It's a testament to both club and manager that West Ham United are safe from relegation worries with ten games to spare, and only one away from the points tally they accrued from the whole of last season. Even better is the fact that, of those remaining games, 70% of them are against teams beneath them in the table. For Sam Allardyce and co. this allows the run-in to be something of a time to relax and to express just what The Hammers have turned into, freely on the pitch without the looming threat of being sucked into the annual panic-ridden dogfight currently besetting teams such as Aston Villa and Everton.
This can be a good thing, or it can lead to complacency due to lack of pressure, however, with Big Sam at the helm it seems highly unlikely the latter would be allowed to insinuate itself into the club mentality. Not long ago the manager was under pressure to build a more attacking team with more attractive football which, given their perpetual place in the top half of the table all season and a goals tally one short of last season's total already, seems to have been achieved. Now, with a run-in full of possibilities, nothing would taste sweeter to the club and the fans than a concerted effort to finish as high up as possible.
Seven of the Irons' remaining fixtures are certainly winnable if you take the league table as an indication of quality. Indeed of the three teams above The Hammers, one is Stoke City, who loiter three points above them in the table by virtue of turning draws into wins and have in point of fact lost one more fixture than Allardyce's men. It is not inconceivable that from eight of the the games, a points tally of 15-18 could be achieved, which would in all likelihood secure an 8th place finish, their highest finishing position in the Premier League since 2002. Not bad for a team who many thought might struggle.
Coming into the weekend fixture at the Emirates Stadium against Arsenal, there will be an air of trepidation about this fixture, but not from the West Ham players. Gunners will remember well that at Upton Park earlier in the season Arsenal were lucky to come away with a win, and with The Hammers earning draws against Man United, Spurs and Southampton recently it's obvious that this will be far from a walkover for a team who may consider resting players in anticipation of a physical battle, due to the looming Champions League encounter with Monaco, which for Wenger's men must be seen as their priority. With that in mind West Ham should be free to play with the proverbial handbrake off, and as such will be a very dangerous prospect indeed.
No matter what the outcome of the weekend's game however, I see nothing but positives to come from this season for the East Londoners. In the build up to the move to the Olympic Stadium the revenue alone generated from an almost already ensured top ten finish lends itself to helping the development of the project which is West Ham United in the years to come, and also increases the attractiveness to prospective purchases in the transfer market. Big Sam and his players have every right to be proud of themselves and each other, and with some very winnable points to come in the near future perhaps an 8th place finish would be the icing on the cake for Allardyce and a swift poke in the eye for all his detractors from the start of the season.
Source: DSG
