Home Hammers Headlines Future looking bleak as West Ham United flirt with relegation

Future looking bleak as West Ham United flirt with relegation

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With just 13 matches left in the 2019/20 Premier League campaign, West Ham United are rooted in the relegation zone. 

A few years ago, West Ham United made the move from the iconic Upton Park to the Olympic Stadium. The move was touted as a new era in the club’s rich history and full of promise of better and glorious days. 

However, as has been the case with most English teams moving to a new stadium, the Hammers pretty much left their soul behind. Things have not looked up since then with the Londoners finishing 10th and in 13th place in the previous two seasons.

And the downward spiral continues with the team yet again preparing for the sort of relegation dogfight the club’s fans have become very much accustomed to. Last summer, the club made tons of waves in the transfer market. 

French striker, Sebastien Haller was signed in a bid to guarantee the team regular goals. Pablo Fornals was brought from Villarreal to add much-needed creativity in the middle of the park. And to top that off, the club managed to hold on to the likes of Declan and Issa Diop despite increasing interest from Manchester United. 

All this naturally led to many fans, a few analysts not to mention odds from ATS.io thinking that West Ham would be one of the dark horses of the league. Sadly though, things haven’t turned out right for the club with Hammers eventually choosing to fire Manuel Pellegrini and recall David Moyes for another spell at the club. 

The stats that expose the shame

The club is currently languishing in 18th place in the league standings with only six wins and 13 losses. 

Goals have been hard to come by with the Hammers managing only 30 goals and the underlying problem is that the team hasn’t been able to show the sort of defensive astuteness that is a must-have for a league as competitive as the Premier League. 

West Ham have conceded 43 goals and average of 1.72 conceded goals per game which is quite an alarming number given their profligacy in front of goal. 

Misfiring attack has really let the club down with no player in the squad reaching double figures. Haller is the top scorer with 6 goals which Felipe Anderson has been the go to man when it comes to providing assists with only four assists. 

Fabian Balbuena, Roberto Jiminez and Diop have all made errors at crucial junctures of games that have led to the team conceding needless goals. 

Another thing that has really haunted the club is inconsistency when it comes to building on from good results. For instance, following a 4-0 hammering of AFC Bournemouth, it was thought that West Ham would really switch gears. 

However, Moyes’ men haven’t been able to register a single win since then. 

The start of the season saw West Ham suffer a 5-0 mauling at the hands of Manchester City. But that didn’t deter the team from putting in strong displays in the next six odd games. Since then, however, the team simply lost its way and it hasn’t been the same since then. 

Once the Premier League returns following its winter break, West Ham will be in line for a tough set of fixtures, starting with games against Manchester City and runaway league leaders Liverpool. 

The game against Southampton may provide some respite before they take on Arsenal, Wolves and West Ham. Matches against the likes of Newcastle, Burnley and Watford won’t be easy either. 

Clearly, this is a team that is literally staring at another season in the Championship and while that would not be the worst thing for any relegated team, West Ham’s situation is different. 

Reports claim that relegation will put the club in serious financial trouble. Back in 2011, when the club was relegated to the Championship, David Sullivan injected millions into the squad and even borrowed money from elsewhere. 

And reports further claim that Sullivan might be selling one of his flagship stores for 50 million pounds. However, it remains to be seen whether the money would be used the same way it was back in 2011. For the sake of the club’s unwavering fans, we hope that Moyes steers the team out of the tricky waters they find themselves in.