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Twelve games played, six goals conceded and five clean sheets. It’s not a start you would usually associate with the Hammers is it?

They say that any good thing is built on solid foundations. Look at any trophy winning, league dominating football side and you will notice that they have a good defence.

For West Ham the defence has consistently been the opposite of solid. We’ve often been made to watch a flaky defence with no shape, and generally no idea.

In our last outing in the top flight (2010/11), we managed just five clean sheets in the whole season, conceding 70 goals. What a refreshing change this season has been.

Big Sam’s sides have always been built on a solid defence and his West Ham team in no different. Granted, we’ve still seen some silly mistakes - James Collins at Swansea springs to mind - but on the whole, every player that has played in the defence has been superb.

But the good defence we can now pride ourselves on has surprisingly came at a very cheap cost. The sum total of our back five against Stoke City was around £2m. George McCartney, Jussi Jaaskelainen and Joey O’Brien were all signed on a free. James Tomkins came through the Academy and Winston Reid was signed for a small fee of £2m. (With costs rising)

That has to be up there with the cheapest defences in the league? The only defences better than us so far this season have been Stoke and Man City’s and both sides have spent a lot more than £2m of their back four’s.

Our tight defence has lead us to joint sixth in the table but surely even the most optimistic of Hammers would have been a bit surprised with the start we have made?

When we signed Andy Carroll, Matt Jarvis, Yossi Benayoun and Modibo Maiga there were serious question marks over our defence, or the lack of it. It could be argued that Tomkins and Collins were the only proven Premier League defenders in the squad.

The rest of the back line included Reid, very good in the Championship but was largely unproven in the top flight. O’Brien, seen as a useful squad player at best and Guy Demel still largely untested due to consistent bad luck with injuries. And as for McCartney, there were questions asked about his ability in the top flight.

We were starting the new season with just three centre backs, one left back and two right backs.

Despite this there was no panic from the West Ham backroom staff, or the board and faith was put into Big Sam’s management style.

His rigorous training on the back line has paid off as the defence now looks as though they have been Premier League defenders all of their careers.

Even players who have in the past looked weak are playing superbly and more importantly consistently.

O’Brien, who scored his first ever top flight goal on Monday looks like a reliable Premier League right back. There were huge question marks over him in the summer, and it was thought by some that he would leave. But through strong performances, and a Demel injury, he has become a regular. Also, McCartney has been very reliable.

But, the one player who deserves special praise is New Zealand international Winston Reid.

The 24-year-old has been an ever-present in the Hammers defence this season and has been simply outstanding. His improvement is staggering. When he signed for West Ham in 2010 from FC Midtjvylland for around £2m he looked awkward, at best.

I remember watching him in his debut at Villa Park in a 3-0 defeat. Admittedly he was played on the right side of an unorganised back four but still, he was consistently out of position, weak in the air and poor with the ball at his feet. He didn’t really improve much throughout the season nor was he given a chance by Avram Grant.

Then last season there seemed to be potential in him. He looked much better but it was still questioned that this was just because he was playing in a lower division.

However, this season he has started superb. Ironically, his first game back in the Premier League came against Aston Villa, where he was completely dominant. He’s kept his standard up and would surely be an early competitor for ‘Hammer of the Year’?

He has everything a top centre back needs. He reads the game well, is good in the air and is very quick. Providing he stays fit, you would imagine that the West Ham back line will continue to be strong.

The big question is how far can this defence get us? And will Big Sam strengthen it in January?

If given a transfer budget then it may be worth Big Sam signing another defender, preferably a full-back. With Demel going to the African Cup of Nations it would be better to sign another defender for cover.

And how far can this defence take us? There are a lot of optimistic shouts for Europe but I’d like to see just how well they can defend over the next five or six games.

If we can pick up surprise points and surprise clean sheets then who knows just how far this new, solid, hard-to-beat West Ham side can go?

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