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West Ham are ten games into the Premier League season and there are a few questions lingering over the club as their good start to the season is unravelling before our eyes.

The Hammers lost just one of their first seven league matches of 2019/20 but are also winless in their last four outings which has seen them slide down the table not long after being touted for a potential top six finish.

There was also the absolutely embarrassing Carabao Cup exit at the hands of Oxford United in late September which is a real irk among a fanbase that is craving a good cup run but this was the third season in a row the Hammers have exited a competition early.

Manuel Pellegrini spent big again in the summer, splashing a club-record £45m on Sebastien Haller who has done well, scoring four goals so far. £25m recruit Pablo Fornals however has struggled so far while there has also been bad long-term injuries to both Michail Antonio and reigning Hammer of the Year Lukasz Fabianski.

The return to form of Andriy Yarmolenko has been a huge plus though as was the 2-0 win over Manchester United at London Stadium and some of the best football we have seen in recent years during the beating of Norwich City.

But heading into the eleventh game of the campaign this weekend when struggling Newcastle Untied visit E20, here are ten issues that have been raised from the first ten games.

Lack of depth in the squad

Pellegrini made five changes to his team for the draw with Sheffield United and some of them paid off but there is a concern over squad depth. The turnover of players was high in the summer and only five new faces came in, one of those in Goncalo Cardoso who hasn't played for the first team yet.

It meant the manager persisted with the out of form Manuel Lanzini for far too long before eventually dropping him, while Felipe Anderson hasn't puleld up any trees so far this season either. There is no game changer off the bench either since Antonio went down with an injury. Pelllegrini hasn't been able to get much impact off his bench and it is a concern if they are chasing a game.

Slow start for Pablo Fornals

(Image: Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images)

The usual caveats with an expensive, young signing playing abroad for the first time apply to Fornals here but we can still say that we expected an awful lot more so far.

He's not been helped by his manager's insistence on playing him as a winger which is a skillset Fornals doesn't have and his confidence has taken a bit of a hit. It's just one goal in the Carabao Cup against Newport to show for his efforts so far. There is certainly more to come and we have to give him some leeway, but time is not always afforded in the Premier League.

Attacking midfielder form

Manuel Pellegrini's fondness for attacking midfielders is not a mystery to anyone, he's got plenty of them in his squad - Fornals, Manuel Lanzini, Felipe Anderson, Andriy Yarmolenko, Jack Wilshere, Michail Antonio, to name them.

Antonio gets a pass because of his injury and Yarmolenko has been good this season, but the others have not. Wilshere has struggled to get in matchday squads, Anderson has only completed 90 minutes twice this season, Lanzini has belatedly been dropped while Fornals' problems we have already covered.

Pellegrini's tactics rely heavily on his midfielders creating and scoring - so far it's only Yarmolenko who has stepped up.

Lukasz Fabianski's injury

(Image: Robin Jones - AFC Bournemouth/AFC Bournemouth via Getty Images)

The reigning Hammer of the Year picking up a torn hip muscle in the first half of the 2-2 draw with Bournemouth was seen at the time as a disaster, demonstrating how important he has been.

Roberto has come in and made some mistakes, but also made some good saves as well in fairness to him and does not deserve to be the scapegoat for the Hammers recent wobble.

But losing one of the best goalkeepers in the division is going to hurt anyone, maybe apart from Liverpool when Allisson went down and former Hammer Adrian stepped in - and it has hurt the Hammers.

Throwing away leads

Four times this season West Ham taken the lead in a game and not managed to come away with all three points from the match.

It started at Brighton with a 1-1 draw, then at Bournmouth where the visitors did pick up a point having been 2-1 down, they lost to Crystal Palace at home after going ahead and drew with Sheffield United last time out after Robert Snodgrass put the hosts in front.

Is it a mentality thing? Poor tactics? Either way, it needs to be sorted.

Pellegrini questioned for the first time

Undergoing such an overhaul last season, implementing a new style, nine new signings, last season some leeway was given to the manager. But not this season, it seems.

Talk of the manager getting the boot is nonsense at best, but he is coming under increased scrutiny as the Hammers don't appear to have vastly improved on the pitch. Yes they have started this season a lot better than last but they are still prone to mistakes and the managers substitutions have been, shall we say curious, at times.

He's the third highest earning manager in the Premier League but if you back anyone to sort it out, it is the Chilean tactician.

Too loyal to some players

It took Pellegrini far too long to take Lanzini out of his team before eventually doing it for the Sheffield United game but brought him off the bench anyway and was ineffective.

Felipe Anderson has started every game he has been available for this season but the manager persisted with him even when the Brazilian was clearly out of form. To his credit, he looked back on it against the Blades but Pellegrini took him off, which didn't go down well.

He has also persisted with Fornals, playing him in the wrong position either from the start or off the bench, and isn't getting results from it.

Michail Antonio's injury

The winger was a game changer against Brighton in a game where the Hammers were pegged back but immediately pushed for a winner when Antonio came on.

He completely changed the match when he arrived against Watford off the bench and looked like hitting his stride - then he got injured.

Antonio's impact is being sorely missed. His ability to get the ball and run at people, use his pace to get in behind the defence, his aerial ability, is all absent after his third hamstring injury and his return in late 2019 will be very welcome.

Carabao Cup embarrassment

We don't really need to say much more on the nine changes the manager made and the subsequent 4-0 thumping at the hands of League One side Oxford United in late September

So, we won't. Next.

Emphasising the positives

(Image: James Griffiths/West Ham United FC via Getty Images)

The negatives have only really appeared in the past month, since the Man Utd win, but that Saturday and prior to that the Hammers were going very well indeed and it is important to remember that.

Aside from Man City beating West Ham 5-0 on opening weekend, they went unbeaten in their next six, kept three clean sheets on the spin, destroyed Norwich City in E20 and dug in to get a point at Bournemouth where they never do very well.

Some of the football in that Norwich game was mesmerising, the return to form of Yarmolenko from a long injury has been a huge plus, Sebastien Haller's start has been encouraging, while Angelo Ogbonna's form was good as well before he was surprisingly dropped.

It's only ten games, there is still a fair way to go and we expect the Hammers to eventually get it right. There are still positives to take from the season so far and with the Premier League as open as it as ever been outside of the top two, it's down to Pellegrini and his players to take advantage.