Is there anything better than a midweek round of league fixtures, and a MOTD to boot? Didn't think so. 4 games tonight then, and a strong at home Sunderland play a strong away from home Villa in probably the tightest game of the evening. Sunderland have just wobbled a bit of late, they followed up an impressive result and performance against Arsenal with a defeat at Wigan and a draw at home with Pompey. They seem to raise their game when the big boys are on the cards though, and right now you have to consider Villa up there on the fringes of Champions League football. They were excellent at Old Trafford on Saturday and will be desperate to quell the doubters tonight at the Stadium of Light. I think it'll probably end up being a draw. If Utd ever wanted a fixture to get themselves back on the horse so to speak, then at home to Wolves is probably it. Mick McCarthy's side did superb to beat Spurs at the Lane but will have practically been budgeting for a 1 or zero point haul from these two games, they've already got 3 so I expect the home side to stroll through this one. Bolton take on West Ham at the Reebok in what is already looking to be a pretty crucial relegation clash. For the first time on Saturday I started hearing rumblings of discontent from Hammers fans, some of them at least think it's time for Zola to move on - more on that later. Bolton will be buoyed by the fact they got a 3-3 draw with Man City but have to build on that with 3 points tonight to give them a bit of breathing room. My feeling towards them are well covered, lets just say I'm hoping for an east-London win tonight. Finally, Birmingham are at home to Blackburn and have another chance to pick up 3 points to improve their league position further still. McLeish seems to know how to play this league and has really impressed me so far, I just have a funny feeling about tonight that Allardyce will get the win.
Ex-Birmingham City owners David Sullivan and David Gold have made an offer to spend some of that luvorlay Brummy silver dollar on West Ham Utd. The fee is apparently £50million, some of that will go to the current owners and some to servicing the Hammers' debts. I wonder about this one, you feel that the club needs (as most of them probably do) an owner with real massive financial clout to not only buy the club and ease the debts, but to invest on the football team to help them survive this relegation scrap. It'll be interesting to know what the David's plan to do because if it is just a change in hands without any real investment, then what's the point? Zola will be hoping he can hold onto his job until January and then work his balls off to try and bring a few new faces in with whatever cash he has. There's been talk of them maybe cashing in on Carlton Cole (Arsenal? Yes please!) but it's imperative they hold onto their best players, particularly ones who score all your goals. We can all see that on paper West Ham have a much better side than their lowly league position dictates, but we also know that football is played on the green thing, not paper.
Finally, the FIFA World Club Cup starts in earnest today - there have already been a couple of matches to decide who makes it into the all important semi-finals. Today we see the Asian Champions League winners, the Pohang Steelers (not an American football team) play second favourites for the trophy Club Estudiantes de La Plata, the winners of the Copa Libertadores or South American Champions League if you will. I can't pretend to know much about either side (I do know that Veron plays for Estud) but as expected and as always the European champions will be favourites to lift the trophy. Barca have had a solid if not unspectacular start to the season, shading top spot in La Liga and bumbling their way through their Champions League campaign. Normally what this tournament brings us is a European/South American final in which the South Americans seem to give much more of a toss about than we do. Quite frankly, whoever wins the Champions League is the best club team in the world, we don't need this FIFA circle jerk to tell us any different. For the European sides it's a bit of a distraction, and although Utd and Milan have won the last 2 years, the South Americans tend to dominate it. This year it has been moved from it's terrible home in Japan to the Abu Dhabi in the UAE, where Barca reserves will hope to be crowned the best in the world. Again. Take her easy.
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West Ham's problems are all about injuries - Upson, Cole, Noble, Behrami, Dyer - you can't lose those players from your side and expect to get very far. Zola has all the right ideas and we will get out of trouble eventually. Admittedly, I would shoot Julien Faubert given the chance, but maybe we can't afford to lose another squad member. Poor performance tonight, but once we get our spine back we will be able to hold onto our points and not capitulate in the last 20 mins.
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