No Upson, No Cole & No Behrami. So Bring on the Mancs!

Logic, of course, dictates that we are in for a mauling at the weekend. Manchester United are on their game, have relatively few injury problems and are desperately in need of 3 points to stay on the coat tails of Chelsea. Meanwhile, we are deprived of three of our five most important players, four of our most important six if you count Beano!

The logical prediction is a 2-0 win for Fergie's boys, in fact if there was ever a banker away win, this is surely it! Our backs are against the wall; half the team is ruled out, and the best half at that; we have a defence made up of a cut and shunt centre back, a raw inexperienced partner, a left back who left his form behind last season and the choice between a useless Yank and a fat arsed frustrating frog; and the Champions are in town. So only one result is possible, right? A West Ham victory! Because at West Ham, we have never done logic have we?

This is the club that put eight past Bury and then bought their centre back. This is the club that, like Rocky, picks itself up off the canvass and beats Arsenal and Manchester United away from home to secure survival in the Premiership. This is the club that during that incredible Great Escape run, still conspires to lose 3-0 away to a hopeless Sheffield United. This is the club that crashes out of the Cup to teams like Wrexham. This is the club that appoints as CEO the very man at the heart of the Tevez scandal. This is the club that builds a hotel on Green Street when a refugee hostel would be more appropriate. This is the club that allowed Hollywood to make a movie about its notorious hooligan element, thinking it would help with marketing of the brand in the States. This is the club that won the World Cup but couldn't finish in the top 3 in the old First Division. This is the club that has developed a generation of England players but sold them at bargain basement prices. This is the club that gets taken over by bankers on the eve of a world banking crisis. This is the club that when aiming to gate crash the top 4, appointed as manager a guy who had built his reputation on sitting just outside the bottom 4. This is the club that goes in at half time in the lead against 10 men teams and then struggles in the second half to avoid defeat. This is the club that takes two goal leads and then struggles to secure a single point. This is the club that romps into a five goal lead against Burnley then says, this is too one sided, help yourself to a few goals to even things up.

This is the club that stripped of the best half of the team will go out and beat Manchester United!