West Ham's struggles are approaching panic levels, but are the Hammers too good to go down?

After a summer of major spending, David Moyes' side are in a precarious position

On Friday night those five dreaded words raised their heads in east London again. Too good to go down: it is the knell of doom around West Ham, a cruel reminder of the brutal season 20 years ago when Jermain Defoe, Michael Carrick, Paolo Di Canio and 42 points were not enough to keep the club from the Premier League trap door.

That side is widely acknowledged to be among the most purely talented teams to ever find themselves in the bottom three come the end of the season, a side that sleepwalked into a crisis that they only came to fully understand when it was too late. And so it is doubtless a little concerning for West Ham fans to hear their manager accentuate the positives after a fifth straight defeat in the Premier League, a 2-0 loss against Brentford that had the Irons just a point above the relegation zone having played a game more than those around them on Friday night.

"We played well tonight, we played really well in the first half and played well in the second half as well," said David Moyes. "Got sucker punched with a couple of throw-ins in the first half, so we're disappointed with that."