Hammers are already at a turning point after only three games of the new Barclays Premier League season, currently 2nd in the League David Moyes's team should have and would have been 1st had it not been for woeful defending at home to Crystal Palace last time out.
Having spent relatively 'big' on players, the onus is on David Moyes as to exactly how and when he will utilise the new arrivals. The 'new' player who has been at the club the longest, Alphonse Areola, is unlikely to start against Southampton despite already having plenty of premier League experience at Fulham last season while he was on loan from PSG.
It is not like David Moyes to suddenly change things up, but needs must and the need is for the defence to tighten up. While the team are commendable joint top scorers of the League with 10 goals from their first three games, there are only five teams in the top flight to have shipped more goals than the five Hammers have.
Fans might suggest the positive 2 to 1 goal ratio is excellent and a definite departure from the dark old days of negative goal difference, however conceding FIVE goals in only three games is not a top four co-efficient, it is barely top six!
"LOYALTY IS PURE, NOT TAINTED BY THE LURE OF THINGS THAT MIGHT BE GAINED" so wrote English poet David Kernick, Moyes is most definitely loyal to his players, but sometimes pragmatism needs to overcome sentiment, and to that purpose Moyes should have no compunction to do anything other than start new signing Kurt Zouma in place of 'Les' Dawson.
Dawson has been superb since joining the club on loan initially from Watford, his transfer was made permanent earlier in the summer and he will still be an incredibly useful squad member as the club embarks on a serious schedule of games the likes of which it has never experienced before in all it's illustrious history.
In an ideal World Moyes would have had a couple of weeks to integrate Zouma into the defence, instead he will have had just a couple of days which is cutting it a bit fine, however the players sheer quality should see him start ahead of Dawson.
