Is the London Stadium beginning to feel like home for West Ham fans?

West Ham are “massive” to quote the chant of the moment – and so, surprisingly, was the London Stadium in the memorable Europa League win against Sevilla. Six years after moving from Upton Park, the club’s troubled new ground had changed from corporate dome to a cauldron of noise. Is Stratford finally starting to feel like home for Hammers fans?

For all Karren Brady’s promises of a successful migration, it did not start well in 2016, with fans who preferred to stand put next to fans who wanted to sit and fights breaking out in an early game against Watford. The stewarding was poor and in a League Cup tie against Chelsea rival fans used the circular concourse to cause aggravation.

It seemed difficult to get a chant going all around the vast stadium. The diehards had many complaints: the distance from the pitch, plastic fans, the long walk from Stratford and the sale of popcorn. It was forgotten that sometimes Upton Park could be quiet, too. The club improved the stewarding and moved fans to more appropriate areas, but many problems remained.

The nadir for the London Stadium was the pitch invasion during a 3-0 home defeat to Burnley in March 2018. David Moyes was in his first spell as manager with the club, as ever fighting relegation rather than moving to the promised next level. One middle-aged fan planted a corner flag in the centre circle. With the stewards as proactive as the West Ham defence, Mark Noble found himself acting as a makeshift bouncer, manhandling one miscreant and inspiring the Guardian cartoonist David Squires to draw Noble singing “I’m forever throwing Herberts, stewards vanish in thin air”. Several hundred fans gathered around the directors’ box chanting: “You’ve destroyed our club” at owners David