West Ham United are ending the decade exactly how they started it – 17th in the Premier League. A turbulent decade, which saw the Hammers demoted to the second-tier for a brief period in 2011-12 and then earn qualification into the Europa League in 2016 and 2017, has come full circle; the east Londoners now find themselves balancing precariously on the edge of top-flight survival as we enter a brand new year.
Considering the size of West Ham Football Club – the supporter base, the colossal new stadium (which, for the record, should never, ever be used for football) and the on-field investment in personnel deemed worthy of challenging for a top-six finish in the Premier League, you can’t help but feel that they have massively fallen short of the grade in recent seasons. Now, as the year draws to its close, drastic measures have been taken and the club have dismissed manager Manuel Pellegrino, replacing him with David Moyes – just like they did two years ago.
Back then, in November of 2017 with the Iron facing relegation sat in 18th-place, the former Everton and Manchester United boss came in and did a Sam Allardyce by ‘steadying’ the rapidly-sinking ship. West Ham ended the season in 13th after a promising six months but Moyes was not offered a permanent deal in west London. At the time it felt like a harsh decision; fast-forward two years and it has proven to be an extremely foolish one which has undoubtedly cost the club millions.
Blunt Hammers
When you look at West Ham’s team on paper and think about the amount of money the board have invested in the playing staff, it is bizarre to see them struggling at the wrong end of the Premier League table. The likes of Sebastian Haller was brought in for £36m in the summer but has so far flattered to deceive, barring an occasional glimmering performance where he’s notched a couple of goals here and there.
Pablo Fornals, signed for £25m from Villarreal five months ago, has only just opened his account at the London Stadium, scoring in the 2-1 defeat against Leicester at the weekend. Although the 23-year-old has chipped in with three assists, it’s still not a good enough return for a player that came with such a price tag and reputation.
Elsewhere on the pitch, the defence has looked shaky for large portions of the campaign. Left-back Aaron Cresswell has been the standout performer, scoring some stunning goals and really making the difference in attack, but aside from the 30-year-old there has little to smile about at the back. 32 goals conceded in 19 games is always going to leave you with problems and David Moyes must now come in and address that situation before he does anything else; if he doesn’t, the club will be left in further trouble. Two clean sheets on home soil simply is not good enough.
Can he keep them up?
Moyes certainly has a job on his hands here. As we all know too well, the Premier League is the most unpredictable league in the world and each of the sides battling for their lives in the bottom half of the division are now starting to pick up points. Southampton’s recent surge has seen them lifted to 15th, while Watford look an inspired team under Nigel Pearson and it would not be surprising to see them climb out of the bottom-three before too long.
Aston Villa are currently on the slide which could lead to manager Dean Smith being replaced, which again sees the possibility of a complete transformation. The exact same can be said for Norwich, who currently looked doomed but could easily turn it around with a good run, leaving absolutely no room for error for the Scot in west London. Moyes has certainly got the players to work with here; he has one of the most talented squads in the bottom half of the division who are just massively underperforming at the moment, but that can be easily worked on.
A lot of that underperformance is probably down to the stagnating tactics of Manuel Pellegrini, who had very clearly lost the dressing room and desperately needed to be replaced. Moyes has taken over this club at a similar stage before and got the team playing well, he may not be everyone’s cup of tea and could be viewed as merely a ‘quick fix’ here, but, at the moment that is all they need. Worry about the rest later.
There are certainly signs that West Ham have what it takes to escape the unforgiving clutches of relegation this season, and still have plenty of time to turn their season around but it has to start straight away, against Bournemouth – themselves struggling – on New Year’s Day. “Winning is what I do,” said Moyes at his unveiling earlier this week. Now, he must prove it.
What are the bookies saying?
The bookies are currently tipping West Ham to remain in the top-flight next term. Paddy Power have them priced at 5/2 for the drop, while they’re offering odds of just 2/7 for survival. If you’re feeling optimistic, you can get the Hammers at 12/1 to obtain a top-10 finish under ‘Moyseh’ with UNIBET – they’re currently seven points off that as things stand.