'Pressure is on West Ham to start season well'

[BBC] [Getty Images] As the Championship season kicks off, all eyes are on West Ham as we wait to see whether we can live up to expectations. For West Ham, the ambition is clear. We have one season to get back into the Premier League, otherwise we risk losing our best players and dropping into the depths of the Championship. We're fortunate to have convinced quite a few of our key players to remain for one more season in a bid to gain promotion. But with this positive news, there are high expectations around how we will perform. I'm sure I speak on behalf of a lot of West Ham fans when I say I don't have as much confidence in ourselves as a lot of the media does. We've seen that it doesn't matter how good a team is if you're not able to get results and points. Now, we're on a mission to turn this around and work our way back into the Premier League. The pressure is on to start well, which is something that we're not typically known for, but there has to be a first time for everything, so I'm remaining positive until proven otherwise. Looking at realistic expectations, I'm ignoring my dream of finishing in the automatic promotion spots and saying we can expect a finish of somewhere around fifth. Given our number of outgoing players, our squad feels depleted at the moment, which will no doubt be a challenge over 46 games unless we can strengthen significantly before the end of the window. In terms of level, the Portsmouth game gave us a glimpse of what we can expect against a Championship side. Conceding first we quickly saw that we can be hurt, but managed to come back from behind to win 3-1. For a first proper run out, it felt like a decent result, but also reminded us that we will need to work for every point this campaign. For the first time in a very long time, I'm hoping to be pleasantly surprised and see West Ham go on an unbeaten run at the start of the season. Am I setting my hopes too high? Most likely, but you have to dream. Find more from Holly Turbutt at West Ham Network