The English football ground to a halt about two years ago, as the impact of the coronaviruses began to make its presence felt.
For three months, West Ham fans had to look at a table that showed their club in 16th position, above the danger zone, only because their goal difference was three better than Bournemouth, who eventually went down.
It is hard to believe that Hammers fans are able to look ahead with confidence to the second leg of the Sevilla tie.
The match is seen as the biggest the club has played at London Stadium since they moved there.
It will be difficult. Sevilla have won the competition four times. In two of the other campaigns, rival Spanish teams have won the trophy.
At a time when West Ham are sixth in the Premier League and in with a chance of successive top-seven finishes for the first time in the club's history, it does feel like they are starting to get going.
When he returned to West Ham, he set himself the task of building a new West Ham.
The man already knew the club. Despite guiding West Ham to safety after Slaven Bilic's dismissal, the Scot was let go by Pellegrini in May of last year.
Three wins and 12 points from the final seven games of the season allowed West Ham to finish five points clear of the drop.
The January window saw the signing of Tomas Soucek and Jarrod Bowen. Soucek's loan move from Slavia Prague was permanent.
Three months after Said Benrahma was signed on loan from Brentford, Jesse Lingard was signed on loan from Manchester United.
Felipe Anderson, Sebastian Haller and Jack Wilshere were expensive recruits from the previous era.
On 11 April, Lingard scored twice for West Ham, moving them into fourth place.
They carried their momentum into the current campaign despite finishing sixth.
When he went back to Manchester United to sign Lingard on loan again in January, they rejected the request because they didn't want to help a top-four rival.
It's beyond anything fans could have expected at a club used to internal division and supporter discontent.
Over the past six seasons, many people have worked incredibly hard to make the London Stadium move work.
The award-winning Players' Project initiative involves male, female and academy players working directly with the local community. West Ham ran virtual holiday camps for their younger fans and kept in touch with older fans through their outreach programme.
When restrictions were loosened, sports sessions were expanded to include a lunch at a time when schools were not in session. David Sullivan made two large donations to food poverty charities.
In the first five years after their relocation, West Ham will spend 28 million dollars in the local area. Those inside the club feel that the sum has been exceeded.
The good work will not be recognised if the team does not perform.
Everyone can have a good year, according to Moyes.
I am trying to figure out how I can get West Ham to grow. In the future, I want my conversations with the owners to be about where we can take West Ham, what we are trying to do and what we are trying to achieve.
It will not always be an upward spiral and there will be times when you need to break it to get it back to where you want to go. We have to make sure that we continue to have success.
West Ham fans will tell you that there was never any hostility towards London Stadium.
That may be true. It has been a lightning rod for many of the club's ills.
The elected officials who negotiated the deal to keep West Ham in the stadium have had their criticism turned back on them.
To make the stadium more acceptable to supporters, the club has removed a number of minor details, such as squaring off the seats behind both goals, and installing a claret carpet instead of a green one.
The average crowd for West Ham is 48,464, which is the fourth highest in the competition. The average gate in the league is 59,016, which is 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611 888-270-6611
The atmosphere at London Stadium has improved as the team has started to win.
Five minutes before kick-off against Sevilla, it is not expected anyone will complain about the noise in the ground. The same will be true at the final whistle if West ham overturn the first leg deficit and make it to the quarter-finals.
There are some concerns. Some fans were critical of David for not bolstering his squad sufficiently last summer or in January, when he spent $60 million on Kurt Zouma and Nikola Vlasic.
This is unfair to the man. West Ham tried to buy players in January, but clubs wouldn't sell. He doesn't want to spend money on players he doesn't want.
Even if the hostility has been quietened by on-pitch performances, Sullivan, David Gold and Karren Brady remain distrusted by large sections of the West Ham support.
The business operations of a Czech billionaire who bought a 27% stake in the club in November are in doubt because of his investment company's ownership of a huge Russian gas line.
West Ham have come a long way compared to how they used to be, when they used to borrow from sponsors and sell players to pay their bills.
A victory by Sevilla would open a window on what a bright future could look like for this East End club.
The top teams have usually won the competition.
At West Ham, we have to try and get ourselves into a position where we have more chance of getting to semi-finals and finals and hopefully winning those trophies as well.
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