West Ham United were certainly aiming high when they appointed Manuel Pellegrini to be their new manager last summer.
The Chilean after all previously won the Premier League while he was in charge of Manchester City and not many managers in the game have his level of experience.
After West Ham spent in the region of £100 million on bringing in new talent last summer, much was expected and Hammers fans would have been expecting nothing less than a strong finish on the top half of the standings.
West Ham have blown hot and cold this season. There have been some promising signs but there have also been displays during which they played as if they are a club that is struggling to avoid relegation.
Highlights of this season for Pellegrini include the impressive victories over Everton, Manchester United and Arsenal.
There have also been lows and West Ham entered their game against Leicester City on Saturday having lost their previous three league fixtures against Chelsea, Everton and Manchester United respectively.
One of the weak points for the Hammers is that they have the longest injury list of any side in the top-flight. The likes of Andy Carroll, Manuel Lanzini, Carlos Sanchez, Jack Wilshere, Winston Reid and Andriy Yarmolenko have all spent big portions of the season on the sidelines.
Players such as Javier Hernandez, Aaron Cresswell and Marko Arnautovic are all also injury prone.
Speaking about his club’s inconsistency, West Ham captain Mark Noble suggested that it is because of the competitiveness of the Premier League.
“In this league you can lose, win and draw, but if you lose like you did on Saturday you take more positives out of it,” he told whufc.com.
“I think that’s just the Premier League now in all honesty. You just don’t know what you’re going to get.
“Leicester earlier in the season beat Man City and Chelsea and then lost to Cardiff 3-0. That is the Premier League and that’s why this league is the hardest league in the world because you actually really don’t know what’s going to happen.”