It’s crunch time for West Ham United this weekend.
With four fixtures left of the season and just two points separating them from the relegation zone, there’s no longer any room for error.
A trip to Brentford before Tottenham play away at Aston Villa allows Nuno Espirito Santo‘s side the perfect chance to heap a lot of pressure on their London rivals.
Victory at the Gtech Community Stadium will put them five points clear of Spurs.
If Roberto De Zerbi’s side fail to win at Villa Park, that could be a huge psychological blow with just nine points left to play for after this weekend.
West Ham have picked up two wins and a draw in their last three Premier League outings, and that’s the kind of momentum required at this stage of the season, especially with so much on the line.
The good news heading into this clash is that while Nuno has confirmed there are a few knocks in the squad after last weekend’s victory over Everton, everyone should be ok to feature against the Bees on Saturday afternoon.
That potentially means it’ll be a third consecutive game in which Nuno will name an unchanged XI – consistency like that is so important, with those 11 players finding themselves in a successful rhythm of performances together.
On the other hand, Spurs suffered more injury woes in their narrow win over Wolves last weekend and have lost Xavi Simons for the rest of the season, joining eight other first team players who are sidelined for the run-in.
That’s the worst possible position to be in at this stage of the season. Losing key players and having to chop and change the starting XI each week when you desperately need to win will not be the kind of preparation De Zerbi needs or wants.
So it is advantage West Ham this weekend, but they still have a very difficult fixture to navigate. Brentford have hopes of qualifying for Europe and the Hammers have never won a Premier League game away at the Bees.
Will a point be enough? Only if Spurs lose. If they draw, then nothing changes and the pressure heats up even more for both sides in the final three weeks.
