We have reached the point in the season where the final places are being established and while there are many teams no longer in contention for a top-four finish, and certainly not a candidate to take the silverware and title, the determination to finish as high as possible remains in place. West Ham is one such team, who should finish in the top half of the table, Bonusbets.com looks at their progress and likelihood of finishing in seventh place.
Currently sitting in eleventh place, you may wonder how on earth the team can pull off a seventh-place finish. The current issue is that positions 7-11 are only separated by two points and while that means there are five teams all able to get there, and Wolves currently holding the place, it does indeed mean that Pellegrini is indeed right to be hopeful his squad can snatch the spot.
Sadly the game this weekend didn’t really mirror their desire to move up the table losing 2-0 to Everton in a home match which has usually been their stronger playing field. At this stage if the other teams didn’t move in the placings a win would see them jump up to seventh but of course the other teams, which as well as Wolves including Leicester City, Everton and Watford are also going to be doing their best to finish well, all able to reach seventh for themselves.
Pellegrini remains hopeful though “We must be calm at this moment. We won the last three games at home, but what I worry about is that this is not the first time that we have the opportunity to in seventh position in the table and didn’t take it. We knew the other results before we played and maybe that pressure also affected our performance, but we must find a way to try to continue thinking and playing as a big team to try to reach as high a position in the table as we can and not be happy with not being in the relegation zone.”
In the game against ninth-place Everton, the defeat was pretty much sealed by half time with their opponents taking a goal in the first five minutes and again before the break. The team were two players down, and while this cannot be used as an excuse, it is fair
to say they have been influential members of the squad. Felipe Anderson was out due to an ankle injury, but there are hopes it is not serious, and he will return for the midweek fixtures, and Mark Noble missed the match due to personal reasons. No further details have been released and it is assumed he will be back before the team plays again with the manager saying: “I also think that Mark Noble is important for this team and for personal reasons he couldn’t play, but it’s not the matter of one player, it’s the matter of the team, and we cannot have this kind of performance if we want to try to fight for a spot in Europe.”
We don’t have the guts too many light weights in the team