West Ham‘s 4-1 victory over Ipswich before the international break was desperately needed after a run of difficult results.
Performances haven’t been overly convincing under new manager Julen Lopetegui so far this season, but something seemed to click in the win over The Tractor boys and the hope is the team will continue to build on that performance and continue improving.
However, it was generally accepted that this season would be something of a transitional one. A new manager, a new style of play and nine new players introduced to the squad means the teething problems we’ve experienced so far were kind of expected, even if we would’ve all liked to have seen it click a little sooner.
That said, Opta’s super computer says we’re actually performing a little bit above expectations compared to where we’re currently sitting in the Premier League table.
Based on expected goals scored (xGF), expected goals against (xGA) and expected points (xPTS), their super computer suggests we should be 13th.
However, we’re 12th after seven games. It’s not a huge difference, and probably suggests we’re where we should expect to be instead of performing above expectation, but it’s a good barometer to go by.
It will likely change quite significantly over the coming weeks, with Tottenham away and Manchester United at home to come this month, especially if we pick up some points in those games.
Is easy to forget that the three league games we’ve lost this season have been against Aston Villa, Manchester City and Chelsea, who are all currently sitting in the top five of the table.
And in the games in which we’ve not lost, the super computer suggests we’re actually 1.38 points worse off than where we might have expected to be at this stage – albeit one position lower.
