Time almost up for drop-bound West Ham
West Ham suffered their fifth successive loss away to Manchester City on Sunday, meaning that they head into their final three games bottom of the Premier League and on their worst run of the entire campaign.
There was encouragement in defeat for the Irons as they recovered from a dreadful opening 15 minutes to challenge for a point but any optimism heading into their fixtures with bottom-half rivals Blackburn, Wigan and Sunderland has surely been flushed away by the latest bout of internal unrest.
David Sullivan and his fellow board members all opted to give the match a miss, and while the merits of such a decision are open to debate, his eagerness to blame the players for his no show and what could be perceived as a slight at the club's travelling support won't do anything to help morale.
He said: "Watching our poor away performances week after week, and not having the ability to influence things, has impacted on us. We only took 1,100 supporters. Like us, the bulk of the West Ham United supporters preferred to watch it on TV. We'll be at Wigan, as will 4,500 supporters."
Avram Grant has admitted that he believes anything less than seven points from his side's closing encounters will see them relegated and as they enter that period having failed to win any of their last six, it's no surprise that the east Londoners are in to [1.4] to go down.
Optimists will point to the fact that they closed 2006-07 with four straight victories as a reason to maintain belief yet on that occasion they had already demonstrated an improvement in form prior to the late rally, which intriguingly also featured a triumph at the home of fellow strugglers Wigan.
Think West Ham will still survive? They can be laid for the drop at [1.41]...
Published: 3 May 2011
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