For the players the days off between last Saturday's lunchtime dismantling of Norwich City FC and the crucial Friday night so called £100 Million shoot out against fellow strugglers Watford have been warmly welcomed, not so for the West Ham United fans though. The eagerly anticipated Friday night confrontation will go a long way to decide whether either or both clubs survive or thrive in the fight to stay in the Barclays Premier League.
It's not Panto season, but it is definitely "look behind you" time, inevitably fellow 'losers' Aston Villa, Bournemouth and Watford all rallied to the relegation cause and won their games this weekend, only Norwich lost and we know what happened to them! Unfortunately although destiny is still in David Moyes' team's hands, other results are starting to have a dramatic effect.
Eventually the 'good luck' bubble had to burst, in recent games all of Hammers' relegation 'brethren' have floundered, achieving only four points between them since the Barclays Premier League project restart. That all started to change with Watford's victory over Newcastle, but was bought home to rest with Aston Villa's 2-0 home victory over a Palace team that looked and performed as if they were already on the beach.
Greetings earthlings, somehow, something or someone decided to 'take' the Org over just ahead of the game against Norwich, and it seems that same great power decided it was about time to give West Ham United some divine assistance, how else can you explain yesterday's 'demolition job'?
Norwich: Krul, Aarons, Godfrey, Klose, Lewis, Vrancic, Tettey, Buendia, Stiepermann, Hernandez, Pukki.
Subs: McGovern, Rupp, Cantwell, Trybull, Drmic, McLean, Duda, Idah, Martin.
West Ham:Fabianski, Fredericks, Diop, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Soucek, Rice, Noble, Fornals, Bowen, Antonio.
Subs: Randolph, Balbuena, Yarmolenko, Lanzini, Wilshere, Haller, Masuaku, Ajeti, Johnson.
Saturday lunchtime, high noon at Carrow Road, some of the Barclays Premier League's last chance saloon shootists assemble for their relegation OK coral! Cue the late and great Ennio Morricone's final confrontation soundtrack of the music box and the seconds ticking down, make no mistake that despite there being no crowd to create the atmosphere players are used to, the forthcoming game has massive significance for both clubs.
The Premier League is back. No fans, social distancing subs and fake crowd noise has been introduced but on the pitch nothing much has changed. Officials are still making almost unbelievable mistakes and David Luiz is a liability. Then there is West Ham.
West Ham: Fabianski, Cresswell, Fredericks, Ogbonna, Diop, Soucek, Rice, Bowen, Fornals, Yarmolenko, Antonio. Subs: Randolph, Balbuena, Lanzini, Noble, Wilshere, Haller, Masuaku, Ajeti, Johnson.
Burnley: Pope, Taylor, Bardsley, Long, Tarkowski, Pieters, Brownhill, Westwood, McNeil, Rodriguez, Vydra. Subs: Peacock-Farrell, Gudmundsson, Wood, Brady, Thompson, Dunne, Benson, Goodridge, Driscoll-Glennon.
Ahead of the games against Chelsea and Newcastle, most fans would have been overjoyed at the prospect of emerging with four points, and yet in the cold light of day people will be disappointed with the club having only attained just the four points, the two 'lost' points may come back to haunt David Moyes who was none too happy with the way his team conceded the 2nd Newcastle goal, only 81 seconds after scoring through the superb Tomas Soucek.
Newcastle: Dubravka, Krafth, Lascelles, Fernandez, Manquillo, Shelvey, Hayden, Saint-Maximin, Almiron, Joelinton, Gayle. Subs: Darlow, Schar, Carroll, Ritchie, Yedlin, Lazaro, Rose, Bentaleb, M Longstaff.
West Ham: Fabianski, Fredericks, Diop, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Rice, Soucek, Bowen, Fornals, Lanzini, Antonio. Subs: Randolph, Balbuena, Yarmolenko, Noble, Wilshere, Masuaku, Ajeti, Silva, Johnson.