October - West Ham's trickiest month to come?

Whilst the International break has taken over the first week of October, it certainly doesn’t change the fact that West Ham are set to face their hardest month in the Championship so far, with a set of challenging fixtures up ahead, but fortunately, with a rather kind schedule.

The Hammers kick off their October fixture list at the London Stadium this Friday, taking on QPR at 20:00. In a similar fashion, we faced QPR last season in the FA Cup in a campaign that saw Nuno’s side reach the quarter-finals despite relegation. We won 2-1 after Taty Castellanos converted in the 98th minute of extra time with a close-range header, and the Argentine will be hoping to repeat it on Friday evening.

Up next will be our shortest break between fixtures, where we will have a five-day break before travelling midweek to newly promoted side Lincoln, who’ve achieved an impressive 11 points so far this campaign. The fixture at the ProAmpac Stadium will be followed by a three-day gap to Saturday where Nuno’s side travel to Wales to face one of three Welsh sides in the competition, but up first is Swansea City.

Swansea currently sit top of the Championship on 17 points and are proving to be an unexpected threat in the title race for the Championship. The Welsh side currently edge over the Hammers by two points, but of course, we are only eight games into the campaign, which is 46 long - there’s a lot to go!

To round out the month, it will initially be followed by a week-long break after the Swansea fixture, where we will return to the London stadium with a double header consisting of Southampton and West Brom, two sides who are certainly eyeing up finishing in the Top Eight.

Southampton currently sit 13th but have achieved the points to sit fourth. Only due to their ‘spygate’ points deduction do they currently sit so low, and despite being another serious contender, their manager, Tonda Eckert, who is behind the success they’re having, is still pending an outcome from the FA for his potential punishment, which could result in a ban.

It will be a tough month for Nuno Espírito Santo’s side, with a trickier set of fixtures to come, but the scheduling certainly swings in the favour of West Ham. It’s more so now about doing the talking on the pitch.