Are West Ham United Doomed to relegation?

Over the last few seasons, the Premier League seems to be getting tighter and tighter, with more big name clubs being dragged into relegation scraps and falling into the lower echelons of the English game.

Leeds fan's know more than most
about the consequences of
relegation

In the last decade, many big name clubs have fallen through the Premier League trap door and not returned for a long time after. Probably the biggest name to have done so is Leeds United, who, 7 years on after their relegation in the 2003/4 season, are yet to return to England's top division. Other teams such as, Middlesborough, Southampton and Charlton Athletic, to name a few, are teams who find themselves dwelling in the lower leagues, after once being considered established Premier League teams no more than five or six years ago.

If West Ham are not careful, they could be another team who find themselves in the Championship and not seeing what their future holds. Their owners don't seem to have much control financially, which shows by the transfer signings they are making or the lack of them to try and get the club out of trouble.

Avram Grant finds himself deep in
a relegation dog fight

West Ham however, could also be included alongside the likes of Leeds, Charlton, Southampton and Middleborough as in 2003 they were also relegated and didn't return until the 2005/6 season. Although, over the past few seasons, they have re-established themselves some what and haven't been in this position (bottom of the league after 23 games) since their return in 05.

Aston Villa are another high profile name who find themselves in trouble near the bottom of the league, but the reason why I am not mentioning them under the same breath as the Hammers is the quality of players they have to call on, especially with the recent signing of Darren Bent from Sunderland. West Ham on the other hand, are struggling to score goals, with their leading strikers, Carlton Cole and Frederique Piquionne only having 8 goals in the league between them. When you main two strikers have statistics like that, you have to fear for your league status.

Even the clubs labeled
'too good to go down'
can slip out of the league

The Hammers only have to look at the shock relegation of Newcastle United in 2009. They had players such as Michael Owen, Obafemi Martins, Damien Duff, Kevin Nolan and Steven Taylor in their squad. Those players could make most starting XI's in the Premier League, however, they found themselves slipping out of the Premier League. However, if such a disaster was to happen to West Ham, funnily enough, Newcastle would be the ideal team to look at, as they are one of few teams who have bounced straight back to the Premier League after relegation and they did it in style.

But one thing West Ham have is time, there are still 15 games to play and 45 more points to play for, so relegation fears should not be in the forefront of their minds, yet.

Can England deliver once again?

After an already sensational year or so for English cricket, can the current crop of England stars make it two Ashes series win's and two World Cup's in the space of 19 months? It may well be our best ever opportunity to do so.

The 2009 Ashes series win in August 09 was successful enough, but it was then followed up by victory in the 2010 Twenty20 World Cup in the West Indies in May of last year, which was England's first ever World Series win since it was introduced at the same time as One Day Internationals (ODI's). If that wasn't enough for the England fans, the players have delivered again by cruising to a 3-1 Ashes win in Australia in January. However, one competition still stands as one that England have never won, the 50 over World Cup.



Captain Strauss: can become the
first England captain to win
the World Cup

 This year it will be held in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Traditionally England have never found it easy to play ODI's on the Sub-Continent. This is mainly due to past England teams relying on the ball to move around to be able to take wickets and also past batsman's lack of ability to bat on slow, low surfaces. However, with England's new policy of fear-less batting, introduced by coach Andy Flower, which has lead to all of England's recent success in limited over cricket, may be a huge advantage in the up and coming competition.



Prior: looking to be a
threat at the top
of the order



On the Sub-Continent, the ball doesn't tend to swing as much as it does in other parts of the world, which means that the England batsmen won't be going out to bat with the fear that the ball might do something off the seam that might cause them to get out. This means, with players such as Kevin Pietersen, England can get off to a quick start with the bat, which immediately will put the opposition under pressure, whether England are batting first or second. Captain Andrew Strauss has developed his game and is now a threat at the top of the order and can score quickly, which could hurt many sides. Matt Prior will more than likely open with Strauss after his surprise inclusion in the squad and he has the ability to score runs quickly to put the opposition under pressure from the off. Kevin Pietersen will always be a threat as his ability to either keep the scoreboard ticking or accelerate at a huge pace, gives England a very strong top order.Paul Collingwood is likely to bat at 4 as he can keep the runs ticking over if England are to start poorly or he can score quick runs at the end of an innings. Ian Bell is another player who has adapted his game to one day cricket and now plays with a freedom that will give England's middle order more threat.  Eoin Morgan has become a super star in one day cricket recently and his ability to finish off inning's could be a key feature to England's batting as often there will be situations where England will be chasing a total with limited overs left in the game.

Anderson: key to England's
bowling attack

As well as the batting, the one day bowling attack is now settled and they are all performing at their best. James Anderson has now developed the ability to take wickets on pitches that don't offer much for the bowlers, as seen in Australia this year. Stuart Broad has always had the knack of taking wickets in any conditions, which is a vital piece of armory in any attack. Tim Bresnan has recently shone in the Twenty20 World Cup and also in Australia, with his aggressive style of bowling and accurate lines and lengths. One fast bowling spot will be up for grabs however, with Chris Woakes (impressive in the Twenty20 series in Australia), Chris Tremlett (back on the England scene after huge performances in the 2010/11 Ashes) and Steven Finn who was left out of the last two Ashes tests for Tim Bresnan, but is still a promising young bowler who can cause the worlds best batsmen problems.

Swann: he and Yardy need
to be in form for England's
hopes to become reality

As for the spin attack, this will potentially be crucial for England in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Michael Yardy was a vital part of the Twenty20 winning side and will again be vital with his darty left arm spinners that can bamboozle any batsmen. Finally of course we have Graeme Swann, who has been hugely consistent for England the past few years, and his attacking off-spin will be a massive weapon for England. As well as being able to attack batsmen, he can also keep the run rate down with efficient and accurate bowling.

Therefore, looking briefly at the players England are likely to play throughout the World Cup, it is a distinct possibility that England can mount a challenge to become World Champions in 2011.

Is 2011 finally Andy Murray's year?

After making his senior tour debut in May 2003, Andy Murray has come from young British hope full, to Britain's number one and only hope of becoming Britain's first major winner for generations.

In the last couple of years, Murray has come within a grasp of winning a major event, after being a losing finalist in the 2009 US Open and 2010 Australian Open. He has also come close to being a Wimbledon finalist but has lost in the semi finals in the last two years (2009 and 2010) to Andy Roddick and then Rafa Nadal.

With a new season of Tennis now upon us, beginning in Melbourne with the Australian Open, yet again people are beginning to expect big things from Murray, starting the first major of the year in Australia. Although any major win will be gratefully accepted by Murray, we all know which one he really wants to win, along with every Murray fan, Wimbledon.

Murray breaks down into
tears after 2010 Australian Open
final defeat to Federer

Losing a semi-final in any sport is hard enough, but to lose it twice in consecutive years at Wimbledon would have hurt, therefore his desire and determination this year should be even greater than ever to finally break the duck for a British tennis player, by winning a major title.

 Unfortunately for Murray, if he was around in most other generations, he would probably won a major by now, but sadly for him, he is around in an era that boasts two of the best tennis players two have walked to globe, Rodger Federer and Rafael Nadal. With such players always making the finals or semi finals of major tournaments, it makes Murray's job a lot harder to be able to win a major. However, there is no doubt that Murray is more than capable of beating Federer or Nadal in a final, as he's done it before, but not on the same stage. Is 2011 the year Andy Murray for fills his potential? Lets hope so.

January Transfer Window... is it worth the hassle?

We are only just halfway through this seasons January transfer window and yet again, questions will be asked to whether it is actually worth the hassle.

The David Beckham saga is a classic example of how much of a hassle the transfer window is for English clubs. Beckham was, as we all thought, supposed to be on loan at Tottenham which meant he would be able to play for the White Hart Lane club. But time and time again over the last few weeks, it is unclear to what the agreement is. He is currently training with Spurs, primarily to get fit for the new MLS season with LA Galaxy, however, Spurs boss Harry Redknapp wanted to have Beckham as a player and with time running out this month, it is beginning to look more and more unlikely.

You have to feel for managers during this period in the season, as such situations like Spurs and Beckham, must have a detrimental affect on the manager and also the players who are not aware of what is going on. Redknapp has changed his mind a few times on what the agreement is on Beckham, so if he doesn't know, I'm not sure who does? Although Beckham's presence on the Tottenham training ground can only have positive effects on the Spurs players, you have to feel for the fans who again, are left pondering the point of Beckham being there if he isn't going to play. I'm sure many young Spurs fans would like to get Beckham's name on the back of their shirt, but there isn't much point if he isn't going to play for them. That would mean Spurs would also miss out on a lot of income from shirt sales, which may have been another reason to bring the former England captain in. Talking of names on shirts, Beckham has been training with the number 77 on his training kit, which has made the news, it's not often that a players squad number makes the news, unless it's a new Newcastle number 9 or a new Liverpool number 7 for example.

We will just have to sit and wait to see what happens with Beckham, although I think everyone is just assuming now he won't play for Spurs. It's a shame, not only for Spurs but also for the Premier League, who have definitely missed is presence the last 8 years or so since he left Man Untied for Real Madrid in 2003.

As well as Beckham, the slightly less high profile transfer, also involving Tottenham funnily enough, is that of Robbie Keane to Birmingham City. It all seemed set to happen after both clubs agreed a fee for the Irishman, who has been short of first team opportunities of late due to the form of Roman Pavlyuchenko, Peter Crouch and Jermain Defoe, now all ahead of him in the pecking order. Birmingham have recently pulled out of the deal, due to Birmingham not believing Keane to be the best financial option, whether that be due to the transfer fee, or more likely, Keane's wage demands.

It makes you wonder why mangers even bother trying to buy players in January, as it seems more stressful than it should be. Clubs will generally over pricing their players due to the lack of time clubs have to purchase players and clubs lack of willingness to sell half way during the season.

Derby Day, Draw Dominated!

Derby Day Sunday provided us with three intriguing and important Derby matches, but somehow, they all ended all square.

The Second City derby probably provided us with the most drama with Aston Villa hitting the cross-bar three times in the first half alone. The Merseyside derby provided us with the most goals and the Wear-Tyne derby yet again provided us with fascinating and enthralling action.



Roger Johnson is mobbed by team
mates after opening the scoring
at St Andrew's

Birmingham and Aston Villa have always had a fierce some rivalry and that was well and truly on show at St Andrews on Sunday, with flares being used by the fans and tackles flying in all over the pitch. Birmingham took the lead, arguably against the run of play with Villa being denied by the bar three times in the first half, with Roger Johnson excellently converting a cross, on the volley into the corner of Villa's net. 1-0 to the Blues, who were desperate to heap the misery on Gerard Houllier's Villans. However, Villa earned a deserved point when the ball fell to defender James Collins in the box who smashed the ball, via a slight deflection off former Villan Liam Ridgewell, into the Birmingham net. 1-1 and that's how it stayed, probably a fair result.

Jermaine Beckford silences
Liverpool fans

The Merseyside derby rarely fails to disappoint, with goals yet again provided by Liverpool and Everton at Anfield, with new Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish taking charge of his first derby since taking over. Liverpool took the lead through Spaniard Raul Meireles' strike from the edge of the Everton box. Liverpool fans could sense a much needed win over their bitter rivals. However, much like Liverpool all season so far, they couldn't hold onto their lead. Everton defender Sylvain Distan only took 43 seconds after the half time team talk to respond for Everton, after Mikael Arteta's corner is missed by Pepe Reina and nodded into the ground then into the net by Distan, now the Liverpool fans were on edge again. The inevitable had to happen, and it did, with Jermaine Beckford, found in the Liverpool box by
Leon Osman superbly, smashed the ball passed Reina to turn the game on its head, 2-1 to Everton, stunning.
However, what many Liverpool fans where dreading, didn't happen, with Dirk Kuyt being the hero after slotting away a penalty just after the hour mark after Everton keeper Tim Howard brought down Maxi Rodriguez inside the penalty area. 2-2 and it remained that way with neither team being able to force a winner.

Finally, the Wear-Tyne derby at the Stadium of Light. This eagerly anticipated game turned out to be as enthralling as any other Wear-Tyne derby, with Sunderland on a revenge mission after the 5-1 defeat to the Toon in October. Newcastle started magnificently and should have been ahead inside three minutes when Shola Ameobi was one on one with Mackem's keeper Craig Gordan, only to push it past the right hand post. What a start that would have been, especially for Ameobi who had 6 goals in Tyne-Wear derby's in his career going into this one. Minutes later Sunderland had their first real chance, which fell for top scorer Darren Bent who had turned Newcastle defender Fabricio Coloccini inside the box, only to fire the ball straight at Steve Harper in the Newcastle goal from 8 yards out. Electric start to say the least!

The first half was mainly in favour of Newcastle, who continued to look threatening with Joey Barton playing fantastically well on the right hand side (surely and England call is on the cards?). Jonas Gutierrez and Jose Enrique were working really hard on Newcastle's left and were linking up well with each other. Also, Fabricio Coloccini was extremely dominant at the back for the Magpies, dealing with the ever dangerous Bent and Asamoha Gyan up front for the Black Cats, to keep it 0-0 at half time.


The second half didn't start off as quickly as the first, but again Newcastle looked the more likely to open the scoring and they did so on the hour mark, when Joey Barton's corner was nodded down by Ameobi, before being cheekily back-healed into the net by Magpies talisman and skipper Kevin Nolan for his 10th in the league so far this season for 1-0 to the Geordies.


Kevin Nolan celebrates the
opener at the Stadium of Light

 Newcastle looked incredibly comfortable for the next half an hour leading into stoppage time and could have extended their lead. Boy, they wish they had, as in the dying embers of the game, Phil Bardsley fired a shot at goal, which Steve Harper could only parry to Gyan who, not knowing much about it, managed to force it into the goal in the 94th minute, the Sunderland fans were delighted, but you can't help but feel sorry for Newcastle and boss Alan Pardew who deserved all three points in a solid performance.

So, unbelievably, all three derby matches ended up as draws, but they weren't your bog-standard bore draw, they were enthralling to watch and provided plenty of drama along the way. Oh and the other game that afternoon, Tottenham vs Manchester United, guess what, ended in a draw.

Derby Day Sunday Leads Premier League Weekend

With the return of the Tyne-Wear Derby to the Premier League this season after a year without it, all eyes yet again are set on the North East. However, there are the small matters of the Merseyside and Second City derby's taking place on Sunday also.

With the Merseyside derby and the Second City derby taking place on the same day, there seems to be more attention put on those games. In my view this is because Everton and Liverpool are having poor seasons, especially Liverpool, and the same can be said for the two Birmingham teams, Villa and City. Both sets of derby's are languishing in the bottom half of an extremely tight Premier League table, which might explain why both are on TV in the UK and the Wear-Tyne derby isn't as the North East sides are 6th and 9th respectively and the game doesn't have as much meaning as the other two derby's.

However, to the people of Newcastle and Sunderland the game has as much, if not more meaning, than ever before. Sunderland certainly have more reason to want to win this one after being humiliated back in October, as they were beaten 5-1 by the Magpies at St James' Park. As for Newcastle and boss Alan Pardew, after being embarrassed by Stevenage in the FA Cup, will want to bounce back as quickly as possible after a good run of form in the league with three wins in their last five games, including a 5-0 thrashing of West Ham United at St James' in their last fixture.

Sunderland are sweating over the fitness of Danny Welbeck and captain Lee Cattermole who are both rated 50-50 to play, whilst Bolo Zenden and Nedum Onuoha are fit to play for the Black Cats. Front two Darren Bent and Asamoah Gyan are both likely to start, with both men being integral to Sunderland's success so far this campaign.

Newcastle has injury and suspension issues to worry about before this one. Star striker Andy Carroll, who has 11 Premier League goals to his name this term, is ruled out of Sunday's game due to a thigh injury, as well as midfielder Cheik Tiote due to his red card in the FA Cup vs Stevenage. Summer signing Dan Gosling could be in line for his first game for Newcastle at the Stadium of Light after recovering from a long layoff with a knee ligament injury suffered playing for Everton nearly a year ago.

Apart from the absence of players such as Andy Carroll, who would have been intriguing to see in his Wear-Tyne derby at the Stadium of Light, it is shaping up to be one of the closest and most fiercely contested derby's seen in the North East for years.

In many senses all the pressure is on the Sunderland players to get a result after the 5-1 demolition in at St James' in October as well as their FA Cup 3rd Round defeat at home to Notts County, however the Toon Army will be expecting a response from their players after that FA Cup giant-killing against Stevenage. If you put the FA Cup disasters for both teams in the back of your mind, both sides are in very good form in the league and performing above expectations, especially the Magpies and really shouldn't be under the pressure that they find themselves, however, that's modern day football for you and why the players get paid so much, they are paid to perform and have to deal with it.

As well as the importance of the Tyne-Wear derby, the Merseyside and Second City derby's have huge significance for the teams involved. For the first time in a long time, Liverpool and Everton face each other at a time when both sides are in danger of being dragged into a relegation dog fight. This is pretty much un-heard of for a Liverpool fan, but it's the reality they face and this game is very important for reasons which both sides are not accustomed to. Everton have certainly had their fair share of relegation battle's down the years, however under David Moyes, relegation has not been a worry.

As for the Second City derby, Aston Villa go into this one second bottom of the Premier League table, which in recent years is way below expectations after being in contention for a Champions League place last season. However, much like Liverpool, their reality is that they are in a relegation fight and will be sucked deeper into the fight if they cannot register a win over bitter rivals Birmingham City. City are also in a similar position, however their positioning is less of a surprise compared to that of Villa's. A win for either side would be massive, but a loss would leave one of their neighbours in serious trouble, which is one heck of an incentive for both sides, if they needed one.

So, with an intriguing Derby Day ahead, my predictions are:

Birmingham 2-1 Aston Villa

Liverpool 1-0 Everton

Sunderland 2-2 Newcastle

Ruthless England Finish Off Australia

England finally ended 24 years of hurt as they won an Ashes series on Australian soil for the first time since 1987.

Although the Ashes were already retained in Melbourne in the previous test, England were desperate to complete a series win in Australia, which for any team is rare. Not many teams can boast walking away from Australia with a 3-1 series win, a convincing score in any test series. Although not as convincing as the 5-0 drubbing by Australia in 2006/7, the victory will be one of revenge for the humiliation suffered 4 years before.

It was clear from the start, in the warm up matches, that England came to Australia with one aim, to win. They won 2 of the 3 warm up games before Brisbane, with the top order batsmen looking in excellent touch, which shows the amount of preparation that was put in before the series. England were focused and took those warm up matches as if they were the real thing, which didn't happen in 2006/7 and look what happened.

The phrase 'Fail to prepare, prepare to fail' comes to mind when looking at how England prepared for the 2006/7 series and there failure to prepare properly meant they ended up failing. This time round however, England prepared the best way possible, with no stone left unturned and look at the result, a convincing series win. England's preparation and organisation under coach Andy Flower and captain Andrew Strauss reflects how the team performs on the pitch. After taking over properly in 2009 after the abysmal series in the West Indies, England have been unbeaten in test series under the two Andy's. Including convincing wins over the West Indies and Bangladesh (which are to be expected) at home, a tightly contested drawn series against, then number 1 team South Africa, in South Africa at the start of 2010 along with now two consecutive Ashes series wins.

This is arguably one of the best years or so English cricket has seen, certainly in the last 20 years. The fore mentioned draw in South Africa and the 2009 Ashes win were successful enough, but to add to that the World Twenty20 title and an emphatic series win in Australia speaks volumes for the quality and strength of English cricket at the moment. With a massive one day series against the Australian's and the World Cup coming up, maybe this is just the start of the new England revolution.