Avram Grant remains confident his West Ham side can survive, but it is starting to feel a distant dream for the fans. Currently bottom of the table with four games left, West Ham surely have to get something from a tough game against Manchester City Sunday. Whether they get a result or not though, it does look as the race for survival is going down to the last game of the season, and it may even be goal difference which sees a team relegated to the Championship division.
If West Ham are still within a win of the teams around them after this weekend, they do have big opportunity with their last three games coming against fellow strugglers. But that means they need to find some fight, and this Avram Grant side has failed to show an ability to scrap for their lives time and time again this season, and have tried to play their way out of trouble. It won’t do for their survival hopes. Wolves have beaten Man Utd and Arsenal and find themselevs threatened with the drop. But Wolves have shown that they can dig in and fight in those games.
The Hammers have Sunderland, Wigan and Blackburn still to play, with Sunderland playing the Hammers on the last day of the season. The day that will probably seal West Ham’s fate for the 2011/12 season. Whatever happens in East London, it seems very unlikely that Grant will be returning to manage the Irons next term. With the Olympic Stadium secured, it’s going to be very empty if West Ham do not have top flight status come the closing ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics.
The Hammers haven’t won three on the trot in the league all season so to expect them to do it in their last three may be a tad far fetched.
photo credit: wonker
