As the football season collides with the festive one and games start to mount up in a busy period, West Ham United boss Sam Allardyce can look back upon at what he has achieved so far this season and feel very pleased with himself.

Sam’s ability to mould his team from game to game has proved invaluable now the Hammers have better players and a bigger squad to choose from.

Although the Irons have lost some of their defensive resilience this campaign - an anomaly really as the defence with Aaron Cresswell and Carl Jenkinson is a much better unit - there is always a feeling that there is a goal or two in the side somewhere and both opponents and, more importantly, the Hammers themselves always seem to think they have enough to get a result of some sort.

If West Ham had gone behind last season as they have in their last three games against West Bromwich Albion, Swansea City and Sunderland then it is doubtful they would have got a point from any of the matches.

This season though, if the team go a goal down they have enough in their make-up to pull back the deficit and even go on to win the game. There is still a delicate balancing act though and Big Sam will be desperate to try and re-introduce a bit of seasonal Scrooge-like defending in the second half of the season.

It would be great to believe the Hammers have enough in them to stay the Champions League pace after Christmas but they will need to stop coming from behind if they are to last the pace.

The traditional top five or six teams often establish an early lead before closing the game down and effectively taking a breather to conserve energy.

Continually chasing a game - though entertaining and satisfying if it’s successfully pulled back - will eventually take its toll later on in the season.

Overall though, the first half of the 2014/15 season has given all the fans a Christmas gift they can only have dreamt of a year ago. If Santa wants to top that up with a couple of wins against Chelsea and Arsenal then supporters will be only too happy to raise a glass of festive cheer to the board, manager and players.