At times such as this eyes almost automatically and definitely unwillingly turn to the League table and the upcoming Hammers fixture list!
In many cases it stops there but to get a serious consideration of our prospects we always need to look at the teams around us.
In the media it’s always easier – I did it for many years – to look a negatives and write something some destructive rather than looking for positives, good news or a better outlook.
So to get a genuine close up on things let’s take a look at those teams threatened by relegation and look at what each of us has to face as we look towards the chances of escape.
And I have to say – that wherever anyway stands on the owners debate – the winter window has given us a chance with the signing of Jarrod Bowen and the impressive Tomas Soucek.
Realistically, the relegation battle now probably involves Norwich City, Watford, West Ham, Villa, Bournemouth and Brighton.
I’ll leave you to make up your minds but just possibly the situation isn’t quite as bad as we may imagine as we reach the climax looking at the challenges faced by the other relegation candidates.
I won’t distract you with what we think of the likely outcome but would be interested to hear your views
Here are the fixtures of the other immediately threatened club:
Norwich City
Liverpool (h)
Wolves (a)
Leicester (h)
Spurs (a)
Sheffield United (a)
Saints (h)
Everton (h)
Arsenal (a)
Brighton (h)
Watford (a)
West Ham (h)
Chelsea (a)
Burnley (h)
Man City (a)
Watford
Brighton (a)
Man United (a)
Liverpool (h)
Palace (a)
Leicester (h)
Burnley (a)
Chelsea (a)
Norwich (h)
Newcastle (h)
West Ham (a)
Man City (h)
Arsenal (a)
Aston Villa
Spurs (h)
Saints (a)
Sheff Utd (h)
Man City (h)
Leicester (a)
Chelsea (h)
Newcastle (a)
Wolves (h)
Liverpool (a)
Man United (h)
Palace (h)
Everton (a)
Arsenal (h)
West Ham (a)
Bournemouth
Sheff United (a)
Burnley (a)
Chelsea (h)
Liverpool (a)
Palace (h)
Wolves (a)
Newcastle (h)
Man United (a)
Leicester (h)
Man City (a)
Saints (h)
Everton (a)
Brighton
Watford (h)
Sheff Utd (a)
Palace (h)
Wolves (a)
Arsenal (h)
Leicester (a)
Man United (h)
Norwich (a)
Liverpool (h)
Man City (h)
Saints (a)
Newcastle (h)
Burnley (a)
At this moment in time, I think the pertinent question is are there 3 teams worse than West Ham?
That’s why it was done
I also have looked at the fixtures and can see only the following points to be won, on todays form of course
NORWICH — 9 Pts = 27 Pts Relegated
WATFORD — 11 Pts = 34 Pts Relegated
WEST HAM — 14 Pts = 38 Pts
VILLA — 9 Pts = 34 Pts Relegated
BOURNEMOUTH — 9 Pts = 35 Pts
BRIGHTON — 10 Pts = 36 Pts
This I believe will be the state of play come the end of the season
Hmm, interesting post but very hard to say who is best placed. All the teams have a lot of tough matches to play! If we can hang in until the last few games (not be cut adrift), I think we’ll stay up by getting results against Burnley, Norwich, Watford, Villa. In the short term, I would take a couple of decent performances away to City and Liverpool so we have some morale left, i.e. not getting hammered and somehow even grabbing a single point from those games..
Quite frankly I’m past caring
The club is rotten from top to bottom on this boards watch
If by going down we get rid of them I’d take it all day long,as would most fans
They have destroyed my club
Mark
But not past caring sufficiently to comment 😉
What other vehicle does Joe Public have ?, We have no right of reply to them otherwise they would ban us, ostracise us.
This approach has Brady written all over this, she wants a new breed of West Ham fan.
We need her gone more than most
Hope that’s not your real name if you’re a ST holder Mark
You’ll probably be receiving a banning letter from Brady soon if so.
I’m not sure how this responds to the post but no matter I agree with you 100pc over Brady and believe her to be the main problem although obviously Double Ds carry responsibility
Well said Mark,totally agree with you mate, this board have killed our club,I’m past caring now as well.Gave my season ticket up 2 seasons ago now after having one for 20 odd years,would of stayed for ever at Upton Park even if we were non league.
Refuse to give 1 penny to these incompetent charlatans in charge of us……GSB out
Norwich and Villa look shoe-ins to go to me. Can’t see Bournemouth picking up more than 3 wins. Brighton (other than us) i hope stay up, i like the way they play and Potter is a decent fella. But they’ve not got much firepower (when teams aren’t gifting them three goals that is).
It’s teams like Palace, Newcastle and Burnley who hold the key for every one of the teams you mentioned, Hugh. If they turn up, they could take points off of all of the bottom 6 but they don’t tend to turn up every week. Fancy us to beat Burnley at home but not sure about Newcastle away. Arsenal away could also be a winner, as could Chelsea at home. Man United aren’t what they used to be either. A very exciting few months lie ahead.
I don’t think most fans want relegation, as Mr. Wilson clearly thinks. No true fan, in my opinion, wants that. Maybe a poll subject, Hugh? A change of board is possible in any division, including the Premier League.
Thanks Saul – that’s the type of discussion I was looking for
what will do us up is the teams around us will be playing city when they are already guaranteed champ league football and concentrating on champ league and Liverpool will be doing the same having already won the league. wouldn’t be surprised if they play the kids in some of the final matches. remember villa beating them 5-0?
Agree with Ruislip, the ‘winnable’ games are at the tail end, so they need to hang on by their finger nails (a flukey draw or win in one of the ‘tough’ games) so that going into those, the pressure isn’t so great that they fold, or are already phoning their agents to look around for a new club!
Villa at London Stadium could be a nightmare.
To early to predict for me a lot of games to go yet it’s tight for all these teams involved could even involve further teams up the league could get sucked into it
I believe the Man City game will be a great yardstick as to what can be achieved. With the two new lads being involved and Moyes getting his tactic’s and substitutions on point. We could be looking at a turning point. A lot of if’s and buts, but I am going to give positivity a go and see how that works ……. COYI
Were doomed the winnable games as people say are at the end but by then the confidence will be so low after being cut adrift with the fixtures we got nxt that they will even struggle to win the winnable games ..only chance is if we fluke a few points of the top sides but that wont happen I.m Afraid…I think we are gone …….big storms are coming…g.s.b will go in to hiding
I think we will survive, team hasn’t played badly at times and the new faces Soucek and Bowen look like players, if we can keep Antonio fit and Anderson comes back, if Moyes finally notices Fornals offers more than Lanzini we could get comfortably over the line COYI!!!
Lots of ifs there mate ..hope your right
For some reason you have included Cup games, and left out Watford’s home game against Southampton.