LONDON -- The two game mark of a Premier League season should feel far too premature a moment for doom mongering, and yet it is a real challenge to watch this West Ham team in action and not expect the worst. After all, there were plenty in the London Stadium who were ready for the deluge long before Michael Oliver blew the whistle. The home opener is supposed to be replete with new possibilities, even when you've just been tonked on the road by Sunderland . And yet, as the camera paned around the crowd in the minutes before kick off all it could find was the glum faces of those who knew there were so many better options in east London on a Friday night.

Such pessimism proved to be well founded. It was not so long ago that West Ham would have fought like hell in defense of the lead ear

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