Only a few weeks ago, his job was under threat, but Sam Allardyce has managed to turn things around at West Ham United. The 2-0 win over struggling Swansea City proved to be the turnaround of fortunes for West Ham, as they managed to win four consecutive matches.

This has helped them edge closer to the top half of the table, which would have been unimaginable a few weeks ago. However, it has now come to an end following the 1-0 defeat against Everton. West Ham will not have the opportunity to recover from this defeat quickly, as they have been forced to enjoy a break for the next two weeks.

Hull City were expected to be the visitors at Upton Park during the weekend, but their progression in the FA Cup means that West Ham do not have any matches between now and the middle of March. They return to league action with an away trip to Stoke City. Until then, Allardyce has said that West Ham will be looking to work on the things that went wrong against Everton. Romelu Lukaku scored the only goal of the match in that victory. Allardyce has recalled that Everton are very good team and that there is no harm in losing 1-0 away from home to such a team.

“We’d have liked to have another game, which would have been our chance to overcome the Everton defeat and get another victory. We have to be patient. Everybody’s going to get fitter and they’ll be able to get ready and excited for the away game at Stoke City. On Saturday we were very close to getting a point and the only disappointment was our final third play wasn’t good enough to cause Everton the problems that we should have done,” said Allardyce.