Onwards and Upwards for the Hammers

Having played 11 games in the Premier League, West Ham United find themselves in 13th place.  With 11 points to their name, they have averaged a point per game.

While this has been enough to see them move 5 points clear of the relegation zone, West Ham could find themselves looking towards the top of the table rather than the bottom.

It is fair to say West Ham have been very inconsistent in the Premier League this season.  They lost each of their first four games of the new league season and the Hammers were sitting at the bottom of the table without a point to their name.

There were two disappointing results in those four games and they were home defeats to Bournemouth and Wolverhampton Wanderers.  However, following the loss to Wolves, West Ham won 3-1 at Everton, shut out Chelsea in a 0-0 draw at home and defeated Manchester United 3-1 at the London Stadium.

Just as West Ham appeared to turn a corner came a 1-0 loss at Brighton and Hove Albion plus a 1-0 defeat at home to Tottenham Hotspur.  This left the fans looking over their shoulder again towards the bottom of the table but a point from Leicester City, having played over half the match with ten men and a 4-2 home win over Burnley has steadied the ship.

There is no doubt West Ham have got some very talented players in their squad. Lukasz Fabianski is a good, experienced goalkeeper, Issa Diop is an excellent young central defender, Declan Rice is a talented midfielder and in Felipe Anderson and Marko Arnautovic West Ham have two fantastic forwards.

The key for Manuel Pellegrini this season is to find some consistency in team selection and results.  The upcoming run of fixtures may allow the former Manchester City manager to do just that.

Andriy Yarmolenko and Carlos Sanchez are expected to miss the remainder of the season while Jack Wilshere, Winston Reid and Manuel Lanzini are some way off making a return following injury.  However, Pellegrini knows he cannot count on any of those four players in terms of long term fitness and must focus on building a team without them.

Thankfully, the starting XI against Burnley looked strong and Pellegrini may opt to play the same starting XI against Huddersfield Town on Saturday.  This is a must-win game for West Ham and they have some promising fixtures in the near future.

Aside from the home match against Manchester City, West Ham face Huddersfield Town, Newcastle United, Cardiff City, Crystal Palace, Fulham, Watford, Southampton, Burnley and Brighton in the Premier League.

Five of those games are away but three of those team are currently in the relegation zone and five others are in the bottom half of the table.  In fact, at the time of writing eight of those teams are below West Ham in the Premier League.

Even if West Ham were to win five of those eight games it would mean a total of 15 points. That would leave them with at least 26 points and in the top half of the table.  Hammers fans will be hoping for a more impressive return than 15 points from what is a superb run of winnable games for  their team.

If they can hit their stride by defeating Huddersfield Town, who knows where West Ham could be sitting come the home match with Arsenal in January?