Squeaky Bum Time

Nine games left to gain automatic promotion and the last couple of weeks have for the first time this season put that in doubt, nine games unbeaten but only 3 wins in that sequence?

Remaining games - A Burnley, A Peterborough, H Reading, A Barnsley, H Birmingham,
H Brighton, A Bristol C, A Leicester, H Hull
None of those easy but with the Hammers form this season you realy can't predict what will happen? we could win the lot or lose them all.
Reading is the big one, but 4 of the rest are fighting for a play off place, Bristol City are fighting relegation and Peterboro are showing good form lately.

2012 League form - W W W L W D W D W D D D D
Last 6 Homes - W D D D D D
Last 6 Aways - L W L W W D

23 Points dropped at home already this season, which is only one less than Portsmouth who are bottom of the table :(
I still think we will make it, but they are doing it the hard way.

Here We Go Again

So once again we have submitted a bid to become "tenants" at the Stratford stadium :(
At least the players should be able to warm up properly with plenty of room to spare, maybe we could have "double headers" of football and banger racing which would keep the fans entertained while the Hammers were scraping another home draw against some lower ranked team.

Premier Predictions (Week 30)

Here we go again, hopefully some better predictions than the last set :)
Nine more games to go and Longy still leads by 4 :(
Obviously the big game is the London derby which Chelsea really need to win.

Chelsea v Tottenham
Arsenal v Aston Villa
Bolton v Blackburn
Liverpool v Wigan
Norwich v Wolves
Sunderland v QPR
Swansea v Everton
Stoke v Man City

West Brom v Newcastle
Man Utd v Fulham

Well Done

Credit due to the Liverpool fans who produced this flag for today's game, and for singing Fabrice Muamba's name during the match, Proving that the fans can rise above rivalries in club football and the racism that Liverpool's management find so hard to criticise.

Thoughts go out to Muamba who collapsed during last night's game between Bolton and Tottenham with a heart attack reminiscent of Marc Vivien Foe's collapse playing for Cameroon in 2003.
At the moment he is still critically ill so I really hope he pulls through and can live a normal life afterwards.

Premier Predictions (Week 29)

Due to the FA Cup this weekend the Premier league has been split over 5 days.

Saturday
Fulham v Swansea
Wigan v West Brom

Sunday
Wolves v Man Utd
Newcastle v Norwich

Tuesday
Aston Villa v Bolton
Blackburn v Sunderland

Wednesday
Man City v Chelsea
Tottenham v Stoke
Everton v Arsenal
QPR v Liverpool

For the record here are the cup games, the winners get an early trip to the now devalued Wembley.
Saturday - Everton v Sunderland, Tottenham v Bolton
Sunday - Chelsea v Leicester, Liverpool v Stoke

So Far So Good

Just checked my Premier league predictions from August 9th -
"So my predictions for the season are -
Top - 1 Man Utd 2 Man City 3 Chelsea 4 Arsenal
Bottom - 18 QPR 19 Wigan 20 Wolves"
Swap Tottenham for Chelsea and it's looking good at the moment.

At the bottom it's almost certain to be those 3 plus Bolton and Blackburn, Blackburn always look likely to score goals so they should be OK, Bolton could drop in place of QPR.
At the top it's still a 2 way fight with the 3 London teams fighting for 2 places?
Chelsea despite Luiz have the best defence but seem to have forgotten how to score enough goals, Arsenal are totally unpredictable either very good or very bad, Tottenham's defence is a problem although Brad Friedel will save them a few points.
So I'll stick with my previous predictions :)

Homes From Hell

What is going on at Upton Park?
Away from home we have a fine record (the best in the championship) with 10 wins 3 draws and only 4 losses, but at home we've only managed 9 wins and 6 draws with 3 losses as well?
We have drawn our last 4 home games dropping 8 points and if you look at the whole season we have only managed to win by more than one goal twice (Blackpool 4-0, Derby 3-1) the rest have been scraped one goal wins.
There are 11 games to go and fortunately 6 of them are away to try to bounce back into the prem, it is looking a lot harder than it did a few weeks back with Reading's run of wins, maybe we should hope that one of the stands falls down forcing us to play away for the rest of the season?

Premier Predictions (Week 28)

Here we go again, this week we've got a bonus game of the scouse derby on Tuesday.
The week after the games are spread over 5 days but I'll worry about that then :)
This week some really hard to call games, but they always are ...

Saturday ..
Bolton v QPR
Aston Villa v Fulham
Chelsea v Stoke
Sunderland v Liverpool
Wolves v Blackburn
Everton v Tottenham

Sunday ..
Man Utd v West Brom
Swansea v Man City
Norwich v Wigan

Monday ..
Arsenal v Newcastle

Tuesday ..
Liverpool v Everton

Shame

Sad news indeed :(

All us non Chelsea fans are in mourning after AVB Andre Vilas Boas (or possibly Armin Van Buuren?) was shown the door today.
We think he was doing a marvellous job and should have been given a lifetime contract.

Brighter news is that Rafa Benitez is the favourite to take over? hahaha :)

I think I'll put a few quid on Capello, and maybe 50p on Lampard?

Premier Predictions (Week 27)

Thursday already, here's this weeks unpredictables.

Liverpool v Arsenal
Blackburn v Aston Villa
Man City v Bolton
QPR v Everton
Stoke v Norwich
West Brom v Chelsea
Wigan v Swansea

Newcastle v Sunderland
Fulham v Wolves
Tottenham v Man Utd

Gerrard Liverpool Legend

Gerrard Liverpool Legend, that'll be Anthony not Steven as he achieved his life's ambition to win a cup for Liverpool.
Shame about the ending as for the second year the League cup final produced a classic with the underdogs showing the gap between Championship and Premiership is not so great. Liverpool won the corner count by 19 to 3 but Cardiff probably had the best chances in the game and Kenny Miller should have took one of the several chances he had. Steven Gerrard gets to lift the cup but had a pretty average game and was lucky to still be on the pitch after his forearm smash on Gunnarsson.
So well done Liverpool for winning something which will make your supporters unbearable again for a few months :)

The other games today worked out well with Tottenham getting stuffed and Scott Parker getting sent off, also Sheffield Utd losing the Sheffield derby.

Heroic

The best performance of the season :)
A 4-1 Away win at an in form rivals ground despite playing without a goalie and only 10 men for the last 40 minutes, surely it doesn't get better than that :)
Listening on radio it sounded like we were all over them in the first half and they were lucky to only be 2-1 down, then Green had a mad moment pulling down Bednar and we were down to 10 men again for the third straight game, this time with the added problem of no keeper on the bench so Lansbury had to pull on the gloves.
You would imagine it would be 40 minutes of desperate defending but it turned out anything but as we snatched another 2 goals ... amazing!!

Premier Predictions (Week 26)

Just nine games this week due to the Mickey Mouse cup final on Sunday, which means I shouldn't lose by as many points this week :)
Arsenal v Tottenham should be interesting, and Man U have an awkward game at Norwich.
Surely Chelsea should be able to beat Bolton??

Chelsea v Bolton
Newcastle v Wolves
QPR v Fulham
West Brom v Sunderland
Wigan v Aston Villa
Man City v Blackburn

Arsenal v Tottenham
Norwich v Man Utd
Stoke v Swansea

Sullivan Spills The Beans

Most of the West Ham blogs are full of Ian Dale's interview with David Sullivan, and it's interesting stuff but I suggest you just read it on his blog West Ham Till I Die.
He says we actually asked Chelsea if we could loan Torres!! I can think of one Chelsea fan who would have been happy with that :)

What Happened

Quite a lot happening since my last post!, here's my opinion on what I can remember about Cappello, Redknapp, Liverpool, Rangers, Huddersfield, West Ham, Leeds, Chelsea etc.

Fabio Cappello resigns, maybe 2 years too late? I do think he's a very good manager at club level and might even replace AVB at Chelsea but was never going to get public support forthe obvious reasons of being arrogant and Italian.
Once the FA undermined him over John Terry it was only a matter of time before he walked, and I don't expect him to be jobless long even if he has to take a pay cut.

Harry Redknapp let off? OK I'm not a lawyer but that seems a surprise, maybe Harry's dog isn't as wealthy anymore. Now he's the number one pick for England manager? the press must be driving that one as poor old harry has a warehouse full of skeletons which they can drag up before every major game to undermine him, just ask Stuart Pearce who had his character assassinated immediately over an argument with Paul Ince 18 years ago (I thought every player who ever met Ince wanted to thump him).

Liverpool Muppets Suarez and Dalglish manage to drag Liverpool's reputation even deeper into the mud despite the American owners making them apologise in a bid to sell shirts in non white countries around the world.

Glasgow Rangers finally go into administration as expected meaning Celtic should walk to the title this season. Rangers paying for years of living beyond their means :(

Lee Clark sacked by Huddersfield, a complete mystery this one?
They sit 4th in the league, have only lost 3 games this season and set a record 43 games unbeaten recently. I'm sure there will be a few nervous managers around the league with Clark looking for a new job.

Lee Probert once again proving he needs a visit to Specsavers in the West Ham v Southampton top of the table clash after missing a handball that the whole ground saw, then sending off Matt Taylor for an imaginary punch that floored Billy Sharp.

Ken Bates shows he's still got it by appointing Neil Warnock as the new Leeds boss, Warnock is probably the only person who is more unpopular in Leeds than Bates.

Chelsea? how much longer for AVB who has managed to turn Chelsea into a very run of the mill premier team, I suppose they could end the season with a European and FA Cup double but it really doesn't look likely.

Paul Jewell must have been very close to the sack at Ipswich when they played the Hammers a few weeks back, but after tonking us they are flying proving that some managers should be given a few weeks longer.

Arsenal bow out of this season's Champions league after being totally outplayed by Milan, Ibrahimovic finally showing against an english team what all the fuss is about.

Congrats to Zambia for winning the African Nations cup on penalties.

I'm sure I've missed lots of stuff but that was the highlights :)

Premier Predictions (Week 25)

Thanks guys, hopefully just in for 2-3 days and a period of being waited on by the missus "bring me the laptop darling" or more likely "get it yourself, your legs still work" hehe :)
Just going to post this one as I'd forgotten it's cup week the week after and the Prem don't play again until the 25th.
A few good ones this week could throw up some interesting scores?

Man Utd V Liverpool
Blackburn V QPR
Bolton V Wigan
Everton V Chelsea
Fulham V Stoke
Sunderland V Arsenal
Swansea V Norwich
Tottenham V Newcastle

Wolves V West Brom
Aston Villa V Man City

Carroll v Torres

'arry

Saw this one pinned up on a wall yesterday :)
Good old Arry always there when you need a laugh.

Tuesday

Not the day I expected at all :(
I thought we would win at out of form Ipswich but would probably fail to land any of the many players we had been linked with over the last few weeks.
As it turned out we got absolutely stuffed at Ipswich? but picked up 3 reasonable players.
I still can't get my head around how we could lose 5-1 to Ipswich with 11 men, especially as we had a strong team out and had more shots on goal than them.
Maybe we should have been looking for defenders insted of the attacking options we picked up? although as we have only managed more than one goal in a game once in the last 3 months and that was 2 penalties so I can see the logic.


1. Nicky Maynard from Bristol City, we seem to have been linked with him for a while but it never looked like it would happen, he has 8 goals this season which doesn't look special but it's as many as our current leading scorer Carton Cole so could be a good signing if he gets a game and stays free of injury.
2. Ricardo Vaz Te from Barnsley is the ex Bolton player who disappeared for a while but has come back with a bang this season, I thought he looked a good prospect in his early Bolton days but never really made much of an impression after that.
Another player who has spent long periods out injured but seems to be on top of his game at the moment and if he is motivated could turn out to be a good signing.
3. Ravel Morrison from Man Utd, I admit I didn't know much about him but from what I've heard and read today he could be a bit special (or a disaster).
A highly rated attacking midfielder who was only shown the door at Old Trafford due to asking for 30 grand a week (not sure what we are going to pay him?) and the fact he can't stay out of trouble and is one more incident away from a jail term.
I heard Ferguson say "that he was better off out of Manchester" although East London is hardly going to be a better environment to stay on the straight and narrow.
Hopefully he is as good as he thinks he is and the £650k spent is the bargain of the season.

It was bad enough hearing the Hammers getting Hammered but my local mob Southend were also getting stuffed at home by Swindon again, although it's nice to see Paolo Di Canio getting his lot in the promotion spots proving the doubters wrong so far.

Premier Predictions (Week 24)

This weekends games over 3 days.
The big ones this week are Chelsea v Utd, Chelsea will hope Atkinson refs that one :) and on Monday the Scouses v Spuds which is the one game of the season I'd like to see the Spuds win!! or better still a mass brawl leading to points deductions for both :)

Saturday
Arsenal v Blackburn
Norwich v Bolton
QPR v Wolves
Stoke v Sunderland
West Brom v Swansea
Wigan v Everton
Man City v Fulham

Sunday
Newcastle v Aston Villa
Chelsea v Man Utd

Monday
Liverpool v Tottenham