Where will West Ham’s topsy-turvy season end?
It is fair to say that we have been on a rollercoaster of emotions throughout the 2016/2017 season, and with just three league games remaining, you would be hard pressed to accurately predict how it will all end. The Hammers are just two points outside of the top ten despite currently sitting as low as 15th, but have also seen the gap to the relegation zone shorten to just seven points after picking up three straight draws. Finishing in the top half would unquestionably represent a respectable finish to proceedings after our optimistic pre-season hopes were suddenly replaced by real relegation concerns, but Slaven Bilic and the players deserve credit for pulling together and getting the club out of danger before it became a full-blown crisis. West Ham may still feature in the relegation contenders listed on Bookmaker Ratings, even if it takes just one more win to feel confident of putting any fears of a late dogfight to bed and instead look towards a top half finish that, although falls short of where many of us imagined we could before a ball had been kicked, would be most welcome.
Moving to the London Stadium was meant to herald a new dawn at a club who enjoyed a wonderful 2015/2016 campaign in which Dimitri Payet showed his true class and Bilic further enhanced his reputation as a Hammers favourite by guiding to team to a seventh-placed finish. However, several teething problems with the stadium and a number of botched transfers threatened to destroy all of the hard work that had gone into putting West Ham in a wonderful position to grow, with just three wins in the first fifteen games leaving us in a perilous position near the foot of the table. I felt that any suggestion of Bilic losing his job was ridiculous as it went against everything he had done from a tactical perspective to change the dynamics of how we play, but football has become a ruthless sport in which managers can lose their job the second something starts to go wrong. However, the board have been rewarded by showing faith in Bilic who not only dealt with the whole Payet saga with such humility and calmness, but also reignited the fire in West Ham to come back fighting with a series of wins between December and February that brought a huge sigh of relief across everyone connected with the club.
Losing every game in March has certainly stopped us in our tracks, even though one of those was against Chelsea who, as much as it hurts any West Ham fan to say, look like worthy champions despite being pushed all the way. Unfortunately, that result is part of a run of just one win in our last eleven Premier League games as consistency has yet again avoided us at every turn, despite the fact that we are actually on a four-game unbeaten run. It make gives us the confidence to take something from the upcoming clash in our own backyard against title-chasing Tottenham, but given that our London rivals have won their last nine league matches in a row, you would have to be realistic and say that an away win may be a good shout in the Tipster Contest currently being run by Bookmaker Ratings. Facing a team brimming with confidence and scoring goals for fun is unlikely to fill any Hammers fan with optimism, and while playing Premier League football on a Friday night is a brand new concept to me, I can only hope that we are not on the receiving end of a hiding.
Victory against Tottenham would not only go some way towards ending the title race as a contest, but also prove our doubters that West Ham are able to produce big performances when it truly matters. Three points would definitely end any lingering relegation fears, and while there should be a deep-rooted inquiry in where and why it has been so turbulent at the club this season, the most important thing is that our Premier League status is retained. It would also provide the foundations for the Hammers to end the season on a high note and take a much-needed boost in confidence into the summer, with a top ten finish likely to attract the interest of potential transfer targets, such as former star Jermaine Defoe and Michy Batshuayi, who would consider West Ham as a club they can enjoy success with. However, with the way the season has panned out, it is anyone’s guess as to whether West Ham will actually break into the top half or finish way too close for comfort to the trap door.
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