Despite two losses against Liverpool and Man City this season, West Ham can be relatively pleased with the start they’ve had to the 2023/24 Premier League campaign.
David Moyes has the team playing well enough to have won every game, and it’s those fine margins between good teams and really good teams that saw them unable to topple Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp’s swashbuckling XIs.
In any event, thanks to some superb recruitment in the summer transfer window, the Irons are ticking over nicely.
Their recent comeback win the Europa League group stages also hints at some steel in their back line which isn’t something that the Hammers are necessarily known for.
Qualification into Europe’s second-tier competition came about thanks to the epic Europa Conference League win over Fiorentina in last season’s final.
Had things been different, Jesse Lingard might well have been playing in that final rather than scrapping for Premier League survival with Nottingham Forest.
The player that had gone on loan to the Hammers and who had enjoyed a productive spell of nine goals and six assists in 16 appearances per The Athletic (subscription required), decided to snub the east Londoners last season and join Forest.
After being released this summer and without a club, West Ham took him back in to get his fitness up with the idea of him earning a playing contract.
However, the decision has now definitively been made that he won’t be offered a new deal, which is why he’s trying to earn a deal at Al Ettifaq in Saudi Arabia, where Steven Gerrard is the manager.