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West Ham’s Worrisome First Three Fixtures Announced

By Justin Wasik

LONDON, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 30: Declan Rice and Mark Noble and Robert Snodgrass of West Ham United celebrate with teammates at full time of the Premier League match between Chelsea FC and West Ham United at Stamford Bridge on November 30, 2019 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by James Williamson - AMA/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 30: Declan Rice and Mark Noble and Robert Snodgrass of West Ham United celebrate with teammates at full time of the Premier League match between Chelsea FC and West Ham United at Stamford Bridge on November 30, 2019 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by James Williamson - AMA/Getty Images) /
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West Ham is prepping for their Premier League return, as well as the rest of the Prem clubs with official fixture dates finally announced.

The Premier League gave the go-ahead to all 20 clubs to begin small group training a few weeks ago as it was announced the league would resume its 2019-20 campaign on June 17. Last week, all clubs were permitted to conduct contact training, with West Ham doing so at the London Stadium in full home kits.

Now, the dates and times of the first three sets of fixtures have been announced for all clubs as the Premier League provisionally restarts. The dates and times of those three fixtures are (BST/EST):

  • Sat. June 20: v Wolves (5:30p/12:30p)
  • Tues. June 23: @ Spurs (8:15p/3:15p)
  • Wed. July 1: v Chelsea (8:15p/3:15p)

All three of those matches will be shown live on Sky Sports in the UK, NBC Sports in the U.S., and DAZN in Canada.

While it is great to have Premier League football returning, there is a worrisome aspect to the West Ham fixture list. It has been reported that some clubs, including West Ham, have expressed a desire for relegation to not be enforced if the 2019-20 season were to be cancelled due to the virus.

This is because some clubs face the risk of playing tougher opponents in the first few matches of the restart which may lead to other clubs leapfrogging them in the table before they get a chance to finish the season.

This situation specifically pertains to West Ham. While West Ham have the 7th-easiest run-in based on current fixture standing of remaining opponents, they do face extremely difficult opponents in the first three fixtures.

Wolves, Spurs and Chelsea are all battling for European qualification, while the majority of teams after those three are of lesser stature (Newcastle, Burnley, Norwich, Watford, United, Villa).

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It will be extremely important for West Ham to begin accruing points from the outset in case the virus cancels the season because if that does occur and West Ham are in the bottom three, chances are the Premier League will implement relegation and West Ham will be playing in the Championship in 2021.

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