As the days tick by towards the restart the unthinkable prospect of relegation regularly enters my thinking.
Look, I don’t think it will happen, and if it does it will probably be because we failed to make two particularly important games ours – both at home against Watford and Villa.
But the fall-out from a drop into the Championship would be as horrific a relegation as we have ever suffered and could affect our future for years to come.
On top of the financial losses we have suffered, the thought of a half empty London Stadium whilst in the Championship – probably behind closed doors and thus no income along with the absence of TV money – is about as scary as it gets.
Survival in the disastrous year of 2020 is utterly and totally crucial and I believe it will happen for sure if two players in particular genuinely step up to the plate – Anderson and Haller.
Between them they cost the club approaching £90 million but this season have eight goals between them – Anderson has managed one of those.
We need to hope and pray too that Michail Antonio stays fit and can partner Haller throughout what remains of the campaign and areturn to form by Manu Lanini is now long overdue.
I’ve said on a number of occasions that we will gather 38 or 39 points which will be enough but Anderson and Haller need to be bang on the case.
It’s time for these guys to fire in the biggest possible way! They both owe us and they will know that!
COYI
Sorry just don’t agree with the statement these two need to step up to the plate. If Haller had the right service he would be fine, if Anderson played with the ball in the attacking half instead of covering for the ineptitude of Cresswell and Masuka. Instead people who in my opinion are vastly overpaid and have no football cop on i.e. current management team fail to see this and it is not these players who need to step up to the mark, it is management. Anderson is our best player, most creative and works hard to cover the limitations of others. Incredible to think we have a management team who fails to see that his best front 4 is Haller, Antonio up top, with Anderson and Bowen wide and a midfield of Soucek and Rice. However he will play Snodgrass at the expense of Anderson and Noble at the expense of Soucek and to make matters worse and it could only be worse we have Wilshere and Fredericks back training and based on the cluelessness of Moyes and Nolan it would not be a surprise if both are selected ahead of our better players. This article should be about Moyes and Nolan stepping up to the mark.
Everyone starts with a fresh slate, Anderson has been let down by a lack of investment in quality, Haller has at times disappointed but had he been scouted as suggested they would have seen he is not a lone striker, looks better with Antonio and Bowen alongside him.