Premier League rankings: West Ham analysis, line-up & predicted finish

West Ham have gone big in the spending stakes to improve their attacking options but it's their defence which may stop the Hammers making strides up the Premier League table.

Manuel Pellegrini will have been satisfied with United's tenth-place finish last season and they achieved notable results with a win at Tottenham as well as home successes against Arsenal and Manchester United. They also held Liverpool and Chelsea to home draws.

The aim is to improve thanks to the arrivals of playmaker Pablo Fornals and target-man Sebastien Haller, their record signing and the man tasked with replacing departed maverick Marko Arnautovic.

Spaniard Fornals impressed at the European Under-21 Championship and Haller appears as good a bet as anyone to break the Hammers' striker curse.

The London outfit have signed 38 forwards since David Gold and David Sullivan bought the club in 2010 and they have managed just 203 goals in 957 appearances between them.

Haller comes with pedigree - he bagged 15 Bundesliga goals for Eintracht Frankfurt last season and assisted another nine - and he should help to bring the best out of an offensive midfield which includes Fornals, Felipe Anderson and Manuel Lanzini.

However, stepping up on last season's efforts won't be easy unless Pellegrini protects his defence with West Ham among the biggest overachievers according to the expected-goals-against statistic.

Only Fulham and Huddersfield managed fewer clean sheets than West Ham's six and their rearguard was exposed to such an extent that Lukasz Fabianski was forced to make the most saves (148) of any Premier League keeper. That was seven more than the next busiest, Cardiff's Neil Etheridge, with Ben Foster a distant third on 127.

Fabianski was absolutely fabulous as he walked away with the Hammer of the Year award, but it would be risky to bank on him maintaining such lofty standards.

West Ham's last seven Premier League seasons have resulted in finishing positions of 10-13-12-7-11-13-10 (an average of 10.8) and it appears a fair guide to this season's outcome.

Possible team (4-2-3-1): Fabianski; Fredericks, Balbuena, Diop, Masuaku; Rice, Noble; Lanzini, Fornals, Anderson; Haller.

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