By Tommy Langton
West Ham’s defeat at the weekend means they have taken just two points from their last six games and they are now second from bottom in the table.
But the nature of that defeat, a 2-1 reverse against table topping Man City, should give fans plenty of encouragement as we head into the festive period. This is a team that beat Liverpool 5-0, Stoke 7-2, Watford 6-0 and Crystal Palace 5-0.
They are on a 13-game winning streak in the Premier League and are still unbeaten this season. In Europe they have twice beaten Serie A leaders Napoli and they had a harder time in beating West Ham. The Hammers gave City one of their toughest games of the season and you would hope that will inspire them to turn their form around.
The fixture list does not get any kinder with Chelsea on the way. The two teams’ form is diametrically opposed as the Blues have won five of their last six games and are starting to look like the most serious threat to Man City’s chances of winning the title. Eden Hazard is back to his devastating best,
N’Golo Kante is bossing the midfield and they are on a roll. But this is a strange time of year as the games come in thick and fast, players grow tired and unexpected results become more commonplace.
Check the odds at well-reviewed sites like BetOnline and you will see that the Hammers are not given much chance of toppling Chelsea. West Ham are around the 6/1 mark and some bookmakers are going as long as 13/2 on them winning this one, while the best price you can get on Antonio Conte’s men is 11/20.
West Ham have conceded more goals than any other club this season and that is the sort of statistic to have Hazard and Alvaro Morata licking their lips in anticipation of the game. But the Hammers came oh so close to becoming just the second team to take points off City this season and they should take confidence from that performance.
Chelsea are not averse to losing against teams that expected to obliterate either. They have already lost to Burnley and bottom club Crystal Palace this season, and the Hammers could spring a surprise.
But if David Moyes cannot claim his first win as West Ham boss at the weekend, the next game does not look much friendlier as Arsenal head to east London.
The Gunners are inconsistent and not great on the road, but they are still fifth in the table and have the ability to destroy teams with their attacking, free-flowing football. Once again the Hammers are huge outsiders to win the game, while Arsene Wenger’s men are the odds-on favourites.
The Irons could well be bottom of the table and well adrift of 17th place by mid-December, but then the fixture list thankfully lets up a bit.
West Ham go into crucial games against Stoke, Newcastle, Bournemouth and West Brom over the festive period and all four are winnable. That run of games could define West Ham’s season. They are now second favourites to be relegated, odds-on with most bookmakers, and only Swansea have lower odds.
The third favourites for the drop, Huddersfield, have a decent cushion above the drop zone, while bottom club Palace are in better form and are now out at 15/8 to go down. Moyes finished bottom of the league with Sunderland last season and bookies feel he cannot save the Hammers.
The club must seriously consider investing in some new defenders in January as they are leaking far too many goals and could be in deep trouble if Moyes does not get plenty of points on the board before the New Year.
Agree with you about the defender investment, Ogbonna has looked markedly better under Moyes and more like the Italian defender he was, hopefully with Rice alongside they can become a defensive bedrock in the centre, we also need another ball winning midfielder (someone like Kante) or Carvalho in the transfer window, also agree with your optimism, the next two games if we are again hard to beat and hopefully get a point or more it will be a start. There are a lot of teams in the mix for relegation this season and some of those who came up are realising the challenge isn’t so easy, under Moyes in the early days Everton were famous for getting off to slow starts during the season then finishing strongly, they eventually rectified that but it is experience Moyes has in his locker, the fact we have been poor for a long time despite scoring many goals, there is a good chance that once we start winning we will go on a roll and hopefully push ourselves clear of the fight. Looking forward to the Chelsea match COYI !!!
Are you taking the Michael number 32? Ogbonna against Leicester and unable to kick with his right foot? The whole team away to Everton ffs. Huddersfield and Soton both ran city close and they’re shyte too.
I’ve not seen anything like the upturn a new manager should deliver. If you think we are about to turn the tanker based upon City away, I’d put the sherry away now. They were at no more than 20% and still saw us off.
Where do West Ham go from here ???? . , stupid question and a stupid article .
The only place to go must surely be , Up .
We are beginning to look a team at last . Have faith . Our position is false and all fans know it . Our squad is capable of more than it currently represents . I predict 3 points against Chelski . And a resurgence of the Hammers . We will be out of bottom three over Christmas.
🤧🤞.
We are in fact too good to go down ; an old cliche , I know and it has happened too often .
We have been classed as “ too good to go down “ on three occasions and we have obliged by going down ,,, but not this time . Phuck the pundits ,,, Carroll is right and Phuck Merson the drunk .
Such a happy soul.
Chelsea had a tough game on Tuesday in the CL. They are like a wounded animal being stalked by the hungry predators from the East End. I need some more of those pills…..
Yeah they must be crapping their pants at the thought of facing up to us after Athletico!!!!
No no they were looking really tired by the end. Could hardly drag themselves off the pitch. And only three & a half days to recover. We will slaughter them.
Rope a dope 64 ! Its a cunning plan mate 😂
With you on the dope bit Laz! I can’t believe how many of us have been turned by the City loss bud. Moyes has delivered one point and that just isn’t good enough. And as for being too good to go down, well I must be watching a different West Ham to everyone else because my West Ham are as shyte as any I can remember ( might concede if you come back with Grant/Roeder) but even then we tried attacking! Hippo head is probably chuckling himself to sleep!
Its a catch 22 ? We are on the brink of going down ! Points are needed, does Moyes have time or the personnel to avoid the drop we will find out soon enough! The transfer kitty is small if you want to get in quality, there is a different feel about the team for sure but 1 point out of six games is relegation stats , we need to get points on the board with the 4 games after ars and chelski! Any from those two would be a shot so we will have to see ! Down to Moyes to put our best side out tomorrow not hart , Carroll or noble for sure , its going to be a shyte Xmas if we don’t start getting points on the board soon ! Coyi 😉