Home games against Stoke, Wolves, Wigan, Sunderland, Bolton and Man City, plus an away fixture at our happy hunting ground of Fulham, and all we need is 4 wins! The problem will come if we suffer any more injuries to players at the back. All that focus on signing strikers meant we forgot about how little cover we have at the back. Ilunga is already out for 7 weeks and Gabbidon has a touch of the Dyers. If Upson were to pull up lame, we might yet struggle.
But 4 wins from 12 games? Surely that shouldn't be beyond us. Should it?
unless Pompey gets wound up. Then we'll need another 4 points.
ReplyDeleteYou would have to be a sandwich short of a picnic to buy that club.
I've been looking a the fixtures that all the teams in the mix have left and obviously it's tough to predict so much, but I reckon that 36 points could well be enough this season.
ReplyDeleteIf you look at the games that Hull, Bolton and Burnley have left, it's hard to see how they are going to get to 36 points.
I think that it helps that there are more teams battling for 4th place. There are more teams that will be playing harder for points as the end draws nearer and a lot of our fellow struggles are going to be playing Liverpool, Spurs and Villa for example.
I reckon we'll get at least 3 wins and a couple of draws and we'll be safe as houses.
The sale of Collins left Upson as a very dangerous single point of failure. da Costa looks raw and Gabbidon is unlikely to make much more of a contribution in claret and blue. There is of course the under rated Spector, but that would mean daprella at left back and GZ has been strangely reluctant to give him a chance.
ReplyDeleteSo how about Kovac? He's supposed to be able to play centre back and seems to me fairly composed when the play is in front of him. He's experienced and I can see him and Tomkins being a good combination.
If the world spins as it should, we should be ok:
ReplyDeleteDraws : 3 points
Fulham v West Ham,
Everton v West Ham,
West Ham v Bolton,
Wins : 12 points
West Ham v Wolverhampton,
West Ham v Stoke,
West Ham v Sunderland,
West Ham v Wigan,
Losses : 0 points
Man Utd v West Ham,
Chelsea v West Ham,
Arsenal v West Ham,
Liverpool v West Ham,
West Ham v Man City
= 15 more points, totalling 42.
If there were only two possible outcomes (of winning or losing a game) we should not have any problem getting 4 wins out of 12 games. Unfortunately, there this thing called a draw which carries only one point (I still don't understand how it is fair to draw a game and earn 1 out of three points). To show how unfair this system is consider that we could have been relegated without losing a single match when we down with 42 points!
ReplyDeleteIf we can stay away from drawing our games I agree with you that the finish line is well within sight. We get the same amount of points if we were to draw the remaining of our games (which means not get beaten in our 5 away games against the big five!). So, we badly need to think only wins for our home games (nothing else would do). Basically, keep doing what we have started in our last two games. Just keep the momentum going.
The Pompey issue is what troubles me. Presumably they would get purchased for a pound and a buyer would pay off their £79,000.00 of debts.Surely there is a buyer who would shell out seventy nine grand for the club, or have I got it all wrong. But as Gold obviously believes what happens to Pompey is now the major risk of what happens to us. Otherwise I now feel confident that we will get the necessary points.
ReplyDeleteCome on Stani - we are West Ham.
ReplyDeleteBolton (H) +2
Man C. (H) +1
Everton (A) -1
That's 44 points and hopefully we will pick up a few more on the way starting in Manchester om Tuesday night.
Anon 20:43,
ReplyDeleteExactly! :) Bolton just always seem to get something from us. It was either them or Stoke in the draw category. Davies always seems to bully our defenders and Taylor always seems to score a blinder.
We probably do have a good chance of getting at least one draw from the big boys, you're right. But overall, I think this is what we're probably looking at in terms of number of draws, wins and losses.
The staying up points tally will be a record low though so 42 points isn't so bad.
Sorry I meant 79 million not thousand its that 4,4,3 thing its catching or too much vino after sunday lunch, or senile decay or sometning like that
ReplyDeleteLOL John. I was getting my cheque out to buy them at £79,000. I looked at a flat above a snooker club in Fratton for £72k!
ReplyDeleteYes Hammersfan, i think you are on the money there. Four wins should see us safe & we have the home games to do it. Zola & the squad need to look at the badge & make the Boleyn the fortress that is shown there. We usually finish the season well & we lift against the top clubs. Upson needs to stand up & be counted, but one would think he would, we are due some luck with injuries. On a humorous note, if Faubert can tuck the ball in again he should do the Eric Cantona, stand there hands on hips, look around like god & savour the moment, that would be funny.
ReplyDeleteYou also need to look at the games that the others have down at the bottom. There are a lot of games where they either have to play each other or they are playing the top teams. Wolves have Bolton away followed by Man Utd at home. They also have games against Burnley, Villa, Us, Arsenal, Portsmouth & Sunderland. I think 35 might just do it this year so 3 more wins would just about be good enough, especially with our goal difference advantage.
ReplyDeleteThe Illunga injury really is a shame...we gotta play Diamanti on the left with Spector at left-back..should we have a crisis where we need to move Diamanti or replace him with Collison or Behrami, we have no choice but to put Daprella in there.
ReplyDeletei think its better 2 be playing man u. chelsea. arsenal. and liverpool away like we are then playing against the bottom sides because even low they are harder matches at least if we loose we ain't given the teams around us points. so i think 4 wins and we will be o.k. and with sunderland. stoke. wolves. bolton wigan. and man city at home im confidant we can win 4 of these games. from wayne the happy hammer.
ReplyDeleteMy willy is a bit sore today
ReplyDeletea good weekend then was it.
ReplyDeleteIt must have been, all alone with a dvd of Ronaldo in beach wear.
ReplyDeletei bet he's been looking at he's collection of iain dowie posters.
ReplyDeleteLOL
ReplyDeletelads remember we went down on 42 points, highest ever team to get relegated with high points...
ReplyDeletei believe 6 wins are a must for us to stay up, we must get over 42 points...
Nonsense Adam. That was a freak year. I reckon if we preserve our goal difference 34 points may be enough this year!
ReplyDeletemay be enough?! only may? hedging your bets - where's the prediction?
ReplyDeletefanno: must try a lot harder D minus
Definitely not 42 points looking at the games between sides at the bottom. I think 34 might be pushing it a bit too close. 36 pts should be alright given our goal difference, although this might take a pounding with the away games we have left. I would be satisfied with 3 wins and a couple of draws which would see us on 38pts and imo safe as the proverbial houses.
ReplyDeleteive got a feeling that where gonna get a result 2night. come on you irons. wayne the happy hammer.
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