West Ham’s Premier League safety edged a little closer following the news that Leicester and Everton and battled to a Premier League stalemate at The Walkers Stadium.
With games fast running out David Moyes’s men find themselves with a four point relegation cushion and a healthy goal difference between the bottom three in the EPL. This is despite back to back losses against Liverpool and Crystal Palace respectively, where the goal deficit remained reasonable despite six goals ripping into Łukasz Fabiański’s overpopulated net.
Of course, a midweek trip to Premier League champions elect Manchester City on Wednesday might put a dent in the Hammers aspirations, but the buffer zone remains a decent one.
Ironically it’s not what West Ham may or may not do for the remainder of the season that’s given me confidence. It’s the run-in of the teams below us which has made me relax a little because it’s hard to envisage two teams below us accumulating the five points required to overhaul Moyes’s side. It’s not that our beloved Iron’s have ceased to be low-lying fruit, we’re still dangling and slightly rotten, but it would require a small step ladder to pluck us and I’m not sure anybody has one.
Premier League safety
Leeds in particular look to have a very bleak run-in to achieve Premier League safety. Next up they face Manchester City, followed by Newcastle, ourselves and finally stuttering Spurs. Perhaps they will be able to find five points from those fixtures but it would seem unlikely.
Since November, many West Ham fans have been asking themselves whether there were three worse teams in the Premier League. It may have taken a while but it now seems there may be, not because we’ve been brilliant and escaped by design. . .
We’re just slightly less pants.
If Moyes wants to “park the bus” and go ultra defensive i’m right behind that.If we try and take City on we could be shipping a lot of goals and we need to protect that goal difference.
As for you Hugh being a little bit more relaxed i’m not and won’t be until we are safe.
I don’t want to go into that Leicester game and still needing something.
Interesting, I’ve been looking at the same thing.
The home game against Leeds will be pivotal. A draw may just be enough to keep them from leapfrogging West Ham out of relegation and looking at the run-ins of the other candidates, 35 points & GD looks safe. (Isn’t that the mark that got Zola fired?)