We football fans are fickle beasts. Let’s look back a mere six weeks and remember our fears. Let’s remember where we thought this club was heading. Let’s remember what we were saying about Zola, Cole and several others too. Let’s remember how little faith some of us had. Let’s remember that most of us thought that by January 31st we’d have probably lost Rob Green, Matty Upson and Scott Parker. Let’s remember that few of us would have expected us to buy a £3 million Czech international defender, let alone a £9 million Ugandan-German wunderkind from Italy.

And let’s remember that we are unbeaten since Christmas…

Portsmouth 4-1
Stoke 2-1
Barnsley 3-0
Newcastle 2-2
Fulham 3-1
Hartlepool 2-0
Hull City 2-0
Arsenal 0-0

That’s 8 matches without losing. That’s E.I.G.H.T.

Let’s remember Carlton Cole’s form and the fact that working with Zola and Clarke has enabled him to find the net 5 times in 6 league games. Let’s remember the defensive partnership between James Collins and Matthew Upson that has seen us keep 4 clean sheets in 8 matches. Let’s remind Fabio Capello who really is England’s Number One. Let’s all remember the tenacity and skill of Nehrami and Parker, whose tackled and passing have been crucial to the level of possession we have enjoyed.

And let’s remember Craig Bellamy. Who left all this behind for a team who contrived to lose to Stoke City today.

We are West Ham United. We understand what that means. No wonder Arsenal fans envy us. No wonder Spurs fans are jealous of our success.

Zola and Clarke have given us renewed belief. We anticipate a match now believing we will win. We hear the whistle and believe Carlton will score. We know Behrami will win his tackles. We relish seeing James Collins heading ball after ball away from danger. We can’t take our eyes off the colossus that is Herita Ilunga. We cherish the boyish enthusiasm with which Mark Noble approaches each game. Noble, Tomkins, Collison. West Ham Boys. Us.

Whatever happens for the rest of the season we can all agree that Zola has restored our faith in how the game should be played. We deserve to be where we are now. Who knows how much further this team can go.

Like you, I am looking forward to finding out.

I would be astonished if the lineup changed for the match this afternoon against Arsenal. Why on earth would you change a winning team. No doubt there are several readers who believe that Savio Nsereko should get a starting place. I disagree. The short burst we saw of him on Wednesday was highly encouraging, but I think it would be disruptive to change the lineup today.

Believe me, we should go into this game confident of winning it. And it is in midfield where we will win or lose it. If Behrami, Collison, Parker and Noble can dominate the centre of the pitch they can snuff out much of Arsenal’s threat.

I would love to have a ticket for the game, but sadly I shall be reduced to listening to the audio commentary. If anyone knows where one can find a video feed, please say so in the comments.

UPDATE: Julien Faubert’s loan move to Real Madrid has been confirmed. Who’d have thunk?

I can hardly believe I am typing this but it’s confirmed that Julien Faubert
is in discussions with Real Madrid about a loan move.

Coming tomorrow: Sir Alex signs Luis Boa Morte!

According to those nice folks at Wikio, this is the fourth most popular football blog in Britain (and 10th most popular sports blog). In fact, West Ham blogs take up two of the top ten. Interesting that neither Chelsea or Manchester United have blogs which make the top ten. Perhaps it’s because their supporters have trouble with the UK alphabet. Joke.

1. Arseblog
2. Gunnerblog
3. SoccerLens
4. West Ham Till I Die
5. West Ham Fans
6. Goodplaya
7. Harry Hotspur
8. “Have you ever been to Liverpool?”
9. East Lower
10. AVFC Blog

So I suppose I must be doing something right, as not only do I have the number 4 footie blog, I also have the number 1 political blog!

OK, busy at work, but here’s a couple of things to get your teeth into…

* Calum Davenport rumoured to be on his way to Wolves for £3 million. Personally, I like him as a player, but it means we recoup what we paid to Spurs, which isn’t a bad deal.

* The Kovacs deal looks done.

* The club is still ken to move Boa Morte and Faubert on elsewhere, but it looks increasingly unlikely.

That’s all. Unless, of course, you know different. Cyril…

PS Those too young to remember That’s Life won’t get that reference…

The FA is running a competition for the player of the 4th round of the FA Cup. Scott Parker is one of the five players in the running. You can vote for him HERE (before 3 Feb).

An email from a reader…

As a regular reader of your blog can I just say you missed a cracking game last night and if it wasn’t for the Hull goalie it would have been a very embarrassing score for Hull.

But the important thing was the atmosphere, and we all feel it was down to Jeremy being back – FatBoy Slim to start, Bubbles played properly, team read out properly – when reading our reserves he correctly saved the name of Savio to the end so we could cheer…….even with Hull he paused after reading out Garcia and Bullard for reaction from us……he know West Ham which is more than the last guy did. As we were filing out he read out the rest of the nights scores, making a humerous comment about our reaction to Bellamy scoring which had us all laughing.

Good times are back at Upton Park and we have Jeremy to thank for it.

Discuss.

In the end I couldn’t get to Upton Park tonight and had to settle for watching the game on Sky. The atmosphere sounded fantastic and I so wish I could have got there. This was a vintage West Ham performance. Although only two goals were scored, there could have been a hatfull. And all in the Hull net. Both Cole and Di Michele could have had hattricks. It was that good. Again the intricate one touch passing was sublime, and the tackling fierce, but fair.

There wasn’t a single weakness in this performance, but the best part of it was the burgeoning partnership between Di Michele and Cole. Who’d have thought it? Their interplay tonight had to be seen to be believed. All of which reminds me of a joke.

Knock Knock
Who’s There?
Craig
Craig who?
That’s football.

Defensively we were almost perfect. They barely had a shot on goal. Ilunga was able to rampage down the left at will and once Lucas Neill realised he could do the same from time to time, we had the perfect attack.

In midfield both Parker and Noble had stormers. Parker got forward a lot more, with Behrami filling in at the back, but Parker is the one who is developing into a massive player for us. It is inconceivable that we sell him. Behrami had his quietest game for a long time but was still impressive. Noble sprayed the ball around well, but his penalty was poor. It’s the third one in a row he has put in the same place. Third time unlucky.

It was fantastic to see Di Michele on fire. Amazing what the arrival of a new player can do! He had a couple of superb shots which should have resulted in goals but just clipped the post. The curler in the first half looked a dead cert. He was definitely man of the match. Carlton Cole had another brilliant game too. He had two one on ones and was unlucky with both of them. He held up the ball very well, won a penalty and scored a goal. Fantastic performance.

Green 7
Ilunga 8
Neill 7
Collins 8
Upson 8
Collison 8
Noble 8
Parker 9
Behrami 7
Cole 8
Di Michele 9

UPDATE: Just a word about the Sky TV coverage. They have discovered a fantastic new pundit in Dean Windass. He was knowledgeable, eloquent, funny and not afraid to call it as it is. They should use him more often.

Who was the last West Ham player to score 5 goals in 5 games?

Answer: Tony Cottee, 23 years ago!

Due to work commitments I now can’t go to Upton Park tonight, so I will be watching the game on Sky.

Use this as an open thread to discuss the match as it takes place.