West Ham dreams no longer fading and dying with relegation fight almost won
West Ham being miserable has been an absolute staple of the Mood Rankings this year. Often the most miserable of everyone, certainly in late 2025 and early 2026 before the full extent of quite what was happening to and at Tottenham was clear.
And while it wouldn’t quite be true to say joy unconfined has replaced that mood of despair and desperation, there is definitely a new-found lightness around the London Stadium.
The owners are still viewed with suspicion, the stadium remains abysmally unfit for purpose, and the results inconsistent.
But inconsistent results are plenty good enough now that three teams are producing such consistently bad ones.
The Hammers aren’t yet quite safe, but a couple more results for them and a couple more results for Spurs and it’s in the books.
That, too, is another source of West Ham joy, of course. Not just their own now-near-certain survival but at whose expense it will come. The fact it could all be confirmed in a game against Arsenal adds yet another layer of deliciousness, even if the prospect of that day offering a total party atmosphere as the Gunners celebrate winning the title has receded a touch.
West Ham have reaped the rewards of being willing to gamble in January. They moved early and decisively for players who could make a difference. They didn’t get a 100 per cent hit rate out of it, but they got what they needed and then some.
It deserves credit. There are clubs who would have accepted what seemed at that point a certain fate. There are those who would have done nothing, blind to the crisis unfolding all around them and then doing an in-house interview patting themselves on the back for not panicking in the face of dire form and an entire team’s worth of long-term injuries.
‘January is difficult’ is true, but also too easy an excuse for inaction. West Ham could have taken that option. They could have dispensed with Nuno Espirito Santo, who could in truth have had few complaints had they done so.
But West Ham backed him. Properly, fully. With action as well as words. The rewards have been staggering, transforming not just this season but West Ham’s prospects more generally.
Once the formalities of survival are confirmed – which really could now only be a few short weeks away – Hammers can start to look forward with something approaching genuine optimism about what comes next. Optimism is not something that has been in ready supply here over recent years, as David Moyes sucked the joy out of the place and his successors fulfilled the direst ‘careful what you wish for’ warnings.
At the start of the year, West Ham were four points adrift of Nottingham Forest, and seven adrift of Leeds. They were only two points better off than Burnley. Spurs were an irrelevant 11 points off in the distance.
Based on this year’s results alone, after the reinforcements arrived, they sit comfortably in mid-table. They are level on points in 2026 with Chelsea. Only two behind Liverpool having played a game fewer. They sit within three points of a Champions League place.
It’s not to say that any of this automatically transfers to a new season, but also who’s to say it doesn’t? West Ham would not be the first team to turn an unlikely storming run to safety with an unlikely storming run to start the following season.
More than anything else, though, is the simple fact that these are now the conversations and ideas for West Ham fans to consider after a season spent largely fearing the worst and somehow experiencing even worse.
