Tuesday night was always going to play a big part in the battle for Premier League survival, with the two sides directly below Leeds United in the table doing battle at the London Stadium.
Gary Neville spoke of the importance of the match in the race for survival, and so it has proved to be. It wasn’t easy to pinpoint which result best suited Leeds, but Nottingham Forest secured a 2-1 victory.
West Ham had taken the lead, but a disallowed Crysencio Summerville goal saw the Hammers go from potentially 2-0 up to 1-1 within minutes. Nicolas Dominguez equalised soon after Summerville scored.
How many more points do Leeds need to survive? 📉
Farke has said a point a game will be enough…
In the final moments, Morgan Gibbs-White won and scored a controversial penalty to secure a 2-1 win for Forest. Sean Dyche’s side have closed the gap on Leeds to a point, and are now seven clear of West Ham.
Tomas Soucek admits West Ham’s chances are ‘really bad’
Until Wednesday night at least, Leeds’ position in the race to avoid relegation has not changed. Eight points still separate Leeds and West Ham, but West Ham’s confidence of staying up has surely dipped.
The gap between Forest and West Ham has increased by three to seven points now, and West Ham’s run of fixtures is about to get a whole lot harder. Tomas Soucek admits West Ham’s position is “really bad”.
“I know our position. This is not anymore time for nice words. We have so many games but we have to do it from the first game. Now is the time. We have to be winning. Seven points, we can’t win one or two.
“We have to win a few in a row. I still believe and will until the end, but I have to say that we are in a really bad position,” Soucek said after Tuesday night’s 2-1 defeat to Forest, as quoted by BBC Sport.
Realistically, how long can Leeds United’s unbeaten run go on for?
Daniel Farke has overseen Leeds' longest Premier League unbeaten run since David O'Leary in 2001
Daniel Farke’s aim will have Leeds safe by a considerable margin
For much of the season, Farke has made it clear he wants his Leeds side to stay on the right side of a point a game. After going seven unbeaten and winning 11 from seven games, Leeds have 22 from 20.
But with West Ham still only on 14 points after 21 games, the Hammers will only achieve 25 points at this rate. While the Hammers will hope they can win a lot more, Leeds are realistically four wins from safety.
A total of 34 points at this stage would surely see Leeds safe, given West Ham would have to go and win 20 from their remaining 17 games. Anything in the mid-thirties will surely prove too much for West Ham.
For West Ham’s Soucek, he will be wishing he had considered the interest in his services in the summer a bit more. Leeds were among the clubs looking at Soucek, but the Czech Republic star stayed put.
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