West Ham United currently find themselves languishing in the bottom-half of the Premier League table.
Slaven Bilic’s men have made a lacklustre start to the season. They currently sit 15th in the Premier League, with just two wins coming from their opening eight games in the top flight.
Despite not losing in either of their last two, the Hammers supporters would have been forgiven for coming away from their clash with Burnley at the weekend feeling slightly pessimistic as Andy Carroll was sent off during the first-half, and Bilic’s men only managed to hold onto their lead until the final minutes of the game when Chris Wood ensured that the points would be shared.
But despite the weekend disappointment, and the less than encouraging position in the table, Cottee insisted that the team is moving in the right direction, and predicted that they will have no problem keeping themselves away from the drop this year.
“To play the first three games away from home, for obvious reasons, I don’t think that helped them, it put pressure on, it put pressure on the manager,” he added.
“I think everyone’s got behind the manager, the players are certainly playing for him, the fans have been patient, they’ve been understanding but now they want to see the team push forward. If you beat Brighton on Friday, the mood changes and everyone moves on and upwards again.”
Bilic will surely be reminding his players if they are feeling negative after looking at the table that a win over Brighton would see them leap into the top-half of the table and leave them just four points off the top four ahead of the rest of the weekend’s fixtures – so, as Cottee suggests, a couple of positive results can certainly change the complexion of the season for the Hammers.
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