West Ham blogger Kwame Boakye looks at the approaching season
With the exhaustive Maxi Gomez saga finally over and unfortunately not reaching the conclusion we had all longed for; it's somewhat easy to overlook something.
Not only is this West Ham side easily the best we've seen since the early noughties; when the likes of Paolo Di Canio and Joe Cole strutted about Upton Park's hallowed turf.
But also that three of the traditional top six are not quite the powers they used to be:
Arsenal looked a shambles at times last season, whilst their run to the final of the Europa League was impressive, their league performances were anything but.
The Gunners should've wrapped up fourth spot but some truly horrendous results/performances as the season reached its climax saw them hand it to Spurs on a plate.
Arsenal's uninspiring transfer activity thus far and a shocking away record last season means this Arsenal side are a far cry from the great teams 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 cannot replace, him nor can they freshen up/strengthen the rest of their squad.
That coupled with the fact they've just handed the manager's job to Frank Lampard; a man with one season in management at Championship level behind him was an incredibly risky move.
From the Championship to the Champions League in one season? Really?
This was clearly an appointment that was ultimately determined by sentiment and such an emotional and nonsensical appointment could backfire spectacularly.
Lastly in this ailing trio is Manchester United.
Make no mistake about it, they completed got swept up in Ole Gunnar Solsjkaer's fairytale flying start.
The sensible/logical 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 culminated in a draw with already relegated Huddersfield & 2-0 home loss to fellow Championship new boys Cardiff City on the final day of the season.
At best they're a transitional side with a manager out of his depth.
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 also be said of Ryan Fredricks.
We must now ruthlessly and relentlessly get that 20 goal striker to spearhead what could be an assault on fourth spot, with so many of the top sides in disarray now is the time to smash that glass ceiling.
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