West Ham United face a hectic schedule in December as they strive to maintain a top 10 place in the Premier League this season.
Having seen his team perform well, if not spectacularly, in the absence of 'star' forward Michail Antonio, Hammers manager David Moyes is only too aware that the season is not yet a quarter through, and that a long hard winter of congestive fixtures awaits.
Sunday's away victory over Sheffield United was just as seminal as the 3-3 draw away to Tottenham, it showed a riseilient team that goes about it's business in a quietly confident manner. A team forged by David Moyes which is as much about his remption as it is for an underachiening squad finally being given the direction and motivation they sorely needed.
Sheffield: Ramsdale, Baldock, Basham, Egan, Ampadu, Lowe, Berge, Norwood, Fleck, McGoldrick, McBurnie Subs: Verrips, Lundstram, Burke, Jagielka, Robinson, Osborn, Brewster
West Ham: Fabianski, Coufal, Balbuena, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Masuaku, Rice, Soucek, Bowen, Haller, Fornals Subs: Randolph, Benrahma, Lanzini, Snodgrass, Noble, Diop, Johnson
Long suffering Hammers supporters, old and young, are only too aware of their team's propensity of giving clubs below them a helping hand when it comes to 'breaking their duck', this 'act of genorosity' is usually preceeded on the back of a couple of decent results against 'top' opposition!
If football clubs are guilty of being previous offenders, then West Ham would rank highest or there abouts when it comes to repeatedly being gubbed by teams that the 'pundits' feel should have been easily dealt with, and you know, the annoying thing is that they are correct in their appraisal.
In these strange pandemic times, even the word positive has taken on negative connotations, but the 'positve' news emerging from the West Ham medical team, all of whom now have a family member 'held' in comfortable surroundings while David Moyes carries out his 'mole hunt', is that Michail Antonio will be fit to take part in Sunday's Barclays Premier League fixture against 'struggling' Sheffield United.
With the club finding itself in the lower half of the table after eight games, the east-Londoners led by David Moyes don’t have a lot to be happy or sad about, but they know they need reinforcements. This fact has spurred both fans and bettors to be excited by the chance of Tomiyasu Takehiro joining the squad.
Although Hammers squad is still 'sketchy' in some areas, in others there are an abundance of players, particularly wing players. Blessed with the services available of Authur Masuaku, Jarrod Bowen, Pablo Fornals, Manu Lanzini and new signing Said Benrahma, David Moyes is spoiled for choice, he can also call upon the services of Nathan Holland who has recently returned to full fitness from a serious hamstring injury sustained whist out on loan last season.
The International break is always a time of anxiety for journalists and bloggers because there is little of real substance to write about, consequently spurious usually gent driven 'snippets' of information begin to circulate to take up the slack. Some of the 'lazy' journalism is quite ludicrous in it's content, the 'stories', and that's what they are, just 'creative' stories, that Hammers boss David Moyes is 'interested' in bringing either Olivier Giroud or Mario Mandzukic to the London Stadium are amusing, if ill informed.
Having successfully navigated a very tricky opening sequence of Barclay Premier League fixtures, Hammers manager David Moyes now has to anxiously await the return of all his International players from their respective countries of allegiance. West Ham have suffered disproportionately with regards to players picking up long term injuries while on International duty in the past, and it is hoped with a combination of better communication and individually tailored fitness programmes that the risk of injuries is mitigated as much as is humanly possible.