@KwamsMoriarty

With the Maxi Gomez transfer saga casting a large & imposing figure over our summer thus far, it’s somewhat easy to overlook that not only is this West Ham side easily the best we’ve seen since the early noughties; when the likes of Paolo Di Canio & Joe Cole strutted about Upton Park’s hallowed turf. But also that 3 of the traditional top 6 are not quite the powers they used to be:

Arsenal looked a shambles at times last season, whilst their run to the Europa League final was impressive, their league performances certainly were not, they should of nicked 4th spot but some truly horrendous results/performances saw them hand it to Spurs on a plate.

That coupled with a lack of transfer activity thus far and a shocking away record last season means this Arsenal side are a far cry from the sides that won titles in the late nineties/early noughties.

Chelsea…they have just sold their best player in Eden Hazard & thanks to a transfer ban they cannot replace him, that coupled with the fact they’ve just employed Frank Lampard; a man with one season in management at Championship level behind him.

This was an appointment that made no sense logically apart from Lampard’s cult/hero/legend status at The Bridge and such an emotional appointment could backfire spectacularly.Solskjaer led Man United to 6thLastly in this ailing trio is Manchester United; make no mistake about it, they completed got swept up in Ole Gunnar Solsjkaer’s flying start, the sensible thing to do would’ve been to wait until the end of the season to see if Ole was more than just a flash in the pan, however we all know they didn’t.

Man United now have a largely average squad with a manager who lacks experience and oversaw a truly shocking end to the season that saw them draw with Huddersfield & lose 2-0 at home to already relegated Cardiff City as they undid all of their initial good work under Ole to finish 6th.

With 3 of the top 6 vulnerable now is the time to strike.

I look at this current West Ham side and I’m excited: the creativity we now boast with the likes of; Fornals, Lanzini, Wilshere, Yarmolenko, Anderson etc. Is salivating, if we can get that elusive, almost mythical 20 goal striker over the line he would have a field day with all that creativity behind him.

Defensively the partnership of Diop & Balbuena will only improve and with Rice sitting just in front of them & Fabianski behind; that is a highly talented defensive quartet.

At full back I feel we are vulnerable; with Aaron Cresswell not the player he used to be, Arthur Masuaku brilliant going forward but defensively suspect, the same could be said of Ryan Fredricks.

If we can secure a striker of Maxi Gomez’s calibre a push for fourth could well be on, its time that glass ceiling was smashed.

By Kwame Boakye