West Ham relegation worries deepen amid Premier League fixtures reveal for remaining games
West Ham are running out of time to rescue their Premier League status this season.
Nuno Espirito Santo‘s side have 11 games of the season to go, and are within striking distance of leapfrogging Nottingham Forest in 17th, with West Ham two points behind.
The Hammers last competed at Championship level in 2011-12, in a season where Ricardo Vaz Te’s 87th-minute play-off final-winning goal against Blackpool cemented his place as an Irons cult hero.
Since then, West Ham have largely loitered around mid-table in the Premier League, with the odd brush with the top and bottom of the division here and there.
However, they’re now at the biggest threat of returning to second tier football since that 2012 promotion, and if they are to escape their predicament with their top flight status, then they’re going to have to do it the hard way.
West Ham have one of toughest remaining fixture lists
At this stage of the season, there’s no such thing as a free hit game of football, as every dropped point could make all the difference between playing in the Premier League or the Championship for 2026-27.
The Hammers are in solid form at the moment, however, as Nuno’s men are unbeaten in their last three league games, and have only tasted defeat once in their previous six.
However, things aren’t getting any easier for the Hammers, and as outlined in a report by The Athletic via Opta’s Power Rankings, it may even be about to get much more difficult.
Calculating which Premier League team has the easiest remaining set of fixtures this season, The Athletic’s graph reveals that West Ham have the third-toughest final run of games this term.
Their mean opponent difficulty number comes out at 93.5, with only Crystal Palace (93.7) and Chelsea (94) respectively calculated to have tougher run-ins.
- Read more: The three games that could determine West Ham’s Premier League fate amid relegation fears
Analysing West Ham’s remaining games and where points may arrive
West Ham will begin the final stretch of their season away at Liverpool on Saturday before travelling to Fulham on 4 March, with perhaps a maximum of one point from those two games being a realistic expectation.
Then they’ll welcome Man City to the London Stadium on 14 March, before travelling to Aston Villa on 22 March, and again, perhaps a lone point looks about the best the Hammers could realistically hope for from them two.
Home games against Wolves and Everton as well as an away clash with Crystal Palace await in April, with this looking like a make or break set of games, and seven points should be a realistic target to take.
Brentford away followed by Arsenal at home open up May’s fixtures, with again perhaps a point the best they could hope for from these two major tests.
And finally, the Hammers finish their season away to Newcastle in the penultimate game, before hosting Leeds on the final day, with a target of four points here being a fair one.
So, if all of those targets were met, West Ham would add a further 13 points to their tally, which would put them on 38.
Looking back at the last few teams to finish 17th, Tottenham ended with that exact figure last season, Forest finished with 32 in 2023-24, Everton 36 in 2022-23 and Leeds with 38 in 2021-22 respectively.
Therefore, that would suggest that a total of 38 points for West Ham would be enough to preserve their Premier League status this season.
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