Following West Ham’s 5-2 defeat to Liverpool yesterday, everything felt pretty bleak given the nature of the thrashing at Anfield and the wider context of the club’s debt being laid bare just 24 hours earlier.
It was one of those weekends where you begin to fear the worst.
However, today brought some much-needed encouragement in the Hammers’ fight to remain in the Premier League, with every single result involving our relegation rivals going in our favour.
The positive swing arguably began yesterday with Leeds United’s defeat to Manchester City. That said, I still believe West Ham’s best chance of survival may come if the Yorkshire side have nothing to play for by the time they arrive at the London Stadium on the final day.
Rivals Hand Hammers a Timely Lifeline
In today’s fixtures, our next opponents Fulham defeated Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 at Craven Cottage. Brighton won by the same scoreline against Nottingham Forest, responding strongly after the visitors equalised almost immediately following an early wonder goal from the Seagulls.
The real icing on the cake came as Crystal Palace also fell to a 2-1 defeat away at Manchester United, despite taking the lead inside four minutes.
I appreciate many won’t view Palace as genuine relegation candidates. However, they remain involved in European competition and face Tottenham next, followed by a daunting run-in until the end of the season.
So while nothing has materially changed for West Ham just yet, the landscape looks slightly less ominous than it did 24 hours ago.
That said, Wednesday night’s clash with Fulham has now become absolutely pivotal.
We are back to that situation where we applaud Fulham for being focussed and concentrating against Spurs, but now want them to start thinking of their summer holidays and switching off for Wednesday 😂😂⚒️
Essentially we got away with a heavy defeat when other results could have made it disastrous.
I said 4 points from Bournemouth, Liverpool and Fulham …and I still believe we will win on Wednesday….
Much too much negativity from some fans about our loss to Liverpool ….
I think Forest will get 10 points and I still believe we can get 15
Wolves , Everton and leeds at home
2 wins away from Fulham , palace and Brentford….
Forget the rest of the games …. Yes ofcourse we might snatch a point here or there but realistically the above games are where the points can be achieved
Deja vu.
Nothing gained nothing lost apart from whu goal difference increase.
Looking at games against top six.
Crystal Palace: Man City / Liverpool / Arsenal (last game).
Leeds: Man Utd.
Spurs: Liverpool / Villa / Chelsea.
Nottm Forest: Man City / Villa / Chelsea / Man Utd.
West Ham : Villa / Arsenal.
Forest have disadvantage of extra European games.
Spurs carrying a number of injuries but could see players returning.
IMO Forest are on the brink of descent.
Whu need to stay away from injuries / red cards.
I think it’s out of West Ham, Nottingham Forest and Spuds. Palace, Leeds and Sunderland will be just fine.
I can see us getting 39 to 42pts. I can’t see Spurs or Forest getting more than 36 pts. New manager bounces have failed to arrive for both teams, the disruption of changing managers will kill both of them off.