. Near total silence for 90 minutes. It's just so, so easy for the elite to rock up to the ground and play however they want. Now I have no evidence to back this up, but I am almost certain if you asked Mo Salah and Erling Haaland what is their favourite ground to play in they will say The London Stadium.

Now there will be the same arguments that I've seen before...




"The players track back and make tackles, not the stadium". Correct, but having raucous home support makes a massive difference especially when the big boys come to town, which is why Liverpool have always punched above their weight in the Champions League.

It's really not one big coincidence that we now regularly get high scoring beatings in a silent ground, yet never got the same kind of beatings in a louder ground despite having a far weaker team.

"The players need to give us something for us to get behind them". That was never the case at Upton Park or any other stadium in the Premier League. It's not as if the likes of Radoslav Kovac, Luis Boa Morte, Pablo Barrera etc gave us loads to shout about. Yet we never seemed to have deathly silence week in week out, back then.

"What about that (one night in nine years) versus Seville? It's the fans, not the stadium". It was a one-off where everything went our way in a massive game. It was an incredibly loud night, but not a traditional football atmosphere, more several pockets singing the same two or three difference songs all at different times creating a deafening noise.

When you play inside a ground that is impossible to sing in unison - and one where it is impossible to hear another block singing unless you are right next to them - then you have no chance of creating a sustained atmosphere throughout the season.

My view is that we play 19 games away from home per season and 19 games in a neutral venue in Stratford.

It doesn't matter who's in charge - whether it's Loputegui, Potter, Moyes, Bilic, whoever - for as long as we play at the London Stadium in its current state, with its God-awful acoustics that dilute our home advantage, then a five or six goal beating is always around the corner - in a way that was never the case at Upton Park.

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