Acute Need Of Back to Back Prem Wins

All the feel good factor of Tuesday's epic triumph over Man Utd's B team will disappear if we lose today's game. We are off the bottom courtesy of Wolves' heavy defeat at Blackburn, but so what? Three teams go down the last time I looked. In fact, long term I reckon a draw at Ewood Park would have suited us better. We need more teams to be drawn into the relegation dog fight, and Blackburn are a poor, poor team managed by a street fighter of a manager. If we drop through the relegation trap door, a point behind Blackburn at the end of the season, we will rue December 4, 2010.

Wigan also scraped a lucky point on Saturday and Birmingham pinched a point against Tottenham too. One poster on here talked about "great" results for West Ham but, after MOTD, I was disappointed. Our position had not worsened significantly but, unless the target is simply to avoid finishing bottom, it hadn't improved either.

So today becomes such an important game. Three points will put us on the shoulder of the pack. Defeat will leave us favourites for the drop. A draw will help, but not a lot!

Back to back wins are vital when you are trying to beat the drop, and sadly cup games do not count. This is a difficult game but a must win game nevertheless. Let's hope Grant gets the team selection and tactics right. We have won at the Stadium of Light already this season and most of the players selected on that night are available today. Perhaps Grant should trust to the same personnel as far as possible?