Inconsistent West Ham bottling Champions League aspirations

West Ham's defeat to Liverpool has now put the club in a spot of bother as their long-running Champions League aspirations seem to be falling flat. David Moyes' men have picked up just eight points from their last six Premier League outings and now sit one point outside the top four, with Arsenal and Tottenham closing in.

At the start of the season, no one would have remotely expected the Hammers to even contend for a European spot; however, their resilience and discipline put them close to something special. While the top three spots seem to be secure with the way the league is going, the fourth spot is still up for grabs with as many as four teams fighting for it.

Defeat to Liverpool puts enormous pressure

While this kind of result was pretty much on the cards given Liverpool's recent run of form, what adds insult to the wounds was their two draws against Newcastle and Leicester City.

The game against Leicester was a great opportunity for the Hammers to seal all three points. Leicester have been inconsistent this season and to add to that, West Ham took the lead in the game as well.

A bad patch of ten minutes just after the break changed the odds. Youri Tielemans' penalty and Ricardo Peirera's header forced a turnaround in Leicester's fortunes. Thankfully for Moyes' men, they salvaged something with a stoppage time equalizer.

A week later, they again failed to convert their lead to a win as Newcastle held them 1-1 in London. This time, however, they lacked any spark and were quite lucky to escape the game with a point.

Having dropped four points prior to this game, Moyes' men needed a miracle to consolidate their position in the league. However, Liverpool outran them to a well-deserved victory.

West Ham too reliant to Antonio

Michail Antonio is a club icon. This season, he broke the club's all-time goal-scoring record in the Premier League as well. For much of the season so far, he has come up with vital contributions to enable his club to move up the rankings.

The Jamaican has contributed eight goals in the Premier League this season apart from seven assists. He is the only West Ham player to have scored in all competitions this season as well.

Such has been his importance that West Ham are firmly relying on him to bail them out of a crisis every single time. It is high time they look up to their other midfield players to contribute as well.