Written by : Jonathan Lee

The position we finish in the table this season will be determined, as ever, not by how we perform against the so-called ‘Big Six’ (though we often raise our game against them) but by how we perform against the rest. The next four games will be a perfect illustration of how this season may develop. We have had eight games to bed in, iron out early issues, assess who is in form and who is not, and now after the international break we have four big tests of character. Come out with decent points from these matches and we may just be the real deal; come away with very little and we may be looking at a mid-table position yet again.

So who do we have coming up, and what are the challenges we will need to meet.

This Saturday lunchtime we head to Everton, oddly in the bottom three and seemingly unable to buy a win – and we all know what happens when a team is on a losing streak and West Ham come to town! Add to that our generally poor record at Goodison Park in recent years and we have a battle, but if we really have aspirations to break that top six or seven, this is the type of game that, at worst, we must not lose. As we have seen so far this season, away day points are not to be sniffed at.

Then Sheff Utd come to town, a game that for obvious reasons means so much to both sets of fans and will doubtless see a feisty atmosphere – but be clear on two things. Firstly, with the possible exception of Nobes what happened in 2006/07 means absolutely nothing to our players many of whom won’t even have been aware of West Ham nearly 13 years ago (most being way too young!) and, secondly, this is a physical no-nonsense Blades team who haven’t lost on the road yet for good reasons. They are hard working and never let you settle; if we are to get three home points we will have to really be at it – none of this lethargic opening 15 minutes (all too familiar even when we have won matches eg Norwich, Man Utd).

And then we welcome Newcastle to the London Stadium, a team which on paper we should really be turning over, but in their last game against Man Utd they seemed to have found a new way of playing and had a midfield warrior in the new Longstaff brother. They too will fancy snatching something, but we simply have to keep the ball and move it quickly, not sitting back and allowing them the time to hurt us.

And finally, before we head into games with a couple of that ‘Big Six’ we have a very tricky trip to Burnley who at home are a more than useful outfit. We got battered there first half last season, their front two of Wood and Barnes are a genuine handful, their midfield is constantly busy, and the crowd boisterous – a win here would announce us as a real contender for European places.

After these four games we will have completed broadly a third of the season, but only played two of the twelve ‘Big 6’ matches (ie both Manchester teams at home), with none having been played away.  This makes the next four games even more pivotal to our progress.

But let’s enjoy these upcoming games, get behind the team, and hope the boys have the personality, skill, speed and unity as a squad that we will need to navigate what will undoubtedly be a tough next four weeks.