Former West Ham midfielder Luke Chadwick has spoken about one of his former clubs’ top four hopes this season.
The Hammers have recently enjoyed hugely impressive wins at home to Liverpool and Chelsea, showing they’re surely very much serious contenders for Champions League qualification this year after also coming close last term.
David Moyes has done tremendous work at West Ham, and Chadwick is clearly impressed with the quality of the line up they can now put out each week.
The ex-Hammer is slightly concerned, however, about the club’s squad depth, and says the main thing that could derail their top four hopes is injuries to a few key players.
“They’ve definitely got the starting XI to compete for the top four,” Chadwick told CaughtOffside. “The problem would be if they got a couple of injuries to key players, they’ve not really got the strength in depth that the clubs underneath them like Arsenal and Spurs have got.
“In terms of the team David Moyes is putting out there, you can see that they can compete with the very best. They beat Chelsea, they beat Liverpool, some of their players are really at the top of their game. Declan Rice, as both a player and a leader in the team, is really raising standards at West Ham.
“If they can keep the majority of that starting XI together, who knows? They weren’t a million miles away last season. It’s great to see them showing that consistency and that their fans have a team they can be proud of.”
Chadwick added that he’s been impressed with the huge improvement of WHUFC attacker Jarrod Bowen, a player he’s been keeping an eye on for some time.
“Jarrod Bowen was a hugely talented young player at Hull, a regular goal-scorer and top player in the Championship but you just didn’t know if he could take that to the Premier League,” Chadwick said.
“It took him a bit of time to settle in but he’s now performing at a really high level, he’s got the ability to score goals, to assist, and he’s added more work rate to his game.
“I’m sure he’s a player that a lot of the big clubs will be looking at, but you look at the likes of Antonio, Bowen, Rice, Soucek … they’ve created something there at West Ham. If they can make that next step into the top four then maybe those players will stay there.”