Are West Ham genuine top four/six contenders?
Are West Ham genuine top four/six contenders?
West Ham United appear to have bucked the recent trend of qualifying for the Europa League as one of the non ‘big six’ teams and struggling in the Premier League the following season.
The Hammers finished sixth in the Premier League last season, just two points behind Chelsea in fourth, to qualify for the Europa League for this year.
But whilst that was a formidable achievement, and David Moyes was rightly praised for it, not many expected West Ham to follow up and repeat their heroics of last season this year.
This was perhaps due to the fact that many expected all of the traditional ‘big six’ sides to make up the entirety of the top six, after all six clubs had good transfer windows.
However, following a 1-0 victory over rivals Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday, the Hammers sit in fourth place in the Premier League, winning five of their opening nine matches.
So the question is, are West Ham genuine top four/top six contenders again?
Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City look set to pull away as the three title contenders already, with the three clubs most recent results looking ominous for the rest of league.
But the final Champions League spot, and both Europa League spots, appear a little bit tougher to predict.
Manchester United, Tottenham and Arsenal were expected to complete the top six this season, as all three clubs appeared to strengthen in the summer.
However, after the opening nine games, West Ham find themselves above all three sides, having leapfrogged Tottenham at the weekend.
Spurs have only scored nine goals from the opening nine games, with Harry Kane looking a shadow of his former self following all the transfer speculation from last summer.
United are in all sorts of disarray at the moment, with huge amounts of pressure on Ole Gunnar Solskjaer following their recent form, with the Manchester club not winning since a narrow 2-1 win over West Ham in mid-September.
Arsenal opened the season with three straight defeats, and although they have somewhat recovered, winning four and drawing two of their last six matches, their lack of obvious goalscoring presence may cause them problems this season.
West Ham would still be competing with the likes of Leicester City for the European spots, showing just how tough they will be to come by this season.
But there appears to be genuine belief that under David Moyes, the Hammers are in a position to consistently place them amongst Europe’s elite.
They are finding a way to win tight games, as shown with their back-to-back 1-0 wins over Spurs and Everton, but they have also shown their ability to put teams away when they are totally dominant, a trait that some of their rivals for the top six places are lacking.
In the opening two games of the season, West Ham defeated Newcastle United 4-2 and Leicester City 4-1, with Michail Antonio scoring three and assisting two in those opening games.
Antonio has been the key for the Hammers, who are the joint-fourth highest goal scorers in the Premier League, with both his goalscoring and assisting high in the respective charts.
He is the third top Premier League goalscorer with six goals, and is also in the top 10 for assists, with three assists from the opening nine games.
This is something that other clubs around them are lacking and is a key reason the Hammers can make the top six this season.
Perhaps we will see a real indication of just how high West Ham can finish this season in the coming weeks, when they will face that runaway top three of Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City in the next six game weeks.
It may be too early to say that West Ham will make the top six again, but there can be no doubt that they are top six contenders, and in the next few weeks, they could become top four contenders.
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