Sam Allardyce is preparing for Tuesday night's visit of Ipswich Town knowing that his team will arguably face their toughest test of the campaign to date.
The Tractor Boys head down the A12 on a high after a point at pace-setters Middlesbrough on Saturday and with their new experienced Premier League-quality signings beginning to click. It is a similar story for the fourth-placed Hammers, with Big Sam finding out more about his players with every passing match.
Indeed, Saturday's 1-0 win at home to Peterborough United was striking in that the starting lineup featured just five players from last season - Robert Green, Winston Reid, Julien Faubert, Mark Noble and Carlton Cole - while the bench had three summer recruits in the outfield positions. It is a revamped Hammers squad and certainly a new approach, with seven games unbeaten and four clean sheets in a row.
"Results breed confidence such as going away to Doncaster and then drawing with Leeds and beating Forest with four goals and beating Watford by four," explained the manager.
"The players have built a very good dressing room very quickly, down to firstly the captain and then the rest of the players joining in and building a unity between them that's a good bond, so that they can communicate with each other on a day to day basis and enjoy their own company.
"And also enjoy criticising each other for the benefit of the team because it's no good seeing somebody doing wrong and saying nothing. That's not a good dressing room. If somebody's doing something wrong, you tell then and that's a good dressing room.
"I think that's what we're building and that's helped us get good results on the field."
Allardyce knows an average of two points a game will get any team promoted and getting nine points from nine this week, with the first three in the bag, would certainly keep the Hammers on course. "That is the target and you only have to look at what gets you promoted automatically and two points or better does that.
"There can be a freak season where you need more but generally if you're hitting those targets - and we're one point ahead of that ratio - that's a massive boost. If we can produce a top performance on Tuesday [against Ipswich] and then we're two points ahead of our target.
"That will make life so much easier when, somewhere down the line, we don't get the result we're looking for. If we've got that cushion, then you can pick up from there without a disappointing result costing you too much."
Already the Hammers are four points ahead of their nearest rival outside of the play-off positions, and a win on Tuesday would propel them to at least second place, with Southampton and Middlesbrough not playing until Wednesday.
The manager has hinted that changes could be likely against Ipswich, with David Bentley, Papa Bouba Diop, Jack Collison, Sam Baldock and John Carew among those desperate to find their names on the team-sheet.
Ivory Coast star Guy Demel is getting nearer to fitness as well after his hamstring troubles and the manager knows his players will have to take their chance when they get it. Opportunities might come with concerns over Matt Taylor (calf) and Joey O'Brien (tight hamstring).
"At the moment, it is difficult to change a winning side ... A three-game week is obviously an opportunity to look at [other players]. My anxiety is that I'm still learning about all the players I have. Sometimes when you're two or three years into a job it takes not a lot of thinking about because you know your players inside out.
"At the moment I'm not quite au fait with everybody's physical condition but I'm learning every week. The players are getting to know each other more and more and getting better and better.
"It was a thoroughly well deserved three points against Peterborough United. We would have liked it to be more comfortable but it does not matter when we see the three points and that we are fourth in the table."