The Irons must hope Manchester United can somehow do them a huge favour by beating both Leicester on Tuesday and then Liverpool 48 hours later, but why would they want to help 'little old' West Ham break into the 'septic six'?
Those bastions of sports coverage integrity, the Express and the Sunday Express, have an uncanny knack of acting like a reportage echo. Someone prints something and then the article, with a bit of editing, magically re-appears, and it is in the case regarding Chelsea's Tammy Abraham.
We had a bad, bad feeling at The Org ahead of the crucial game against Everton, and unfortunately those thoughts came to pass. The team selected to play against the Toffees was the same one that had just dismantled Burnley, so there couldn't be many who would have doubted the 'if it ain't broke don't fix it philosophy ahead of the game.
West Ham: Fabianski, Coufal, Diop, Dawson, Cresswell (c), Soucek, Lanzini, Fornals, Lingard, Benrahma, Antonio Subs: Randolph (GK), Balbuena, Ogbonna, Fredericks, Johnson, Coventry, Yarmolenko, Bowen, Odubeko
Everton: Pickford, Coleman (c), Keane, Mina, Godfrey, Digne, Allan, Davies, Sigurdsson, Richarlison, Calvert-Lewin Subs: Olsen (GK), Holgate, Delph, Doucoure, Iwobi, Nkounkou, Bernard, Gomes, King
Leeds did Hammers a favour yesterday by beating 'Tottingham' 3-1, unfortunately neither Manchester City nor Southampton could oblige in the other results which saw Chelsea move further away and Liverpool move ominously closer. Realistically if David Moyes's boys are going to have any hope of making one of the Champions League slots, they have to (a) win all of the four remaining games, and (b) hope that Leicester continue to self destruct just as they did at the end of last season.
Loan, loan, loan could be the order of the day during the summer transfer window, as Hammers boss David Moyes attempts to do a 'loaves and fishes' with what will, at least compared to other clubs, be a meagre transfer budget. The club's need for a striker has become somewhat of a broken record, with Moyes apparently looking at over 25 players.
Having spent far too many seasons looking at L'arse end of the Barclays Premier League table, Hammers fans find themselves in the not unenviable position of looking at the top, not bottom, for the first time since the 'Payet' season at the Boleyn during it's final year.
Hammers fans who followed the 'massive' injury boost links will be slightly underwhelmed when they read that one part of the 'massive injury boost' is that Mark Noble will be available for selection, again. We know criticising 'captain Mark' is akin to stamping on a puppy, but the stats for when he has appeared are damning.
Irrespective of where the club eventually finishes in the Barclays Premier League, one of the first orders of business in the closed season is for David Moyes to acquire a 'top notch' striker. The problem is strikers are like gold dust and their price reflects that, having already been 'linked' with Tammy Abraham, Ivan Toney, Abdallah Sima, Adam Hlozek, Adam Armstrong, Youssef En-Nesyri and Odsonne Edouard, the choice seems endless, but is it?
David Moyes is one of the most experienced managers around, anywhere, so his actions are questioned by few and are usually justified by their end result, therefore it would be churlish to suggest that he has 'lost the plot' when it comes to his interaction with Said Benrahma.