West Ham United are waiting at a crossroads on a massive double favour from their Premier League rivals in season defining weekend.
The Hammers face a potentially huge weekend for their ambitions of Europe next season.
After the disappointing draw with Newcastle at home last weekend and a ridiculously tough March on the horizon, West Ham’s hopes for the season are very much at a crossroads this weekend.
David Moyes’s side have not played consistently well for months with the November international break appearing to have been a tipping point for this thin West Ham squad.
With European places likely to go down to seventh place again, the race is on between West Ham, Manchester United, Arsenal, Wolves and Tottenham to avoid being the club that misses out.
Although how many of those clubs would welcome Europa Conference League participation is up for debate.
Wolves come to the London Stadium off the back of defeat to Arsenal on Thursday night.
The result saw the Gunners move above West Ham – who are now sixth – three points behind Mikel Arteta’s side, who have two games in hand, and four behind fourth-placed Man United.
Victory for Wolves would see Bruno Lage’s side go above West Ham too, with a game in hand. And a win for Tottenham this weekend would draw them level on points with the Hammers with a game in hand.
This looks almost certain to be a season defining weekend for Moyes and his players.
West Ham will wait on a massive double favour from rivals Watford and Leeds today as the battle for Europe intensifies.
West Ham wait at crossroads on massive double favour from Premier League rivals in season defining weekend
Spurs face Leeds at Elland Road in the lunchtime kick off. Spurs go into the game off the back of a 1-0 defeat to Burnley in midweek while Leeds are smarting after a 6-0 hiding from Liverpool.
West Ham can only hope relegation threatened Leeds are like a wounded animal and get a reaction to put in the kind of performance they did when beating the Hammers 3-2 not so long ago.
Then later Man United take on another relegation battler, Watford, at Old Trafford.
Victory for Man United would put them seven points clear of West Ham before the game against Wolves.
That would pile the pressure on the Hammers as failure to beat Wolves would all but spell the end of the club’s fading top four hopes. West Ham would, though, have a second bite at Champions League qualification via the Europa League.
If Leeds and Watford can somehow do West Ham a huge favour by winning or at least stopping Spurs and Man United from taking three points then it will be a shot in the arm ahead of Wolves.
West Ham must then do their bit on Sunday to further dent Wolves’s confidence and go back above Arsenal on goal difference. Although the north Londoners will then have three games in hand as they are not in action this weekend.
All three of those games in hand are tough, though, pitting them against rivals Spurs, Liverpool and Chelsea.
The dream scenario is losses for Man United and Spurs coupled with a victory for West Ham.
If that happens, the Hammers will go back up to fifth, one point off fourt. Importantly for their Europa League qualification hopes, they would be six ahead of Spurs and five above Wolves.
You can really see why this weekend is so important in the context of the season.
More West Ham news:
West Ham duo given big wake-up call by David Moyes.
Moyes comments suggest massive injury boost ahead of Wolves.
West Ham got special mention by UEFA general before last 16 draw.
New £50m Kretinsky striker claims sound great but is Moyes on board?
Receive a digest of our best West Ham content each week direct to your mailbox
