What a laugh as Irons watch ‘big clubs’ squirm

By Pete Ellis

Watching the teams above us panic, and the ones below squirm is amusing.

 Arsenal ( for who I personally have a lot of  respect ) seem to specialize in possessing a self destruct button that goes off every season without fail, ruling them out of the running for CL and PL titles – usually in the same week.

A Gooner mate of mine even said that he looks at the knock out stages of the CL and the league run in and tries to figure out the exact week it will all fall apart so he can book a week off work to avoid the fall out !!

It’s already happened so far as CL and PL titles are concerned, but now their eye is on the usual prize of fourth . They look fragile at the minute, and a win against a poor Everton side only papers over cracks that would not be out of place at the grand canyon. 

They will have further setbacks before the season is  out.

Man City,another team I respect,  seem to have rediscovered the self doubt that haunted them all the way down to league one not too long ago.

Yaya Toure – being as precious as Kanye West – doesn’t help, and with the man who sounds like a famous brand of sparkling water almost on auto pilot unless it s CL game, they could have more banana skins yet to come.

City fans I speak to via work think they did well to get a point out of us this season! Some compliment.

Below us we have the cream of English football –  Manchester United. Unfortunately the cream has been left out in the sun a bit too long and its off.

Yeah, a win away at city was a welcome boost for morale, but they have been ridiculously lucky versus West Ham twice this season and won’t get that same luck again, not in the replay or in the final league game.

I do worry about Rooney coming back for the final league game though, but then again. He’s  not what he was, will probably be unfit, and if all else fails we can report him to the FA for using a performance enhancing rug (“but its real hair” I hear Colleen cry…).

One positive is that if he does make that final game though, he is selling a lot of Nike sporting goods that the recently got his hands on.

You can take the lad out of Liverpool…….

When you think about our friends from the red half of Manchester, they really are a shadow of their former selves. The respect and apprehension we may have about them is based on historical results, not current evidence.

Indeed, if you put another clubs shirt on the Man Utd team at the minute, you may be fooled into thinking you were watching a bunch of  mid table cloggers  (some would argue that they already are, but that’s too harsh imo).

Who else is in the running then?

Oh yes, good old West ‘am !!!  The team that have (along with Leicester) sent shockwaves throughout the league.

Unlike the other teams mentioned, there is little to no pressure on the team to get top four and secure CL footy. We were not budgeting for it, so are not going to go into financial meltdown if we don’t get it.

We didn’t expect it, so we will not be getting on the players backs if things don’t go our way for the first 30 mins of a game. We won’t turn on the team, as we have seen at Sunderland, Norwich and Eveton away, this team don’t know when they are beat. They fight, they believe, and they want it more than any squad in years.

The players are HAPPY, and that’s speaks volumes. New contracts, social media updates of impromptu trips out with team mates from Adrian and Co, its clear that there is a real togetherness and belief in this group.

So while wes may slip into fourth like the artful dodger slips in and out of a unsuspecting tourists pocket, the like of Man City, Arsenal and United would have kittens should they not make the top four.

Pressure, pressure, and more pressure for those guys.

One of them will be on Channel 5 next year, and you can bet they all fancy that about as much as a catwalk model fancies a bush tucker trial ! No, West Ham have proved all they need to already this year.

The Cup is there if we want it, although Everton will be up for the semi more than a tubby lad in a cake shop should we progress against LVG and Fellaini’s elbows.

Looking at the remaining fixtures, there are points to be had, and while Arsena’ls hardest games are versus us and City, can you say hand on heart they won’t fall foul of one of the lesser teams in the run in? It would be very un arsenal like if they didn’t.

The long and short of it, We have a fingers in a couple of pies, and at the start of the season, we didn’t even know we could bake !!!

Lets enjoy it, cheer these players (and management team) to the hilt, and do everything we can to push the lads over the line.

I said a while ago the happiest people in England this season would be in Leicestershire, but I think come the end of may, east london and Essex may be able to share that accolade.

Enjoy, (and see you at the skippers testimonial)

COYI !!!!