Shearer has been speaking about the relegation battleplaceholder image
Shearer has been speaking about the relegation battle | Getty Images
West Ham have put the cat among the pigeons in the relegation battle after hitting a purple patch.
Alan Shearer has been speaking about West Ham’s recent resurgent and the impact it has had on their rivals. The Iron have picked up significantly over recent weeks, with the arrival of a handful of signings seemingly sparking them to life.
Taty Castellanos and others have envigorated the Iron, who have now picked up 10 points from the last 15 available. That is certainly not relegation form, but the Hammers do remain in the relegation zone due to the deficit they started with, now within three point of safety.
While Nuno Espirito Santo’s men have been enjoying a positive spell, it has been all-out panic above them, with Nottingham Forest sacking their third manager of the season, Sean Dyche, and replacing him with Vitor Pereira, who kept Wolves up last season but then went on to oversee a disastrous spell prior to being sacked this season.
Above them, Tottenham have sacked Thomas Frank and now find themselves searching for a new manager despite having only appointed Frank in the summer.
According to Shearer, those sackings are down to Santo and West Ham. He said on the Rest is Football podcast: “This is all Nuno’s fault, by the way, because of West Ham’s resurgence. The other clubs are panicking because of their results. They were down four weeks ago. But Forest, Spurs and Leeds are now very worried.”
To a degree, Shearer is right. While there are other factora at play in both circumstances, if West Ham had continued to drop off a cliff and fallen eight, nine points or more off safety, it’s likely Forest would have given Dyche more time. On the Tottenham front, you do wonder whether that sacking is down to Tottenham’s lowly position in general or their proximity to the drop zone. It’s unclear how genuinely worried about relegation they are given thw quality of their squad.
But from West Ham’s point of view, it’s always good to have the feathers of the opposition ruffled, and as things stand, they are the most settled team, the most in-form team of the bottom bunch, and you couldn’t have imagined saying that just a couple of months ago.
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