Super computer boffins have predicted whether West Ham will be relegated this season and it’s going to get hairy.
Wednesday night’s disappointing 2-2 draw at Leeds was West Ham’s first point in six games.
But the Hammers were only kept out of the relegation zone by Danny Ings’ late equaliser for Aston Villa against Wolves.
Less than two weeks ago David Moyes declared that his West Ham team were still aiming to compete for the European places (WHUTV).
The reality is now very different indeed.
West Ham look set for a season-long relegation battle after a huge gap opened up in this divided Premier League.
West Ham, down in 17th place on a pathetic 15 points, are a full 10 points off Chelsea in 10th – and the Blues have two games in hand.
The gap to ninth-placed Brentford is 11 points. So unless Moyes pulls off a miracle in the second half of the season, West Ham are in this dogfight with what looks like seven other teams to avoid being the three that are relegated come May.
West Ham are below the threshold of a point per game which is considered the base line to survive in a 38-game Premier League season.
The club has been sleepwalking into a relegation battle this season and the only saving grace right now seems to be that there are seven other teams who are not much better.
But will the Hammers be able to stay up and avoid what would be a disastrous demotion to the Championship?
Well super computer boffins have predicted whether West Ham will be relegated and it’s going to get hairy.
American pollsters FiveThirtyEight have predicted the results for the rest of the campaign and come up with what they believe will be the final table.
FiveThirtyEight, which takes its name from the number of electors in the United States electoral college, was created by analyst Nate Silver as a polling aggregation website.
And they have been predicting the outcomes of top-flight leagues since 2017 by using their specialist methodology.
According to their intricate final Premier League table prediction, West Ham will stay up – but not by much.
FiveThirtyEight predicts the Hammers will amass 42 points to finish 14th in the table.
But they will only be eight points above the bottom three. And that means the Hammers might be in the dogfight right into the final few weeks of the season.
The super computer predicts that Everton, currently one place below West Ham in the table by virtue of goal difference, will drop as will Bournemouth and Nottingham Forest.
Arsenal are predicted champions while Man City are second, Man United third and Newcastle will qualify for the Champions League in fourth.