West Ham Till I Die
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Tony Hanna's Musings

The Break, Predictors and Question Time

Well after the game against West Brom we have two weeks to amuse ourselves until the next game at Watford. Normally it is the International breaks that test our patience but of course this time it is because next weekend is Cup week. It would be nice to be able sit back and watch Tottenham, Arsenal, Chelsea or the Moaning ones getting knocked out but when you look at their fixtures it is difficult to see any of them not making the quarter finals? Even Man City got a favourable draw and despite the unusualness of the top clubs all getting drawn away, somehow they all managed to avoid each other! Feel free to complain about our luck with Cup draws.

Looking forward to the game against Watford and it will be interesting to see if Andy Carroll is fit to play? Protecting a player from a groin niggle would be the natural course of action for any manager but Andy’s history has often told us things are always more complicated than that. It looks like Fonte and Snodgrass have settled well into the team and Kouyate is proving to be as versatile as Antonio. The latter appears to have dropped his form in the last few and I do wonder if he is struggling a bit with burn out? If that is the case then this trip to Dubai and the two week break should do him the World of good. Whilst we have all been harping on about the right back position for longer than we care, what is becoming as much as a problem is the form of Aaron Cresswell at left back. In my opinion he has never been a top class defender but his attacking threat down the left and his excellent crossing ability has always covered the cracks in his defensive game. I am not sure whether the injury he suffered earlier this season is behind it or whether it is a confidence thing? Either way it is fast becoming another problem for Slaven Bilic.

I had a few moments to spare the other day and I completed a Premier League predictor table. If you want to have a go yourself click here. It calculates the ongoing league table depending on the results you put into it. Just a bit of fun and only takes about ten minutes to complete and you will end up with all the finishing positions for the end of the season. For what is worth my predictions ended up with Chelsea winning the PL and just five points separating Man City, Spurs, Liverpool and Arsenal in that order. If I am right then Arsenal and the Moaners will miss out on the Champions League spots. Down the other end Sunderland, Leicester and Middlesbrough go down but anything could happen there as only four points separated 18th and 13th. I had West Ham to finish 11th and at this point in time I would be fairly happy with that considering all the turmoil at the club this season. If you have a go, post your predictions on here and I will look back at this thread at the end of the season to see who fared the best and report back.

Later this week Eddie Bovington has agreed to take part in a Q&A with me. I will post it as an article hopefully during this two week break. Eddie played in the Cup Final win against Preston in 1964 and made 184 appearances for the Hammers in the 1960’s. If any of our readers want to put forward any of their own questions to Eddie just let me know on this thread. If we get a few good ones I will pick the best three to go alongside the ones I have already prepared.

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