Let’s start with the bad news for West Ham: after less than 24 hours out of the relegation zone, the Hammers are back in it.
However, this weekend has still been a positive one for the club because all of West Ham’s relegation rivals failed to pick up wins in their crucial Premier League fixtures.
Leeds United will probably be satisfied with an away point against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park considering they were down to ten men. Nottingham Forest, on the other hand, may feel frustrated not to have beaten Fulham at the City Ground after dominating large parts of the game.
That said, the point for Vítor Pereira’s side was enough to move them back above the Hammers in the table.
Tudor may well have saved his Spurs job with a point at Anfield
West Ham Momentum Growing Despite Table Position
West Ham manager Nuno Espírito Santo was right to downplay the significance of his team briefly climbing out of the relegation zone yesterday. The Irons boss knew full well the situation was likely to change quickly.
But the bigger picture suggests there is now real momentum behind West Ham.
The same cannot necessarily be said for Tottenham Hotspur, who drew with Liverpool scoring an 89th-minute equaliser.
That said, this Liverpool side looks a shadow of the team that won the title last season, and Spurs may well face tougher tests before the campaign ends.
From a West Ham perspective, it was frustrating to watch Liverpool struggle to deal with a Tottenham side clearly fighting for survival. The home side had their chances late on, but Andy Robertson in particular had a stinker in the final few moments — and he was far from the only one.
Tottenham now sit just one point above both West Ham and Nottingham Forest. The North London club did end a losing run which may give them a lift.
With Spurs facing a huge game against Forest next week, that fixture could prove pivotal in deciding how the relegation battle unfolds.
Westham have a real chance of two or three wins in a row which would dramatically change the relegation battle . Some outstanding defending performances gives Westham a real chance of nicking wins 1-0 .
End of the day, the negative is to view it as “We’re no better off and it’s a game down off the remaining fixtures…” but I’d say the positives outweigh that.
I think if you asked anyone before the game if they’d take a point against a City side (again) chasing the league they’d gladly have taken it over naff all.
So being level with Forest, 1 behind Spurs and 3 behind Leeds is better than being at least 1 behind, 2 behind and 4 behind potentially with a worse case scenario of being up to 3, 4 and 6 behind respectively.
Personally, on Friday then I’d have taken what we find ourselves with ahead of any of the above potentials any day of the week.
What would we be thinking would be best result between spurs and forest? I’m thinking maybe a draw to keep them both within striking distance?
Definitely a draw. The way the situation is with goal difference means we’re already needing to get a better result than either side at any time to go ahead of them on points.
Basically, a draw between them means each side is one win for us with a draw/defeat for each of them putting them below us. A win for either of them means we’re needing to better their results twice to go ahead. Rather have two in easy reach than one.
“Tudor may well have saved his Spurs job with a point at Anfield”
Let’s hope so. He’s doing a great job for us so far.
Important to remember even using the worst case scenario and we lose to Villa next week, Spurs and Forest play each other so virtually any permutation of results will still work out not too bad for us. But we shouldn’t really be worrying about others and just concentrate on our own results and performance. I don’t think we will lose to Villa and if we play a little more on the front foot we will beat them.
The Spuds result wasn’t all that bad as it keeps Tempol Tudor in the job. I think he would of got sacked if they’d lost 2 or 3-0. If we can nick a win at Villa then we know one or both of Spuds and Forest will miss out on points.