OPINION
To most viewers it appeared that West Ham United’s chances of finishing in seventh place in the Premier League were ended by their 2-0 defeat to Everton on Saturday.
However, Hammers boss Manuel Pellegrini appears to have other ideas: “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 [get] in seventh position in the table,” he told the club’s official website.
“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,” he finished.
It’s clear after this that Pellegrini’s delusions are obvious. His team aren’t technically too far off in the race for seventh, but there are so many quality teams ahead of them that it’s simply not going to happen.
West Ham are in 11th, two points off Wolverhampton Wanderers in seventh – although Nuno Espirito Santo’s side have a game in hand on Pellegrini’s team. However, Leicester City, Everton and Watford also stand in the Hammers’ way, three teams who are in better or just as good form as the East London outfit.
The Foxes have enjoyed a resurgence under manager Brendan Rodgers, while Everton finally look like they’ve turned a corner after back-to-back wins over Chelsea and West Ham.
Watford are in a similar spot to the Hammers, but their terrific display against Manchester United on Saturday suggests that they’ll be tough to manoeuvre out of the way as well.
So it becomes clear that it’s going to be incredibly difficult for West Ham to finish as best of the rest. In fact, it’s damn near impossible at this point. Pellegrini would have been better off, surely, just being honest with the supporters about the state of things after Saturday’s woeful performance.
Consistency has been the team’s real problem this campaign and it saw them undone again against the Toffees. The Hammers’ seventh place hopes died on Saturday – just be honest about it, Manuel.
