Winning has changed the equation for Nuno Espírito Santo at West Ham United.
A few weeks ago, the manager was still searching for the right balance after relegation and a major summer rebuild.
Four consecutive Championship victories later, the situation is very different.
West Ham have scored 16 goals during that run, culminating in the 6-0 demolition of Wrexham, and Nuno now has a core of players giving him very little reason to make unnecessary changes.
That is excellent news for the promotion push.
For several players on the fringes, however, the bar has suddenly become much higher.
Nuno finally has a West Ham formula worth protecting
Competition existed throughout the summer, but results have turned that competition into something more ruthless.
Arne Engels and Mohamadou Kanté have established themselves centrally, while Joel Piroe, Taty Castellanos, Jarrod Bowen and Manor Solomon have all contributed in attack.
Divine Mukasa and Edvin Austbø have added further options.
West Ham are no longer changing personnel simply to discover what works.
Nuno has discovered combinations that are producing.
That is precisely why our earlier look at how Engels and Mukasa solved one of Nuno’s biggest West Ham problemsmatters even more now.
Players outside that group have to force their way past teammates who are winning every week.
Magassa faces the biggest challenge
Soungoutou Magassa provides the clearest example.
The midfielder remains part of West Ham’s official first-team squad, but his summer was dominated by uncertainty over his future.
Sevilla and Bologna both made late approaches before West Ham rejected the possibility of an immediate departure. West Ham Zone reported earlier this month that Magassa had not played a competitive minute at that point in the season.
Read West Ham covered West Ham’s late Magassa transfer U-turn after those bids failed to produce an exit.
The difficulty for Magassa is that the team has subsequently accelerated without him.
Engels offers progression and set pieces.
Kanté has brought energy and athleticism.
That means simply remaining at the club does not guarantee Magassa a route back into the XI.
He needs to give Nuno a reason to disturb something currently working.
Lamadrid’s opportunities are suddenly harder to find
Keiber Lamadrid is in a different position.
The Venezuela international made his West Ham move permanent this summer after initially joining on loan in January, and his official West Ham profile confirms he has already made a senior competitive appearance for the club.
He was also given genuine pre-season responsibility.
Lamadrid started alongside Kanté and James Ward-Prowse against Stevenage, having also featured from the start against Southend.
By the Charlton game, however, Engels and Kanté were starting together while Lamadrid was among the substitutes.
That illustrates how quickly the landscape changed.
Lamadrid has not suddenly become a worse player.
The players ahead of him have simply raised the standard.
Pablo now has serious competition everywhere
Pablo Felipe faces the same problem in attack.
The Brazilian joined West Ham in January and made 17 appearances during his first half-season in east London. West Ham’s Pablo profile records his first-team breakthrough
He started alongside Bowen and Castellanos during pre-season at Stevenage before injury ruled him out of the Charlton game.
Since then, the attacking picture has become far more crowded.
Piroe has arrived.
Castellanos is scoring.
Bowen remains central to everything.
Solomon, Mukasa and Austbø provide different threats around them.
Pablo may still have a role, especially across a long Championship season, but chances cannot now be treated as development minutes.
They have to be taken.
This is what a promotion squad should look like
Nuno’s biggest achievement may be that West Ham are beginning to select players on performance rather than reputation.
The manager spoke earlier in the season about the need for his side to keep improving, and the recent winning run has finally given those standards some weight.
Our previous look at Nuno’s West Ham belief and pressure came when the manager was still trying to establish momentum.
He now has it.
That makes Tuesday’s Carabao Cup tie with Fulham particularly interesting.
Rotation will create opportunities.
For Magassa, Lamadrid, Pablo and anyone else currently outside Nuno’s preferred Championship core, those opportunities matter more than ever.
West Ham finally have a winning side.
The players chasing it now have to prove they can make it even better.
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