And so the club that spent £160m in the summer will begin its FA Cup campaign with as many wins against Danish opposition as against English clubs this season. Suffice to say this is not how West Ham planned the season to go. An evening spent veering in and out of the drop zone was a throwback to unhappier times.
For David Moyes, the only West Ham manager ever to secure back-to-back top-seven finishes in the top flight, the bottom three assumes a greater significance now. A frenetic draw at Leeds halted a run of five straight defeats. It also meant West Ham have only won five of their last 25 league games. The Hammers’ funds may be diminished after the biggest spending spree in their history, but Moyes thinks he should have credit in the bank with his employers. “There are a lot of things that have happened in the last two and a half years that probably give them the confidence to think they’ve got a manager they can trust and they can work with,” Moyes said.
