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West Ham were not able to hang on | Getty Images
West Ham’s survival chances have been updated after their late Man Utd draw.
West Ham were hit with a late blow against Manchester United on Tuesday night, conceding an equaliser deep into stoppage time. The Hammers managed to deny the Red Devils a fifth straight win while adding a point to their survival cause, but the late nature of the equaliser will have them feeling as though there were two points lsot rather than a point gained.
For now, West Ham are two points from safety, behind Nottingham Forest, and five behind Tottenham, but the former play bottom club Wolves on Wednesday night and will be expected to win.
How the Iron stand up to those challenges could just define their season because even if there are easier fixtures on the other side, if they are too far behind, it’s likely confidence will have declined too much to recover in the final games of the season.
But on the balance of fixtures, how does the predicted Premier League table see West Ham’s survival chances? Opta have updated their table after Tuesday night’s late draw, and there’s bad news
Predicted Premier League relegation battle
West Ham are still predicted to miss out on Premier League survival by Opta’s supercomputer, even after thei rimproved run of results. The current predictions see them picking up an average of 36.12 points, while Nottingham Forest are expected to wind up with 41.59, ultimately achieving safety relatively comfortably.
Tottenham seem to have some big decisions to make with Thomas Frank, but they are expected to end up with 44.5 points in any case, a touch behind Leeds United on 44.73. Burnley, with only 25.76, and Wolves, with 19.31 expected points, would naturally be the bottom two clubs. West Ham still have plenty of work to do, and the predicted table just shows how they need to pick up points in games they are not expected to if they want to catch Forest.
Santo on the late draw
Speaking after the late Man Utd draw, West Ham boss Nuno Espirito Santo said: “The boys gave their all. It was a good game, but it's tough to take in the last moments for us, especially for our fans that were there to support us till the end, and to take this final blow, it's going to be painful.
“I believe the standards we have set in the last five games are what we need. I think we are in the right way. We are competing well and have made improvements in a lot of aspects in our game. We should improve more things. There were moments that today, with the space that there was, we should kill the game and try to avoid suffering in the last minutes.
“But overall, I think it was a positive performance with the boys' hard work and commitment. We contained a very tough team that is in a good dynamic, we didn't allow too many situations. We had good combinations, we scored, the way we came in the second half, it was really positive, the desire of the boys, the commitment to go and take the game.
“I cannot say anything about their hard work, their commitment, their organisation. But we can see in the end, it's tough, it's tough to take today.”
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