West Ham United have scored 29 goals in ten Championship games, putting Nuno Espírito Santo’s team on a scoring pace that would produce an extraordinary 133 goals over a full season. Yet the most impressive part is that none of our centre-forwards has really hit form.
Joël Piroe, Pablo and Taty Castellanos have all struggled for consistency, both in their performances and in front of goal. Despite that, West Ham continue to find the net, with contributions arriving from across the team.
The projection highlighted by the official West Ham website is certainly eye-catching. I do not believe we will score 130-plus league goals, but I absolutely believe the Hammers can finish as the Championship’s leading scorers.
West Ham Are Not Fluking Their Goals
Of course, two 6-0 victories have distorted the average somewhat. However, anyone who watched the demolition of Wrexham will know West Ham could quite easily have scored eight or nine that night.
We are not fluking these goals.
Jarrod Bowen remains a genuine threat as both a scorer and a creator, as he demonstrated again in our Lincoln player ratings. Meanwhile, Konstantinos Mavropanos already has five league goals and looks well on course to beat the ten I predicted he would score this season.
Having that threat from different areas means West Ham should always be in with a shout of winning matches, even when the strikers are not firing.
Nuno has shown before that he can build a successful Championship attack without sacrificing defensive organisation. His Wolves side won the title in 2018 with 82 goals scored, just 39 conceded and 99 points.
That balance is the important part of the comparison.
Points Matter More Than Scoring Records
My biggest concern is a very different statistic: the number of points West Ham are collecting.
Twenty-nine goals from ten matches is excellent. Nineteen points from those games leaves room for improvement.
We have drawn four of our opening ten fixtures, and turning some of those draws into victories is what will determine whether West Ham secure automatic promotion.
That probably has as much to do with the defence as the attack. Scoring more is one route to winning, but protecting a lead and avoiding unnecessary concessions can be just as valuable.
I would happily sacrifice the prospect of a spectacular scoring record for a few more narrow victories. West Ham have shown they can score enough goals. Now we need to make sure those goals deliver enough points.