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March was a dark month for West Ham fans and four straight defeats dragged the club back into a relegation battle, defeat at Arsenal by 3-0 didn't help April following on the heels of the 2-1 loss to Hull City, grim stuff indeed. There are still plenty of games to play but Hammers are hovering precariously above the drop zone and are in for a real fight. Few would have predicted this after the side’s upturn in form over Christmas but the old defensive problems have resurfaced and Slaven Bilic looks in serious trouble.

Arsenal FC: Martinez, Bellerin, Mustafi, Gabriel, Monreal, Elneny, Xhaka, Walcott, Ozil, Alexis, Welbeck Subs: Macey, Mertesacker, Gibbs, Ramsey, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Iwobi, Giroud
West Ham United: Randolph, Byram, Fonte, Collins, Masuaku, Noble, Kouyate, Ayew, Lanzini, Antonio, Carroll Subs: Nordtveit, Feghouli, Snodgrass, Adrian, Sakho, Calleri, Fernandes

West Ham have continued to be linked with a £30million summer move for Arsenal midfielder Jack Wilshere, though face a battle with Bournemouth for the midfielder following his season long loan on the south coast. £30 Million for an injury prone player approaching the last year of his contract? Someone is having a giraffe, and a conspicuously large one at that! Possibly a £10-12 Million purchase at the most, but even at that price do West Ham really need another midfielder, particularly one with a poor injury record?

Hull: Jakupovic, Robertson, Maguire, Ranocchia, Davies, Elmohamady, Clucas, N'Diaye, Markovic, Hernandez, Niasse Subs: Marshall, Meyler, Maloney, Grosicki, Diomande, Dawson, Henriksen
West Ham: Randolph, Collins, Byram, Fonte, Cresswell, Feghouli, Kouyate, Lanzini, Snodgrass, Carroll, Ayew Subs: Adrian, Masuaku, Nordtveit, Fernandes, Noble, Fletcher, Calleri

Chelsea have held talks with West Ham United over a potential ground share at the London Stadium during the redevelopment of Stamford Bridge, the club would prefer to play home matches at Wembley during the three years when their new stadium is being built, but have opened talks about other grounds within the M25 in case they are unable to reach an agreement with the FA. At one time they were even considering doing a deal with Brentford, as a possible move to Twickenham has been ruled out due to opposition from the Rugby Football Union and local residents.

There has been so much speculation over the future of West Ham boss Slaven Bilic, with one recent report claiming he will be sacked if his side fails to finish in the top 10, but Hammers joint-chairman David Gold has defended the former Croatian international manager. "There is no issue between me and the board and Slaven," Gold insisted. "I go to every board meeting, and in the board there have been no discussions over Slaven, he's our manager we all like him, he's a great guy."

Because of the recent poor run of form and also because it has been International break week, the tabloids and to a certain extent social media have been conducting a 'Billic witch hunt'. The Telegraph being the latest to jump on board by declaring 'Huddersfield Town manager David Wagner has emerged as a potential candidate for the West Ham job if the owners decide in the summer that Slaven Bilic is not the man to take the club forward in the long term.' Well there you have it, it must be true mustn't it?

With confirmed injuries to key players West Ham United will have to send out a very different team to that which lost 2-3 to Leicester City at the London Stadium. Pedro Obiang and Diafra Sakho are ruled out for the rest of the season with Angelo Ogbonna unlikely to return either following surgery, Winston Reid is currently injured and is not expected to return for at least 4-6 weeks and as if these problems were not a big enough head ache for Hammers under fire manager Slaven Billic, Michail Antonio has been ruled out for a month as well!

West Ham United's recent poor run of results has had fans wondering what on earth can be done to reverse the current unwelcome trend, the dropping or unavailability for selection of captain Mark Noble was seen as the catalyst for the team to push on enabling players to fill their natural positions. That all went wrong within eight minutes in the match against Leicester City with the team shipping two goals and influential captain for the day Winston Reid succumbing to a thigh injury.

Everyone knows misquotes and non existent rumours suddenly surface during the International break in order to fill the Premier League void, and this break is no exception. 'News' that West Ham United are interested in signing Manchester United's £300,000 per week captain Wayne Rooney is a case in point, you can almost hear the brain cell crunching involved in creating such a ludicrous story, are you sitting comfortably?