West Ham - Premier Preview

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West Ham United

Manager: Slaven Bilic

Last season: 11th (45 points)

Major ins: Marko Arnautovic (Stoke City, undisclosed), Joe Hart (Manchester City, loan), Javier Hernandez (Bayer Leverkusen, £16million), Pablo Zabaleta (Manchester City, free)

Major outs: Alvaro Arbeloa (released), Reece Burke (Bolton Wanderers, loan), Josh Cullen (Bolton Wanderers, loan), George Dobson (Sparta Rotterdam, undisclosed), Havard Nordtveit (Hoffenheim, undisclosed), Reece Oxford (Borussia Monchengladbach, loan), Darren Randolph (West Ham United, undisclosed), Enner Valencia (Tigres UANL, undisclosed), Ashley Fletcher (Middlesbrough, £6.5million)

Sporting Life's David John's gives his verdict:

It all went Pete Tong on too many occasions for West Ham in their first season at the London Stadium in Stratford and this summer’s transfer activity aims to be the foundation for a far less stressful campaign.

The Hammers remain in the argument though at around the 10/1 mark for relegation so the layers probably still need a bit more convincing that Slaven Bilic and company have turned the corner.

Therein lies much of the intrigue – this a team that would not be out of place challenging for Europe and the ownership have stumped up the readies to secure some high-profile talent to hopefully achieve that end.

A club-record £23m was splashed out on Marko Anautovic, who has both the technical ability and enough loose screws to make him a real fan-favourite while striker Javier Hernandez, the experienced Pablo Zabaleta and goalkeeper Joe Hart are proven performers at this level.

West Ham’s descent from seventh in 2015/16 to 11th does not sound too shambolic in terms of the bigger picture but a winless spell through February and March put them in considerable danger of playing Championship football at their shiny new home.

However, a run of just one defeat in seven to close out the season that included a morale-boosting win over arch-rivals Tottenham might finally put those home jitters to rest once and for all.

The mercurial Manuel Lanzini has relished his role as creator supreme following the exit of Dimitri Payet and the Argentine’s best football still looks in front of him while a combination between Hernandez and Andy Carroll could be productive if the latter manages to stay fit for more than 10 minutes.

Bilic’s position may have been under serious threat at times last season but I still believe he is one of the best managers around and has every right to feel his team should be looking up rather than down in terms of the league standings.

The London Stadium stages the World Athletics in August which means West Ham start with three away fixtures (the first at Old Trafford) and don’t perform in front of their own fans until September 11.

That’s a pretty tough schedule whichever way you slice it and they may not have many points on the board in those early weeks but it is a situation which can be rectified on the way to a top-half finish.