With still more of a quarter of the Premier League season left to run, it may be a tad premature writing off West Ham’s chances of escaping relegation.
Claret and blue fans themselves may be mired in misery – but a glance at the headlines this morning provides a source of a slightly more positive prognosis for the eighteenth-placed Irons.
Momentum is that tricky intangible which is now running in West Ham’s favour after that shocking first half of the campaign, and the Hammers have conceded just once in their last four games – and that was at Old Trafford.
Who’d have thought it.
“They look less like a relegation-threatened team with each game.”
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Claims football365.com after witnessing the Irons’ nil-nil draw against Premier League form side Bournemouth:
“There was a mild sense of two points having been dropped but with 11 games to play and momentum firmly on their side over Spurs and Nottingham Forest, it was another step in the right direction for the Hammers.”
“It isn’t difficult to envisage West Ham as a Premier League entity under Nuno by that point, which cannot be said of Igor Tudor’s Spurs or the Vitor Pereira vintage of Nottingham Forest, even with their blistering start.”
Forest and Tottenham will be looking over their shoulders should either lose this weekend- as focus shifts onto their encounters today and tomorrow
Highlighting the team performance rather than singling out one individual, the report demonstrates the Irons’ aggressive if ultimately unsuccessful intentions.
For the first time in as long as most fans can remember, an objective media report labels Nuno’s side as” very good”. Whatever next:
“West Ham were very good, as has been the case recently under Nuno Espirito Santo, with all but two of their starting outfielders mustering at least one shot. Aaron Wan-Bissaka and El Hadji Malick Diouf, the two exceptions, were wonderful in defence and both created a chance apiece.”
Leeds and Crystal Palace would appear to have exited successfully from the fight to stay up, but Spurs and Nottingham Forest now take their turn to perform under the relegation battle spotlight.
Should either one fail this weekend, at least according to football365’s interpretation of what they’ve seen, Nuno’s West Ham are creeping slowly, but inexorably up behind.