Hammers to improve but not by much

Jose Mourinho has tipped them for a tilt at the title and expectations have risen at West Ham following the signings of four new players who are expected to improve the starting 11.

The title talk is ridiculous - it was presumably Mourinho's way of readying his Manchester United side for their opening battle with West Ham - and even breaking the top six is unlikely but the Irons are oozing confidence about leaving last season's 11th place well behind.

West Ham's wage bill and the average age of their squad has jumped significantly following the arrivals of Joe Hart, Pablo Zabaleta, Javier Hernandez and record signing Marko Arnautovic.

Slaven Bilic has not attempted to box clever or unearth a cheap gem. These are Premier League-ready performers with Arnautovic the youngest at 28 and Zabaleta the veteran at 32.

This is a big campaign for England's number one Hart, but the greatest excitement focuses on the arrival of former United and Real Madrid hotshot Hernandez, who notched 28 goals in 54 Bundesliga matches for Bayer Leverkusen before switching to London.

Hernandez will offer an upgrade in mobility to Andy Carroll and more reliability in terms of fitness with the giant Geordie too often crocked. Carroll has featured 74 times in four full seasons as a permanent Hammers player and never managed a double-figure goal return.

Michail Antonio and Andre Ayew appear over their injury woes but despite the new arrivals there remains a fear the Irons are a poorer side for selling Dimitri Payet to Marseille in January. Payet was credited by Opta with creating more chances than any other West Ham player even though he left in the winter window.

Bilic's side must also perform better at the London Stadium in their second season at Stratford if they want to get anywhere near the European spots.

The Hammers collected only 25 points at their new base - a drop of nine points on their last season at Upton Park - and were the only team in the Premier League to have a better shots-on-target ratio (share of match shots) away (0.44) than at home (0.43).

With less hullabaloo over the stadium and short-term reinforcements signed up there are reasons to be hopeful, just don't expect miracles.

Key stat
West Ham scored in both halves just once in last season's Premier League.