Sam Allardyce's first priority this week will be to do all he can to help construct an appeal to overturn the red card shown to Andy Carroll during Saturday's vital 2-0 win against Swansea City.
The England international was sent off following a tussle with Chico Flores and is set to be suspended for the upcoming games with Aston Villa, Norwich City and Southampton. The Club will be lodging an appeal to the FA by Tuesday, with the decision expected later in the week.
Regardless of the outcome of that process, Big Sam is hoping that Saturday's match at Villa Park has a slightly less dramatic finale than the Hammers' recent fixtures. The West Ham United manager has guided his side to clean sheets in three out of the last four fixtures, despite finishing them with ten men after James Tomkins' dismissal at Cardiff City and Joey O'Brien's late injury at Chelsea.
"We have a squad of players who are coming back from injury but we still haven't had a game where we can come off and say 'Well done lads we've won the game, there are no injuries and nobody's been sent off'," Allardyce said. "We got through Saturday's game with no injuries but we've had someone sent-off, wrongly so in my opinion.
"Hopefully now we can continue to get better. We've had four games where we've taken seven points. It's our best small spell of the season and we've got to continue that to maintain a position outside of the bottom three."
Carroll's red card - on his first Premier League start at home since joining the Club on a permanent basis - was the only sour note on an otherwise successful Saturday in east London. Hammer of the Year Winston Reid made a welcome return from an ankle injury from the bench and he is set to be joined in the matchday squad for Villa by the deadline day loan signing from Napoli, Pablo Armero.
"We went right to the end in the transfer window. Finding the player from Napoli at the end was a big bonus for us. With his CV hopefully he'll come in and make a difference, as will the other players that we've signed for the first-team squad.
"The focus on Friday for me was on training the players and getting them ready for the game because I was hoping that the one thing that wasn't going to play a big part was fatigue from Wednesday night.
"The amount of effort that the players put in against Chelsea was bound to leave them slightly fatigued, perhaps more so than Swansea, but in the end that didn't show. It didn't make a difference I'm glad to say. Our quality of finishing and ball in the final third was much better than theirs, that's why we won 2-0 and they rarely had a shot on target."
Such was the strength of Big Sam's matchday squad against Swansea that some first-team regulars could not even get a place on the bench, but the West Ham United manager knows everyone will need to play their part between now and the end of the season. He plans to use the foundation of the joint-highest total of eleven Barclays Premier League clean sheets to help secure the Hammers' place at football's top table next season.
"It's all about everybody knowing that they've got to work that little bit harder, they then have to focus collectively on one thing and that is not letting the opposition have too many chances and defend with your lives.
"That's why we've got eleven clean sheets this year because our defending has been superb. We just need a few more goals and we'll be out of trouble no problem."