7 days to Premier League season: West Ham United with new home, new expectations

• More: Richard Jolly's predictions | Fixtures in UAE time

The National's sports team is counting down the days until defending champions Leicester City take on newly promoted Hull City in the opening fixture of the 2016/17 English Premier League season by looking at one team a day. Today, West Ham United.

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West Ham United waved goodbye to Upton Park last season, signing off with a 3-2 win over Manchester United, brining down the curtain on over 100 years of history.

They begin the 2016/17 season in new digs, the 60,000-seater Olympic Stadium in Stratford. West Ham will need to replicate the eye-catching brand of football – and keeping Dimitri Payet away from the clutches of other clubs will be seminal to that – to keep filling out their new home in order to make it financially sustainable. The early signs are promising, with the club reporting in May over 52,000 season tickets sold, and in Slaven Bilic, they have one of the brightest, most intelligent and articulate managers in the game. A push for a European place is a must this time though to ensure the green shoots of progress can keep growing.

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Previously

• Hull City: Promoted club had unstable summer

• Middlesbrough: Hopes lie largely in Spaniards

• Burnley: Third time the charm?

• Sunderland: Moyes the make-or-break factor in survival hopes

• Bournemouth: Well placed to avoid 'second season syndrome'

• Crystal Palace: Time to deliver on all that talent

• West Bromwich Albion: Another season of mid-table mediocrity

• Watford: Early fixtures will set the tone — for better or worse

• Swansea City: Swans need a striker, and stability

• Everton: In good hands with Koeman