West Ham Should Start the Seaon on Fire

West Ham captain Lucas Neill believes that West Ham have been given a fixture list that should ensure West Ham get off to a flyer.

"It is good to be starting at home (against Wigan on August 16) as it should mean we get off to a positive start and state our intentions for the season.

There are obviously two newly-promoted teams who will also be finding their feet and Fulham, Bolton and Wigan all finished at the wrong end of the table last season so, on paper, it does look like we could start very well, but there are no easy games in the Premier League as we all know."

His thoughts have been echoed by George McCartney,

"If we have a good pre-season and get up to standard quickly then there's no reason why we can't get plenty of points on the board from our first eight or nine games," the left-back said confidently. We're certainly capable of winning the majority of those opening games. If we can do that then that will take the pressure off when we face the top teams."