The 2017/18 campaign was one of drama both on and off the pitch for West Ham, with the club caught up in a season-long relegation battle.
Pre Season
Let’s look at the season as a whole, including the positive and negative aspects, from pre-season up until the final kick of the campaign.Pre-Season
After finishing eleventh and failing to have an impact in both domestic and European competition in 2016/17, manager Slaven Bilic was busy in the transfer market ahead of the 2017/18 season.
Out went Ashley Fletcher, Darren Randolph, Enner Valencia, and Havard Nordtveit, among others who departed before the season started. A day after the campaign kicked off, Sofiane Feghouli became the final player to leave during the summer transfer window as he joined Galatasaray for £4m.
In came Marko Arnautovic and Javier Hernandez for a combined total of £36m, Pablo Zabaleta on a free transfer, and England international goalkeeper Joe Hart signed on a season-long loan.
Manchester United v West Ham United, 13 August 2017 – (CC BY-SA 4.0) By Ardfern
All these new signings were seen as better than what was already at the club and everyone hoped they would help to propel West Ham up the table.
First Half of The Season
With the London Stadium unavailable until September, the first three matches of the season were all played away.
The season couldn’t have got off to a worst start, with a 4-0 thumping at Manchester United. New signing Arnautovic was then sent off in the first half of the game at Southampton, when an injury time penalty gave the hosts a victory and kept West Ham rooted to the foot of the table after two matches.
It was three defeats in a row before the end of August, as newly-promoted Newcastle dominated throughout a 3-0 win.
The Hammers’ first home game of the season came on September 11th and resulted in the club picking up their first points of the campaign with a 2-0 victory over Huddersfield Town. That lifted them off the bottom for the first time in the season.
A draw at West Brom was followed by a home defeat to Tottenham, before a 1-0 win over Swansea lifted West Ham out of the drop zone.
This proved to be Bilic’s last victory as manager, as a run of four league games without a win culminated in a 4-1 home defeat to Liverpool and the board decided it was time for a change in the dugout.
A day after Bilic departed, he was replaced by former Everton and Manchester United manager David Moyes. It wasn’t the most popular of appointments, but he was tasked with ensuring West Ham would be a Premier League club at the end of the campaign.
Three defeats and a draw in Moyes’ first four matches hardly did anything to persuade the fans he was the right man for the job, although he finally picked up his first league win at the helm when Arnautovic netted the only goal of the game in a 1-0 victory over Chelsea.
This kicked off a run of three matches without losing or even conceding a goal, as a 0-0 draw with Arsenal and 3-0 win at Stoke followed. Dreams of a cup final were ended in December as Arsenal were the victors in the EFL Cup Quarter Final, leaving Moyes to concentrate on his main task of keeping West Ham in the Premier League.
Defeat at home to Newcastle was a blip but an unbeaten run of six games between Boxing Day and the end of
January left the Hammers sitting in a comfortable mid-table position at the start of February.
Winter Transfer Window
With West Ham only one place outside the drop zone at the turn of the year, reinforcements were required. Unfortunately, there were more departures than arrivals.
Jordan Hugill signed on deadline day to become the only January signing of note, whilst Diafra Sakho and Andre Ayew headed for the exit door.
Second Half of The Season
With the transfer window slammed shut and the club in mid-table, it seemed the relegation battle was over. However, that belief was to be short-lived as four defeats in five matches meant the club were back down to sixteenth with eight matches to play.
The last of those defeats, a 3-0 home loss to Burnley, featured ugly scenes as fans let their feelings show and added even more pressure to the manager, team and owners.
In between that run of poor form, the club exited the FA Cup without much of a whimper with an away defeat at
League One Wigan Athletic.
That loss to Burnley seemed to be a kick up the backside for the players, as a much-improved performance ended in a 3-0 win at home to Southampton at the end of March.
A win-less April meant the threat of relegation loomed large but a draw with Manchester United was sandwiched in between victories over Leicester City and Everton as the club climbed to a respectable thirteenth-place finish.
West Ham hadn’t exactly set the Premier League alight, but they had done enough to remain a top-flight side amid a long period of instability and doubt.
Meanwhile Manchester City managed to comfortably win the league, with a squad that has been touted by many, including the contributors to this Betway Insider blog post, as one of the Premier League’s best ever.
Moyes may not have been the man the fans wanted but he succeeded in doing the job that was asked of him, lifting the club from eighteenth to safety, although he probably won’t be missed by many, now his contract has expired.
Former Man City boss Manuel Pellegrini has since been appointed as the new manager ahead of next season and once again, there is a renewed sense of optimism amongst the West Ham faithful.


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