West Ham discovered their fixtures for the forthcoming Premier League season this morning and it’s a tale of two halves for the Hammers, who were handed a relatively kind start to the new campaign but face a stern challenge in their final six fixtures.

The Hammers begin their season away from home against Manchester United, with their first home game coming the following weekend against Southampton- although that match is set to be rescheduled due to the World Athletic Championships being held at the London Stadium this summer.

Slaven Bilic’s side will then travel to newly-promoted Newcastle and host West Brom, before another trip to a newly-promoted side as they tackle Huddersfield in Yorkshire- and then a stern test awaits as they host Tottenham Hotspur.

Whilst that is good news for West Ham, the finale to the season couldn’t be any more different as the final six fixtures of the season leave the Hammers with difficult ties- including trips to face Chelsea and Arsenal, along with home fixtures against the likes of Stoke, Manchester City and Everton.

That leaves West Ham knowing that they’ll likely need a strong start and strong finish to the campaign if they’re to achieve their objectives and they could have a helping hand by their rivals involvement in Europe, as the fixture scheduling is much tighter ahead of a World Cup year.

West Ham don’t have too many positives to look at ahead of the new campaign but they have managed to avoid significant challenges during the festive period, where Premier League clubs will be tested with a run of four matches over the space of eight days.

During this period the Hammers face Newcastle (H), Bournemouth (A), Tottenham (A) and West Brom (H)- which is a much kinder flurry of fixtures than what it could have been.

West Ham do face gruelling runs during the campaign though and their toughest test is likely to come between mid-November and mid-December, where the Hammers face an array of difficult matches as their fixture list reads: Everton (A), Manchester City (A), Chelsea (H), Arsenal (H) and Stoke City (A).

Those five games come around a quarter of the way into the Premier League season and it could certainly make or break the Hammers campaign- and it raises the importance of their home ties, as they must make the London Stadium the fortress that Upton Park once was.