Exclusive: McAvennie cools West Ham-UCL talk, says top-six is achievable
We’re delighted to welcome former West Ham United striker Frank McAvennie as our exclusive columnist. Each week he’ll be giving his views on the biggest talking points at the London Stadium…
Frank McAvennie admits that it will be tough for West Ham to hang onto their current spot in the Premier League’s top four but claims a top-six finish isn’t out of the Hammers’ reach.
David Moyes’ men moved up to fourth at the weekend with an incredible 2-1 win against Tottenham. As it stands, the Irons are two points clear of Chelsea in fifth and five points ahead of sixth-placed Liverpool.
McAvennie doesn’t want to see his former club drop any lower than that so they can pretty much guarantee European football next season.
“I don’t see them staying in the top four. My biggest disappointment is that they didn’t have a go and attack Liverpool because they had two midfield players playing centre-half,” McAvennie told West Ham Zone.
“It’s a strange one. It’s hard because there are good teams around us who are doing very well like Aston Villa, Man City are a given for the title, Man United, Tottenham won’t challenge. There aren’t many points between the top eight.
“I don’t see West Ham dropping that many points but they’ll get beaten – of course they will. But I don’t see them dropping [out of the European places altogether].
“West Ham will hopefully get top six and then go big in the cups next season.”
West Ham have some very tough matches left to play this season.
On Saturday, Moyes and his squad travel up to the North-West to play runaway leaders Manchester City while March and April also sees them play Manchester United, Arsenal, Leicester and Chelsea.
If we can win a couple of those then we might be good for sixth but it’s definitely not going to be easy.
It’s fine to get ahead of ourselves and start dreaming about a European tour but Moyes and his players cannot get a lot of stick if they don’t ultimately achieve a top-six finish.
They’ve done brilliantly thus far and after another transfer window in the summer, Moyes will have a squad that should be even better suited towards his management style.
In other West Ham news, we’ve analysed Aaron Cresswell’s masterclass against Tottenham.