I’ve got an itch at the moment and it’s a West Ham sized itch. Frustratingly it is just beyond scratching distance.
This Premier League season is wide open. Results are all wonky and predicting results is about as easy as someone coming up with six numbers on the lottery. That’s gone all bandy as well.
Watching another 2 points slip away from us at Villa thanks to a referee seeing a penalty that wasn’t and not seeing one that was is increasing the irritability of my itch.
Five draws on the spin gives heart in one way that we are difficult to beat but is also frustrating as hell that we can’t convert some of those in to wins.
Take a look at the table. As I write this we are 10th. Mid table. Not at the top, not at the bottom. Just hanging around in no man’s land.
But when you start looking at the figures the itch is in danger of becoming a rash. Only 2 teams have lost less games than us.
Spurs are in 4th spot, but look at their record over 18 games compared to us. It’s not that different.
They have drawn the same amount of games as us, 8, and the only difference to our record is they have converted 2 losses to wins.
Six points is all that differentiates us, a mid table side and a team in a Champions League spot. Getting itchy?
We know we have a good team this season and but for an extraordinary amount of injuries to key, in form players, we surely would have converted some of the draws we’ve had in to wins.
Just 2 winning goals in drawn games would have seen us level on points with 5th place Palace. 3 winning goals and then its level points with Spurs in the Champions League place.
It just makes you want to roar like a distressed Wookie.
Come on life, give us a break. There is a chance for so called ‘lesser teams’ to do really well this season and take advantage of the big 4 having their pants pulled down on a regular basis.
It could be us, we want it to be us. We just need to reach the itch.
The key could be chief backscratcher Dimitri Payet, who we are led to believe will be back fit a lot earlier than expected.
We’re not a one man team but he has left a massive hole since he was injured. Upon his return not only will we have his skill but I believe the rest of the team will be lifted mentally.
If we can scratch the itch we can bound back up the table in a heartbeat.
If anyone asks me what I want for 2016 the answer will be simple. A fully fit West Ham squad to banish my itch.