In his regular BBC Sport column, Robbie Savage looks at West Ham's turnaround in results and playing style under Sam Allardyce this season, how Sunderland can bounce back from last week's 8-0 defeat by Southampton and how Manchester United's next few games might see more fans make their mind up about Louis van Gaal.
When I spoke about West Ham on Match of the Day after they beat Crystal Palace at the end of August,I said how impressed I was with the way they were playing.
Then the Hammers lost to Southampton the following week and quite a few people tried to tell me that I was wrong about them.
Since then, however, I continued to stick up for them because they did look a different team. Their recent results are certainly backing that up and they will be full of confidence when they play Manchester City on Saturday.
The Hammers are up in fourth place in the table, and it is hard to find the West Ham fans who were criticising their manager Sam Allardyce, and were so determined to get rid of him last season.
Allardyce's in-form West Ham side take on champions Manchester City on Saturday
Allardyce has not just drastically improved results, he has done so by using the more attractive and attacking playing style that the club's owners asked for over the summer.
Not only that, but he has been able to bed in a number of new players at the same time, something the likes of Liverpool and Tottenham, to name just two teams, have struggled to do successfully in recent months.
Allardyce the entertainer
The statistics show the progress that West Ham have made in the last few months - this season they have more goals and shots on target per game, and are also playing more passes more accurately with fewer long balls.
Allardyce's summer signings have played a big part in that improvement, but he deserves credit for the way he has bedded them in.
In the first two games of the season, only two new faces started, but that number has steadily increased as the campaign has gone on. In their last two games, the wins over QPR and Burnley, there were seven and six new players in the Hammers' starting line-up.
You always hear people talk about foreign players needing time to get used to the pace of the Premier League but that has not applied to Diafra Sakho who signed from Metz in August.
It is the same right through the team. As well as Sakho and Enner Valencia, who have both made such a difference up front, the two full-backs Aaron Cresswell and Carl Jenkinson have done well.
And in midfield Alex Song, Mauro Zarate, Morgan Amalfitano and Cheikhou Kouyate have also made an impact.
Downing an unlikely star in Hammers diamond
Diafra Sakho and Stewart Downing have both been in impressive form for West Ham this season
Thanks to those new arrivals, the other new thing the Hammers have in midfield is options, and with it comes flexibility, which is something else Allardyce has not had before in his time in charge at Upton Park.
Seeing Kevin Nolan, who has been one of Allardyce's main men for many years, being left out shows how the team has evolved.
Last season, the Hammers' first choice attacking front four would have been Nolan and Andy Carroll up front, with Stewart Downing on the left and Matt Jarvis on the right.
With Carroll injured, it is only Downing who has been a regular starter out of those four players this season, but in a very different role.
Rather than play Downing as a left-winger, Allardyce has often used him as the tip of his midfield diamond, with Mark Noble and Kouyate or Amalfitano behind him and Alex Song sitting deep.
Downing has flourished and is having the most productive campaign of his career.
Along with Chelsea's Cesc Fabregas, he has created the most chances (25) in the Premier League this season and has already surpassed his assists total from 2013-14.
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When I spoke about West Ham on Match of the Day after they beat Crystal Palace at the end of August,I said how impressed I was with the way they were playing.
Then the Hammers lost to Southampton the following week and quite a few people tried to tell me that I was wrong about them.
Since then, however, I continued to stick up for them because they did look a different team. Their recent results are certainly backing that up and they will be full of confidence when they play Manchester City on Saturday.
The Hammers are up in fourth place in the table, and it is hard to find the West Ham fans who were criticising their manager Sam Allardyce, and were so determined to get rid of him last season.
Allardyce's in-form West Ham side take on champions Manchester City on Saturday
Allardyce has not just drastically improved results, he has done so by using the more attractive and attacking playing style that the club's owners asked for over the summer.
Not only that, but he has been able to bed in a number of new players at the same time, something the likes of Liverpool and Tottenham, to name just two teams, have struggled to do successfully in recent months.
Allardyce the entertainer
The statistics show the progress that West Ham have made in the last few months - this season they have more goals and shots on target per game, and are also playing more passes more accurately with fewer long balls.
Allardyce's summer signings have played a big part in that improvement, but he deserves credit for the way he has bedded them in.
In the first two games of the season, only two new faces started, but that number has steadily increased as the campaign has gone on. In their last two games, the wins over QPR and Burnley, there were seven and six new players in the Hammers' starting line-up.
You always hear people talk about foreign players needing time to get used to the pace of the Premier League but that has not applied to Diafra Sakho who signed from Metz in August.
It is the same right through the team. As well as Sakho and Enner Valencia, who have both made such a difference up front, the two full-backs Aaron Cresswell and Carl Jenkinson have done well.
And in midfield Alex Song, Mauro Zarate, Morgan Amalfitano and Cheikhou Kouyate have also made an impact.
Downing an unlikely star in Hammers diamond
Diafra Sakho and Stewart Downing have both been in impressive form for West Ham this season
Thanks to those new arrivals, the other new thing the Hammers have in midfield is options, and with it comes flexibility, which is something else Allardyce has not had before in his time in charge at Upton Park.
Seeing Kevin Nolan, who has been one of Allardyce's main men for many years, being left out shows how the team has evolved.
Last season, the Hammers' first choice attacking front four would have been Nolan and Andy Carroll up front, with Stewart Downing on the left and Matt Jarvis on the right.
With Carroll injured, it is only Downing who has been a regular starter out of those four players this season, but in a very different role.
Rather than play Downing as a left-winger, Allardyce has often used him as the tip of his midfield diamond, with Mark Noble and Kouyate or Amalfitano behind him and Alex Song sitting deep.
Downing has flourished and is having the most productive campaign of his career.
Along with Chelsea's Cesc Fabregas, he has created the most chances (25) in the Premier League this season and has already surpassed his assists total from 2013-14.
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fastflexer, blogspot, fast info, fast info mag, fast info magazine, sports gossip, today, sport gossip, Ads, Advice, Awards, Beauty, Breaking, Celebrity, Computer, Crush, Dear Readers, Education News, Entertainment, Entertainment News, EVENTS, Facts, fall, Fashion, Financials, Food and Recipe, Football News, Gospel, Grafitti, Health Tips, Hilarious but True, How To, Innovation, INSPIRED, Interviews, IT, Jobs, Jokes, Khloe, Kardashian, bigger butt, Local News, Long Tennis, Love zone, Make Money Online, Marketing, Mobile, Models, Movies, Music, News, NLP, Nuclear Chemistry, Online Wealth, Personal Improvement, Photos, Politics, Question?, Recipe, Relationships, Religion, Sex, shocking, Shopping, Sports, Styles, Tech, Terrorism, Touching, vacation, Videos, WEDDINGS, World News,
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