With eleven games remaining in this gripping – for all the wrong reasons – Premier League season, West Ham fans may be forgiven for looking ahead and wondering where the wins are coming from to keep the Hammers in the Premier League.
In reality of course, with a two point deficit, West Ham ‘simply’ need to win one more game than Nottingham Forest to stay in the top tier.
However the OPTA supercomputer has been at it again, looking at all possible permutations at the foot of the Premier League – and along the way has revealed the expected points totals and positions of the bottom six.
On the face of it, it doesn’t make good reading for the Irons. Relegation is Opta’s grim Irons’ prediction with West Ham accumulating just 35.84 points and finishing in 18th position, as reported by the Yorkshirepost.co.uk who take great delight in seeing their own Leeds United predicted to finish in a creditable 15th position.
Ignoring the mathematical impossibility of obtaining .84 of a point, West Ham finishing as predicted on 35 will put them four points behind Nottingham Forest who are predicted to finish with 39.63. So, in a nutshell, West Ham’s real target to stay up is likely to be 40 points.
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With just 25 points in the bank at present that means 15 points from the last eleven games: Five wins. Which doesn’t sound impossible on current form.
Call me a super OPTAmist and forget the super computer: Former Hammers’ hero Joe Cole and I may have nothing else in common but we clearly share the same positivity:
“I look at them and go, ‘I think they’re going to get out of it’. I think they will. I’m happy to put my neck on the line now — I think West Ham will stay up.”
Former West Ham player Joe Cole doing punditry work
Good man, Joe.