manager Sam Allardyce is confident of beating Southampton at Upton Park this weekend and continuing his side’s good start to their first season back in the Premier League.
Both the Saints and the Hammers enjoyed promotion back to the top-flight last season but have enjoyed opposite starts to the campaign.
After sevem games Nigel Adkins’ Southampton sit just a point outside the bottom three with just four points while Allardyce’s West Ham are in eighth with 11 points.
And the West Ham manager believes his side have what it takes to continue what has been a solid start to the season.
Speaking to West Ham’s official site he said: “I think we have coped with the Barclays Premier League very well at the start of this season and I also think we had a group of fixtures that were less challenging than Southampton’s.
“From a Premier League point of view our experience is probably better than theirs so hopefully that will be a telling factor on Saturday. Our confidence is also very high because we have been very good at home.
“I am hoping to see the same kind of performance that I saw against Aston Villa, Fulham and Sunderland. If we play like that we will create opportunities and have a very good chance of winning the game.”
Allardyce also feels that Adkins’ Southampton are a team still looking for the right formula that should see them start climbing up the table.
“It is usually more difficult to score goals than it is to concede. Southampton have found it easier to score but in doing so they have left a lot of gaps,” he added.
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“There are two ways of playing the game and that is in possession and out of it. If you do not get both right you do not win. What you do out of possession in the Barclays Premier League is just as important as what you do with it, especially during your first season.
“If you can get both of those on an equal par you will do well.”
In an eventful festive period of Premier League action, there was controversy at the Liberty Stadium as Swansea City took on Manchester United.
Swansea captain Ashley Williams and Man Utd’s Dutch forward Robin van Persie came to blows after the Welshman kicked the ball at van Persie’s head after the whistle had gone to halt play.
Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson, rather sensationally, said after the match: “Robin van Persie is lucky to be alive. It was a disgraceful act from their player.”
Here is van Persie reacting angrily to Williams, but can you come up with a funny caption for this picture?
Leave your suggestions below…
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This week you can win a copy of the Manchester United: Greatest Ever XI DVD!
As voted for by the fans, this is Manchester United’s greatest ever XI.
A unique, fan-driven project, MANCHESTER UNITED: GREATEST EVER XI sets out to select a definitive team of the greatest players ever to pull on the famous red shirt.
Across 4 DVDs and more than over 130 players, fans make the case for their picks and relive memories of mighty performances on the pitch highlighting the club’s most memorable players.
For the FootballFanCast.com Caption Competition Terms and Conditions click here
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Check out our Caption Competition Gallery for some inspiration and to see the winners so far.
Last week’s winner: ulley – click here to see all entries
Fulham boss Martin Jol has once again stressed his desperation to keep hold of key defender Brede Hangeland.
The Norwegian giant is out of contract at the end of this season and will be available to leave Craven Cottage for free unless he pens a new deal.
Jol has confirmed that the 31-year-old has been offered an impressive contract to stay at the club but he is yet to make a decision.
West London rivals Queens Park Rangers are said to be at the front of the queue to snap up the experienced defender and they may even make a cheeky bid this month.
Jol is clearly worried about losing his best defender but he hopes the clubs ambitious signings such as Dimitar Berbatov and Mladen Petric could convince Hangeland that they are on the same page.
Hangeland is a fans favourite for the Whites but Jol knows that bigger clubs may well be after his signature come May.
“We will try to do everything that we are capable of to keep him,” Jol told Sky Sports.
“There is a contract and the only thing for him to do is sign it.
“Players like Brede, if they have a decent history and are playing well for their clubs, then there will always be an interest.
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“I thought he was quite happy to stay here. Of course, he wanted to know the mission of the club, who is coming in because there were quite a lot of players going out.”
For any footballer, becoming a scapegoat in any club can break a career. Becoming a scapegoat in a Nottingham Forest shirt though, normally makes careers.
Whilst fans of other clubs watch their former scapegoats in the latter minutes of The Football League Show, Forest fans endure watching them being intensely analysed by Alan Hansen, on Match of the Day.
This may be the route taken by striker David McGoldrick. Although people may laugh at the thought of McGoldrick in the Premier League, pointing them in the direction of Grant Holt’s career path may see them understand the theory just a little more.
Whenever McGoldrick did anything in a Forest shirt, the atmosphere changed. If something positive was done, there would be the element of patronising suprise that could only leave a footballer slightly humiliated, rather than encouraged. If something negative occurred, McGoldrick would get a barrage of abuse on a different scale.
His running style, or internet rumours relating to his private life – Nottingham Forest supporters seemed to decide at an early stage that McGoldrick was an easy target, that they would take full advantage of.
McGoldrick got out alive, getting himself a loan spell at Coventry City. Despite his recent goalscoring exploits, many would still not take him back. Eleven goals scored, and Coventry fans lauding him demanding they sign him permanently. Three strikers currently fit, but the thought of McGoldrick lining up in a Forest shirt again is enough to raise the eyebrows, more in confusion of suggestion, than consideration.
Forest left back Dan Harding is currently in the line of fire. What’s Dan Harding’s fault, is Dan Harding’s fault. What’s Andy Reid’s fault, is Dan Harding’s fault. The mindset that many seem to have taken, unfortunately.
If something goes wrong near Dan Harding, despite looking at the bigger picture and perhaps the tracking back (or lack of) from Andy Reid, Harding is usually held responsible.
Harding seems to be standing on the thin line, that is being made a touch thicker by the ongoing injury problems to the defence, meaning any defensive errors are being generalised, as a whole defensive issue.
Whilst it’s unfair, Harding’s hesitant appearance doesn’t help him. Often looking hurried and nervous, with Andy Reid in front of him taking up awkward positions, forcing the Forest No.3 to take another option, usually the more simple one backwards, that can sometimes rile inpatient fans.
McGoldrick’s running style and Jonathan Greening’s rough and street-ready look. Are appearances playing a role in fans stance on players?
Football fans as a whole tend to be a forgiving bunch, as long as performances improve.
The Nottingham Forest faithful are on another level, however. Even when performances get better, and players show improvements, their unwillingness to allow them a fresh start in the Garibaldi is alarming.
If the likes of McGoldrick, Jonathan Greening and Marcus Tudgay continue to show form at their respective clubs until January, would the idea of retaining them be too frowned upon?
The thought of ‘cashing in’ may cross people’s mind. For Greening and Tudgay, maybe.
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For McGoldrick? Firepower and form. Whilst considering whether to give him a fresh start in your own mind, imagine settling down on a Saturday night to watch Match of the Day, knowing you were seeing a David McGoldrick you could’ve once seen.
Forgiving and forgetting may not be in the nature of Nottingham Forest fans minds’. Many people preach about the club being as one, for once in a long time. The only way to prove it, is to act in that way. Forgive and forget, and aid the club in achieving success.
Swansea goalkeeper Michel Vorm refused to look for excuses for his part in Aston Villa’s opening goal in their win over the Welsh side at Villa Park.
Vorm appeared to dive beyond Matt Lowton’s swerving volley which gave Villa the lead after 16 minutes, with Christian Benteke’s late goal sealing Villa’s first Premier League win of the campaign, and Swansea’s first loss of the season. The Netherlands international admitted the nature of footballs now makes it harder for keepers to judge the flight of the ball, but he also admited there was not much he could do about Lowton’s strike. He told Sky Sports:
“”It swerved a bit and I saw it a bit late. I was already moving to my right as well, and I couldn’t make up so it was a bit unlucky. They make the balls not to please the goalkeeper but to please the players who shoot a lot. It’s something you have to deal with and you see a lot of times it is hard for the goalkeepers to keep the ball in their hands. But in the Premier League we have good goalkeepers and we have to deal with it. It’s not really about the ball, I like the ball. If you look throughout the season you will see some goals that go in that you think are because of the ball – but I am not going to blame the ball.”
Swansea’s next tie sees them face a tough fixture at the Liberty Stadium against Everton.
Newcastle will not lose strike pairing Papiss Cisse and Demba Ba to 2013 African Cup of Nations duty in January after Senegal failed to qualify for the tournament.
It will be a relief for Alan Pardew who faced the prospect of losing both of his main strikers for up to six weeks in January and February especially with only Shola Ameobi and Spanish misfit Xisco the only other strikers at the club.
However it is not all good news for the Magpies as they will be without Ivory Coast enforcer Cheik Tiote for a few weeks but the recent arrival of Vurnon Anita which has strengthened an already solid central unit.
The African Cup of Nations decider between Senegal and Ivory Coast was called off in controversial circumstances on Saturday with Ivory Coast leading 2-0 and 6-2 on aggregate.
The decision to award the visitors a penalty in the 76th minute, which Didier Drogba converted after his opener, sparked crowd trouble.
Elsewhere in the Premier League, Arsenal will lose the services of Ivorian forward Gervinho while Manchester City face losing brothers Yaya and Kolo Toure to the tournament.
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Nigeria have qualified for the competition thanks to goals from John Obi Mikel and Victor Moses which secured a decisive 8-3 aggregate win over Liberia and West Ham will lose Modibo Maiga after he helped Mali qualify over Botswana.
Fulham’s Mahamadou Diarra and Queens Park Rangers midfielder Samba Diakite could also be involved in the 6 week tournament that takes place in South Africa at the beginning of 2013.
If your team is caught in a relegation dog fight, this Premier League Losers XI is filled with a fantastic array of players that will make your slump out of the top-flight all but certain. These footballers are the relegation specialists who move from club to club in an aid to win a relegation battle but rarely do.
Some have been described as having a relegation fetish, others are clearly omens of bad luck and misfortune and a few are simply not quite good enough to ever play for a team that could escape the perils of relegation.
This Losers XI is a fantastic mix of players past and present who in trying their hardest will inadvertently get what ever team they play for demoted out of the top-flight, and often in ceremonious style.
Click on Ben Thatcher to witness the unholy footballing alliance that is the Losers XI
Adrian and Joe Hart had a job-share at West Ham United during the 2017-18 Premier League campaign.
Indeed, Adrian appeared in 19 of the club’s 38 league fixtures, whilst the same can be said for on-loan Manchester City stopper Hart.
It was a very strange season for Adrian when considering that he started on the bench before winning a spot in December.
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The Spaniard then dropped out of the XI once again in early March before reclaiming the number one position for the final four matches of the season.
Adrian is contracted to West Ham until the end of the 2018-19 campaign, but it might well be that he does not fit into the plans of the club’s new boss.
The West Ham fans absolutely love the 31-year-old, however, and are desperate for him to sign a new contract.
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Adrian, who is valued at £4.5m by transfermarkt.co.uk, is closing on 150 appearances for the Hammers following a 2013 move from Real Betis, and it remains to be seen whether he reaches that landmark.
A selection of the Twitter reaction can be seen below:
The defending at the World Cup, coupled with Dejan Lovren’s performances, are making Liverpool fans appreciate the Croatia defender more than ever.
The 28-year-old has played a key role in his nation’s success so far in the tournament, helping keep clean sheets against Nigeria and Argentina.
After a difficult start to the 2017/18 season, the defender eventually flourished alongside January signing Virgil van Dijk, forging a partnership that was the backbone to Liverpool’s exciting second half of the campaign.
Reds fans now feel he is playing at the peak of his game at the summer tournament, impressing more than some illustrious names who have yet to hit their stride defensively in Russia.
With rumours of signings and names arriving at Anfield, many reckon that he does not need to be replaced over the next couple of months.
Should Liverpool be on the hunt for another centre-back, or should they focus on other areas of the team?
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Supporters took to Twitter to share their thought on Lovren’s summer so far…
Since Alan Pardew’s appointment in December 2010, Newcastle have been the Premier League’s most turbulent and unpredictable side. Throughout the last three seasons, the Magpies have finished in 5th, 16th and 10th accordingly, but their final standing in the 2013/14 campaign could have been far more impressive without a run of 13 defeats in their last 19 league fixtures.
Theories as to why Newcastle have struggled for consistency over the last three-and-a-half years are aplenty.
Could it be due to the frosty relationship between the fanbase and the boardroom? The general dislike towards owner Mike Ashley on Tyneside is well known. There have been numerous protests against his ownership throughout the last three years, with tensions further exacerbated by the renaming of St. James’s Park in 2011, allegedly for commercial purposes, as The Sports Direct Arena, and the rehiring of Joe Kinnear as Director of Football in summer 2013, which quickly exploded, via an ad hoc, unsanctioned interview with TalkSport, into a public relations disaster.
The ensuing negative atmosphere on the terraces has often trickled into Newcastle’s performances, and even when the results are promising, the Toon army’s distain towards the Sports mogul eternally bubbles under the surface.
Could it be down to the club’s incoherent transfer policy? From summer 2011 to January 2013, Newcastle spent £49.5million on inward transfers, bringing in 18 players, the vast majority of which were sourced from Ligue 1. That clearly had a debasing effect during the 2012/13 season, which saw the Magpies plummet from Europa League contention into the relegation zone, as the new faces at St. James’s struggled to adapt.
The next 18 months however saw the Tyneside club not make a single permanent first team signing – the only addition throughout the entirety of last season was Loic Remy on a year-long loan. Even after losing the talismanic Yohan Cabaye in January, Alan Pardew was not allowed to reinvest. The Frenchman’s £20million departure to PSG coincided with Newcastle’s 13 losses in 19, including a run of six consecutive league defeats, and the loyalty of the boardroom was once again called into question.
But following a summer window in which Newcastle have conducted some great business, in my opinion, the boardroom and the club’s transfer department can no longer be seen as determining causes of Newcastle’s continuous inconsistency.
This summer, the Magpies have splashed out £37.6million already – Ashley’s biggest spend since officially purchasing a majority share in 2007. And far from the multitude of risky additions from Ligue 1 made in January 2013, such as defenders Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa and Massaido Haidara, the St. James’s outfit are now attracting well-known, proven names that undisputedly raise the quality of the starting XI.
Right-back Daryl Janmaat for example, has been one of the best defenders in the Eredivisie over the past few seasons and was intrinsic to the Netherlands’ successes at the 2014 World Cup. Remy Cabella has been the top talent in Ligue 1, outside of PSG and Monaco, for two years straight and was previously eyed by Manchester United and Arsenal to name a few. Siem de Jong has been an ever-present member of the Ajax starting Xi since 2009 and boasts 44 career appearances in Europe.
Emmanuel Riviere has found goals regularly for St. Etinne, Toulouse and Monaco and at 24 years of age the potential for further growth is enormous. Jack Colback is a tried and tested Premier League midfielder that adds depth to Newcastle’s squad. And although Nottingham Forest duo Jamaal Lascelles and Karl Darlow will be sent back to the City Ground on loan next season, the £3.5million-apiece signings are considered to be amongst the hottest prospects in English football and are clearly wise investments.
Newcastle’s acquisitions are fantastically well-rounded and Ashley is allegedly prepared to spend even more. So neither transfer policy nor the actions of the boardroom can be used as justifiable excuses if the Magpies struggle next season.The only remaining question mark lingers over the head of Alan Pardew, a manager with more lives than a cat and less common sense than a pencil.
He was given the benefit of the doubt for Newcastle’s relegation-threatened 2012/13 campaign after administering a 5th place finish the season previous. But his role in that demise should not be ignored – there was a point in April 2013 when the Magpies had scored just once from 234 attempted corners, whilst conceded from a multitude through a lack of organisation at their own end. Last summer, Jonas Gutierrez criticised Pardew’s training sessions for lacking intensity. Clearly the former Charlton and West Ham boss had allowed standards to slip at Darsley park.
That may have been an underlying factor behind Newcastle’s sudden drop of form last season too. But it’s influence was not so devastating as Pardew picking up a seven-match ban – including a three-match stadia ban – for headbutting Hull City’s David Meylor. The Magpies went on to claim just three points in his absence; a 1-0 home victory against Crystal Palace.
Rather worryingly, it’s by no means the 53 year-old’s only touchline incident. Two months previous, he was caught on camera calling Manchester City’s Manuel Pellegrini ‘ an effing old lady-parts’, but obviously, much less politely.
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All the while, Newcastle’s philosophy has been largely centred around direct, disjointed football, often dependant on moments of individual quality rather than a collective team performance. These instances were first supplied by Demba Ba and Papiss Cisse, then Yohan Cabaye, and more recently Loic Remy. Whether Cabella, Riviere or de Jong have the quality to take up that mantle remains to be seen, but the danger lies in the Magpies’ successes under Pardew seemingly depending upon the form of a few key players, rather than the team as a whole.
Likewise, team selections have been consistently puzzling, the tactics and formations have been continually unimaginative and explanations for poor performances have verged upon Tony Blair-esque in their feel-good ambiguity.
Indeed, whilst the boardroom and the club’s transfer policy take a step towards redemption this summer, the jury is still out on Alan Pardew. His qualities as a manger have been open to debate for the last two seasons, and until now his reputation spared by factors seemingly out of his control.
Next year however, there can be no more excuses. The board have shown their faith with financial backing and their summer window has been executed to near perfection – the only omission being perhaps a striker who comes with goal-scoring guarantee. If Newcastle find themselves in another rut amid the coming campaign, only Alan Pardew can justifiably be held responsible.