Teams that you would expect to challenge West Ham for a top half finish this season have not had the best summers. Southampton may struggle to effectively fill the huge absences of star men like Lallana, Lambert, Shaw and Lovren. Newcastle are finding it difficult to replace Loic Remy and there still seems to be a gaping weakness in central midfield ever since Yohan Cabaye moved to PSG. Hull have the distraction of Europa League football and we proved last year that Swansea were definitely beatable. Although some may see this as wishful thinking, West Ham have the opportunity to capitalise on other team’s misfortunes. However, the club should be avoiding creating misfortunes of their own but as we all know, it’s never that straightforward at West Ham.
