West Ham United have reason to believe in the Premier League’s relegation battle once again.
Cast your minds back to the start of January. West Ham United were thrashed 3-0 at Wolves – one of the worst teams in Premier League history – and then lost at home to relegation rivals Nottingham Forest.
Indeed, Nuno Espirito Santo’s side looked destined for the drop. The Hammers, however, have since turned things around.
Potts in but no Pablo!
Give us your thoughts about Nuno's XI to face Man United!
Freddie Potts of West Ham United during the Premier League match between Wolverhampton Wanderers and West Ham United at Molineux on January 03, 2026 in Wolverhampton, England.
Amazingly, the Irons are now one of the form sides in the division. They have won three of their last four league games and headed into Tuesday’s clash with Manchester United just three points off safety.
It remains to be seen if they can do enough to remain in the division, but the mood is certainly much more positive.
Quite what has brought this turnaround in form is up for debate. The arrival of Paco Jemez as a coach? Perhaps. January signings? They have surely helped.
Jarrod Bowen, however, cites a different reason.
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Jarrod Bowen claims West Ham’s win over QPR was transformative for their season
Lost in the midst of West Ham’s recent revival was their FA Cup victory over QPR last month.
It came after the defeat to Forest but before the loss to Tottenham, so may have been slightly overlooked at the time. West Ham beat QPR in the FA Cup but were taken to extra-time and found a late winner through Taty Castellanos after fine work from Crysencio Summerville.
A win over a mid-table Championship side in the FA Cup third round was never likely to make too many headlines but, speaking to TNT Sports before the Man United game, Bowen talked up its importance.
“Sometimes you only need one result,” he said.
“We looked at the QPR game, an FA Cup game, where you want to go on a cup run, you want to do a magical thing in the FA Cup, and I think that can help turn the season almost.
“The QPR game had a bit of everything, you know. Into extra-time, 120 minutes you know, we scored in extra-time.
“Then we went to Tottenham away and won that game. Sunderland at home we won.”
Here’s my hot take….
Doing a great job at Old Trafford – but there’s no way he’d have been a better fit to get us out of this mess than Nuno…
A graphic asking fans to 'prove us wrong' on the argument that Michael Carrick would do a worse job than Nuno Espirito Santo at West Ham.
Credit: Getty Images/Carl Recine
Where West Ham United rank in the Premier League form table since beating QPR
Prior to this week’s round of fixtures, there have been four Premier League games since the FA Cup third round was played at the start of January.
Over the course of them, West Ham have done remarkably well.
Taty Castellanos scores for West Ham United vs QPR in the FA Cup
Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP via Getty Images
In fact, they sit third in the Premier League’s form table over the last four games, having won three and lost one.
Only Chelsea and Manchester United have a better record.
With that in mind, Bowen is right to highlight it. West Ham have genuine hope of staying up this season and it may not have been possible without that FA Cup victory.
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