He could be forgiven for casting an envious glance up the table at former club Liverpool; after all, when he joined earlier in the season, the two clubs were within touching distance of each other.
Now, the Reds chase the champions league while West Ham still need a couple of wins to be absolutely sure of staying safe.
"I'm very happy to be at West Ham and I'm enjoying my work.
"In life things don't always go right but that is the time to show character.
"I'm not regretting my move because I think we have good players, everything to get up to the top and I'm very optimistic.
"At the moment it is difficult but we know what we want to do, and that is try to win every remaining game.
"I don't know what the problem is at the moment but that's football.
"On saturday we are going to play away and that can be the catalyst, I think everything will go OK if we win that one.
"We are hungry to win the game at Villa...we're going on the pitch to die to get the points.
"We don't want to lose confidence because if you do it's very dangerous indeed.
"The difficulty at the moment is the mentality - sometimes you play well and lose, sometimes you play bad and win.
"The supporters understand we are working hard and when you do that everything comes good."
Indeed, Rigo has no complaints about the fans' booing on saturday and adds:
"For me the supporters at the moment are excellent, they understand sometimes in football things go OK, and sometimes they don't.
"The fans are giving the players power and we have to give everything we have on the pitch; every time we try to make them happy."
Rigo has played in 4 of the last 5 games - all defeats - only missing the cup game, the only one of those five in which West Ham have scored.
"It's not good to speak about 'we are not scoring goals' or 'we are conceding goals' - it is down to everyone collectively," he says.
He has now started 14 times for West Ham and has usually been picked when he is available.
"Every player is happy when he is playing, no one has the ambition just to stay on the bench," he says.
"When you are young the one thing you want to do is be on the pitch on a saturday.
"I have a lot of respect for my boss and sometimes there are a lot of games all at once.
"If I am on the bench I just pray to god that everything is going OK for my colleagues.
"If you are on the pitch the one aim is to win.
"We have everything to do well, and it is not as if the players don't want to play."
He admits it was hard at the weekend after Stuart pearce was sent off, adding;
"We need everybody when things don't go right and 10 v 11 was difficult, but I think we dominated the game.
"We are not at our best at this moment but we have the quality to come back.
"Before we were playing so different and not losing but we are doing our best.
"Things just aren't going right, but that is the time to show character, work hard, and be together."
One plus point he saw was the debut of Hayden Foxe and he adds:
"Foxey is a good player, he is strong and a good man who showed his quality on saturday after a long wait."