Are West Ham sleepwalking into the drop zone?

Look at any side that is relegated from the Premier League and you can guarantee that at some stage of the season they have had a seven-game winless run. West Ham have already gone seven games without a win and the worry is that it could soon amount to ten games after playing Chelsea, Wolves and Arsenal. 

Alan Shearer was rightly scathing about the side's lack of workrate against Spurs on Match of the Day and the worrying thing is that the team just don't look like they are playing for Pellegrini any more. The other big question is does Pellegrini at 66 still have the hunger to turn this round? The Daily Telegraph reports that the manager has been told results must improve. It also mentions doubts in the boardroom, reporting: "There is a fear that Pellegrini is not accepting the seriousness of the situation."

Meanwhile there are reports of  Rafa Benitez, Chris Hughton, Eddie Howe, Chris Wilder and Sean Dyche all being weighed-up as potential new managers. As Pellegrini is on £8 million a year — and appears to be a decent man with a fine track record — it's obviously better for the stability of the club if he can turn it round; but regardless of the result at Stamford Bridge the players have to look like they are fighting to save his job if Manuel is to survive.

Can Pellegrini deliver a rollicking?

It's a big test of Manuel Pellegrini's managership this weekend. Staying calm is all very well, but the first half against Newcastle was as he later said, "unacceptable". There was no pressing, no desire, a lack of leadership and players seemed to be pulling out of challenges. We're not going to win games simply because we have lots of creative number tens. Manuel needs to stop being this charming man and deliver a few boots up the backside. Burnley are just the sort of team to trouble West Ham — if we don't stand up to the physical challenge of long balls aimed at Wood and Barnes the season could well become a struggle.

Signs of quiet progress under Pellegrini

Match of The Day had an interesting comparison of last season's record with this season's. West Ham currently have 11 points from six games, whereas last season we had four points from six games. It's early days, but in his understated way, Pellegrini seems to be making progress.

Most encouraging has been the improvement in defence after three clean sheets. Fredericks is starting to look like a proper speedy right-back and Ogbonna has come in and looked much improved. Arthur Masuaku has shown more defensive discipline too and his replacement on Sunday, Aaron Cresswell, scored a sensational free kick and didn't get caught for pace on the turn through some shrewd positional play. Anderson, Noble, Rice  and Fornals also provided a much better defensive shield for the back four.

While at 32 Mark Noble looked the best player on the pitch, always doing the simple things well. Now he's surrounded by talent like Rice, Anderson, Lanzini, Yarmolenko and Haller we're starting to see that he's actually a very good player in his own right.

Though it is, of course, only six league games in so far. Now I've been positive about the Hammers, we'll probably get thrashed at Oxford and Bournemouth...

Eleven players but not a team?

Interesting piece on West Ham in today's Observer. Paul Wilson concludes that the Irons are in danger of doing an Everton of last season, where Ronald Koeman was sacked after failing to integrate a bunch of new signings into a team. 

Wilson suggests that it is "far better in many cases to stick with what you know and find a coach capable of improving the performance of a given set of players, as demonstrated by Eddie Howe, Sean Dyche and Chris Hughton." He also writes — possibly unfairly — that, "bringing in a 64-year-old from China seemed tantamount to interrupting a retirement." 

It's certainly true that integrating too many new players is proving problematic. Perhaps for the next three games Pellegrini might need to turn to some of the players who already have experience of must-not lose games at West Ham, the likes of Mark Noble, Pedro Obiang, Angelo Ogbonna, Javier Hernandez and Declan Rice. We can get out of this, but as the piece says, at the moment winless West Ham is shaping up to be the early season story.

Pellegrini turns to drink

Things that are almost West Ham. No contest for the mineral water we'll all be drinking at the London Stadium next season…

Pellegrini's (Iron) Maiden appearance at the London Stadium?

Thanks to my pal Fraser for keeping up to date with Chilean daily paper La Cuerta, which has been reporting on the possibility of Manuel Pellegrini joining West Ham as our new gaffer. Apparently unfamiliar with the Hammers, they’ve settled on describing WHU as, "a team fanatically supported by Iron Maiden." 

"Good to know we have some kind of international reputation," comments Fraser, who wonders if we’ll see Manuel (and heavy metal fan Zabaleta?) down the Cart and Horses. where Maiden played one of their first gigs. He also wonders if Pelly will bring his star player from Hebbei China Fortune with him as it would be nice to see Javier Mascherano again.

La Cuerta seems convinced that Pellegrini is coming. However, Fraser does point point out that La Cuerta is "not exactly known as a paper of record, most readers buy it for the large selection of female nudes featured daily. I guess it’s a bit like Sullivan’s Sport (is that still going?)."