West Ham United legend Billy Bonds is confident they'll start climbing the table once Andy Carroll returns.
Carroll is now in full-scale training at West Ham after recovering from a heel injury.
Bonds was recently awarded the club's inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award and said: "I came along and saw the first game of the season. I saw nothing in that game against Cardiff which suggested that staying up wasn't achievable this season.
"Since then results haven't gone as well but we know what's gone wrong - it's a shortage up front, really.
"Sam [Allardyce, above] set his side out to be tough to beat and they've kept a lot of clean sheets this year.
"He has brought in two wide men in Matt Jarvis and Stewart Downing. He's got Joe Cole playing in that area, too, and it was all geared up to getting the ball wide and then in the box.
"When Andy Carroll was in the side he was a real threat, people didn't even like to mark him. Even when Andy's back fit, though, you have to get someone else in because he's a big lad and when you come back from a long injury like that there is every chance he could get another one."
