West Ham United have lost the luxury of being the hunter in the relegation battle, but it will be fascinating to see how Tottenham react to being the hunted.
The fact that Spurs beat Aston Villa on Sunday, just over 24 hours after West Ham lost to Brentford, has consigned the Hammers back into the bottom three with three games to play.
On a scale of 1-10, how confident are you about staying up now? 👀
Clearly, that is a huge blow and the mood here in east London is naturally rather low.
Indeed, West Ham are now heavily expected to get relegated from the Premier League, but all hope is not yet lost.
West Ham have to hunt Tottenham down again in the relegation battle
West Ham beat Spurs back in mid-January, a point of the season in which they were 10 points behind their London rivals.
A mixture of West Ham’s good form and Spurs being in crisis then saw the Irons catch up and send Spurs into the bottom three following the win over Wolves last month.
What a sorry old mess 😪 How have we let it slip AGAIN?!
No one was getting carried away then, and it would perhaps be unwise to do the same now. The paradigm has shifted, but it’s not exactly fatal at this point.
While having to rely on other teams is never a good situation to be in, it’s surely helped that the team West Ham are relying on is indeed Spurs.
Spurs still offer West Ham hope in relegation battle
The pressure is still on them. Like it or not, the idea of Spurs getting relegated is of worldwide interest, and it would surely be fair to say most onlookers are hoping for it to happen out of morbid fascination.
They have not steered clear or anything yet, just as West Ham hadn’t when they pulled out of the bottom three themselves.
There have long been jokes about how Spurs handle pressure. Though slightly unfair at times, there is a kernel of truth to them.
West Ham have proven – to a certain extent at least – that they are up for the fight and can navigate through choppy waters. Over to you, Tottenham. You are now the hunted again.
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