It has been an excellent start to the season for West Ham United.
Returning to the Premier League at the first attempt after crushing relegation in May 2011, the club have come on leaps and bounds and have played some attractive football along the way.
Saturday’s impressive 4-1 home victory over Southampton has taken the Hammers into seventh place in the table, ahead of the likes of Arsenal, Newcastle United and Liverpool on merit.
Those who had Sam Allardyce down to be the first managerial casualty of the campaign have been made to eat their words.
King Kevin
Allardyce took plenty of flak last season as the pressure of trying to bounce straight back up seemed to play on the mind of the players.
Play-off success over Blackpool at Wembley ended the suffering for the passionate supporters and a huge slice of the success is because of the form of Kevin Nolan (pictured).
Since signing from Newcastle United in the summer of 2011, Nolan has become the focal point of the team, scoring plenty of goals and creating a lot of chances for his team-mates.
He netted again at the weekend against the Saints and scored vital goals to defeat Aston Villa on the opening Saturday of the term and produced a last minute equaliser to rescue a point at home to Sunderland.
It is amazing that Nolan has never been capped by England and he spent two seasons in his prime outside of the top division.
This is a midfielder who controls the park with ease and is more than likely to score any side at least 10 goals a season.
The Carroll factor
The club have a new weapon upfront too after the loan signing of Andy Carroll from Liverpool.
The Reds striking crisis means he could return to Anfield in January but the Upton Park faithful love having Carroll around at the moment.
Although he is still waiting to break his duck for the Londoners, he has played a significant part in the many positive results West Ham have collected.
His lack of goals wasn’t helped by picking up a hamstring strain on his debut, ruling him out for three weeks in September. Liverpool’s loss is West Ham’s gain.
The addition of Mohamed Diame in the centre of midfield was a shrewd piece of business while Matt Jarvis has quietly gone about his work on the flanks since his August move from Wolves.
Allardyce has put together a hard-working bunch of players and the fans will probably not have to worry about a survival battle in the top flight this time around.
Harder tests to come
When you look at West Ham’s fixtures, they have played a lot of the mid-table teams so far but the results speak for themselves.
They comprehensively beat Fulham and Southampton, recorded a fine away win at QPR and battled to draws at Norwich and at home to Sunderland.
Only Swansea and Arsenal have beaten them so far in the league, along with Wigan in a meaningless Capital One Cup tie.
Although they haven’t played any of the league’s current top five sides so far, it is often picking up the points against teams expected to be around you that will count.
Big Sam weaved his magic at both Bolton and Blackburn and has become one of the most respected bosses in the English game.
As long as he is in charge, the future of West Ham is most certainly in safe hands.
By Simon Wright – Follow me on Twitter @Siwri88
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