Honest Mark Noble has been pinpointing the reasons for the Irons slide down the Leagiue and admits: “I think everyone knew, the way we started the season, we couldn’t maintain that sort of pace – very rarely does a club creep into that top six that doesn’t really belong there.

Talking to the London Evening Standard he added: “The League is sorting itself out now and the teams you expect to be up there — are there.”

The midfielder – having just signed a long term deal added – though:”“We don’t want to drop down any lower than we are at the moment, though. We want to push on.

“All teams have a bad run but I don’t think that applies to us because in recent matches, we’ve drawn at home to Manchester United and away at Spurs — and both games we should have won.”

He also believes that new signings Diafra Sakho, Enner Valencia, Cheikhou Kouyate have felt the pace and intensity of the league.

He said: “I can assure you they’ve never had a season like this one. I don’t think they quite realised the mental side of playing in the Premier League  week in and week out — so much attention constantly on you and trying to cope with that.

“I think adrenalin got them through the first 10 games of the season but being able to maintain that form is more a mental thing than anything else. Hopefully, they can push on for the rest of the season.”