There were two games of football at the weekend which appear to have been all but fotgotten – Brighton v Watford (draw) and Bournemouth beaten at Sheffield United.
It tells us something about the mood around our own club when we can barely notice two perfect results for the Hammers in the great scheme of things.
The other noticeable result was Crystal Palace’s defeat at Everton and there is one other extraordinary stat to record with Arsenal now having won the same six games as managed by West Ham- the last of those coming on New Years Day.
Meanwhile Bournemouth – with a manager for some reason wanted by alarge percentage of West Ham fans at one stage of the season – are now in deep trouble with us and both Watford and Brighton are bang in the relegation frame.
Despite being beaten by Liverpool at home and letting the game against Brighton slip in a big way I remain as confident as it’s possible to be that the Hammers will be ok.
There was a definite improvement against the scousers and assuming Moyes can do what he is supposedly good at – organising a defence in the over long winter break – all should be well.
We need the same sort of revival as Southampton managed after being beaten 9-0 at home by Leicester City last October.
With Soucek and Bowen around to bolster the morale it’s too early for all this doom and gloom.
It’s called whistling in the dark house Clacton. . Muhammad Ali was accused of doing it it it by one of his opponents back in the 1960s. Sonny Liston? He said Ali was just scared so was mouthing off to keep his spirits up. Great banter. Unfortunately Ali then ran rings round him!! I wouldn’t put money on us staying up but it could still happen.
Guys, I don’t get your optimism – we have too many players who are just not up to Premiership Standard – and if we go ahead in a game – how many will we need not to blow it?
There is a paralysing fear, evidenced by the absolutely pathetic collapse against Brighton that as well as not being fit enough to be able to play for 90 minutes – mentally we are the equivalent of Corporal Jones “don’t panic, don’t panic”.
A back four derived from Creswell, Fredricks, Zabaleta, Masuaku, Balbuena, Diop and Ogbonna ain’t got a clean sheet in them
CRI, I agree that many are not playing at EPL standard, but feel the whole is less than the sum of the parts.
Perhaps it is my imagination, but teams with relegation risk seem to spiral down because their “best” players are more concerned about avoiding injury prior to the inevitable transfer hunt. Becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Noble may be beyond his best-before date but I admire his desire, drive and devotion (alliteration?). If the floaters on WHU had one tenth of his loyalty we would be fine.
Really would prefer to see players from the academy over these high priced imports. Grady Diangana is rocking it in EFL.
Totally agree with hammer64 our last few games will probably be against sides who are fighting for their lives. As for not noticing the weekend games!!!! I’m sure MOST west ham fans had more than one on those results!!! I know I did !!! cheering Sheffield united is sad but it is what we all did I’m sure. If we FIGHT as a TEAM not just the few home grown players then I see us staying up. But as it stands with Halier wandering around and pretending to challenge as well as other overpaid prima doners we are going down. Lets hope Nolan gives them a kick and instills some fight and work rate for 90 minutes plus. GOOD LUCK to the new lads. We are going to need them to perform miracles.
I think in 2007 we won 7 from the last 9 & were under 20 points at this stage of the season. We are not in that position, but we have left ourselves more to do than in recent seasons. In my view it is pointless to focus on ‘winnable/difficult’ fixtures. Probably more important than where a side is in the league is to ask what they have got to play for. The ‘best’ fixtures are against a side already doomed or that has already qualified for the CL. Or a mid table team that can’t go down or win anything.Or if they have an appearance in the Cup Final or a big CL or Europa League game.
But in the end we still have to start playing like a proper team-if we do that we will be ok whoever the fixtures are against.
lovely to see such optimism looking up from the bottom of the barrel. personally though, i’m pooping my pants about having to cancel tv subscriptions for next season
The talk of our Horror run has not looked forward enough into the future to calculate our actual likely finish either. In our Last 3 games, we have Norwich (Away), Watford and Villa at home. Of the bottom 6 sides, we have more games against other lower teams than anyone. In fact, when you look at our run home as an overall picture, we actually have the best out of all of the other lower sides. Norwich and Villa will be lucky to win another game and Watfords only likely win will come at the expense of Norwich too. Even allowing for one or two upsets, I actually cannot see us getting relegated. The bottom 4 will come from Norwich, Watford, Villa and Bournemouth. We MAY even scrape home over Brighton on the table to finish 15th. I’ve sent you the numbers, Hugh 🙂
Sad that we are talking about staying up, rather than competing, but I also don’t think it’s all Doom & Gloom.
I agree with you but my biggest concern is fitness We need a team who can compete for 95 mins like Wolves. How many games have they played. We seem to run out of energy after 70mins or so in recent games.
Couldn’t agree more been saying this for ages and will say it again especially after two good signings that are quality not cheap buys like Sanchez or ajeti or wilshere because the money wasnt available or was just a freebie that turns out expensive . We will stay up COYI