Fan's column: West Ham are in the mix to battle it out with the big boys
Kwame Boakye
Burnley's Ben Mee (left) attempts to tackle West Ham United's Michail Antonio during the Premier League match at the London Stadium, London. - Credit: PA
Another game, another win, this ‘new’ West Ham David Moyes has been talking about are now firmly in the mix for European football.
We’re one game away from being slap bang in the middle of the season, and the Hammers find themselves five points behind champions Liverpool; and eight behind league leaders Manchester United.
Granted, we have been relatively fortunate this season in terms of injuries; lord knows what we’d do if Angelo Ogbonna, Declan Rice or Tomas Soucek were out for a prolonged period.
But if our key players can somehow stay fit there is nothing to fear going into the second half of the campaign.
New signings are desperately needed though; I’m sure Moyes would love to make four or five changes for the West Brom game and rest the core of a side that battled and bullied Burnley into submission on Saturday.
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However, he simply doesn’t have the quality to make more than a couple of changes without severely weakening the team.
Burnley's Matthew Lowton (left) and West Ham United's Pablo Fornals battle for the ball during the Premier League match at the London Stadium, London. - Credit: PA
We desperately need another striker and cover in central midfield if this season, filled with so much promise, isn’t going to fizzle out.
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As for the win over the Clarets; it was very much ‘typical’ West Ham, we may not be blowing teams away like we were earlier in the season, but we are solid defensively (four clean sheets in a row) and going forward we always pose a threat.
The game against the Baggies will be a very similar affair. They will sit back and utilise set-pieces to get their noses in front and Sam Allardyce’s teams are excellent at that particular style of play.
A win is vital in order to keep pace with the sides above us, as something we’re realising this season is that in the top 10 everyone wins! We’ve won back to back league games and only moved up from 10th to 9th. In the bottom half, six points from two games would shoot you up at least four or five places.
We’re building momentum, and a win over Big Sam’s gang followed up by victory over Doncaster in the FA Cup would be five in a row and winning is a lovely habit to get into.
This season is just getting started.
