Can West Ham Stop Their Downward Spiral?

Before they narrowly beat Sunderland 1-0 on Saturday, West Ham United had gone seven games without a win.

The eventual win came over a lackluster Mackems side that have lost four of their last five, so Hammers’ fans should not be getting ahead of themselves just yet.

Couple that with the fact their next four games are against Liverpool, resurgent Spurs, Chelsea, and an Aston Villa side who are daring to dream of a top four place after their win at Arsenal and and draw with double champions Manchester United.

It is starting to look as though the Hammers are in trouble of being in the relegation dogfight come Christmas, if they don’t consider themselves to be in one already.

Where is it going wrong for the Hammers? They’ve had bad luck with the fold of XL, their sponsors, and rumors may be circulating that they are in financial difficulty.

That doesn’t take away from the fact they have a decent side, on paper: Quick Welshman Bellamy up front always has goals in him, and Scott Parker who had just been recalled to the England set-up for the friendly with Germany

Matthew Upson had a man of the match performance for England in Berlin last week, even getting on the score-sheet. He could well be key in keeping them clear of the dreaded bottom three.

What does Gianfranco Zola do from here? January could be vital. If the reported cash crisis is bad at Upton Park, he’ll have to fight to keep his talented players.

They will not go down, or at least they really should not. West Brom, Stoke and Sunderland are all worse teams than the Hammers are in my opinion. Wigan and Bolton are on level pegging.

They just don’t need a difficult season. It seems they’ve already got a lot to worry about. Hammers fans will not want another tricky campaign following the 06/07 season when they saved themselves on the final day with a win at newly crowned Premiership champions Manchester United.

Getting a few points before Christmas Day won’t hurt their cause by any means.

Neither will getting those awful looking numbers off the front of their shirts.