King Athelstan

Oh my. What's that I hear on the horizon? What's that sound? A slow, distant grumbling, blasting through Westfield Shoppin Center at full speed. The wind carries the music with it, blowing through Stratford, up to the stadium and filling it completely. There are no fans there, but the fans blow the bubbles so high. And just like that, I can make out the distand roar. Headphones? Plugged in. Volume? Turned up. Oh yes, it's Champions League time.

After 31 games played, we're fourth and one point off of third. What? How could West bloody Ham climb their way to the very top after almost relegation last season? I don't know all the answers either, but I know that this is happening. There's 7 games left of the season. 7 games where anything can happen. We have some tough games left, but so does our opposition. However, that doesn't mean that this will be a cakewalk.

Some might remember an earlier post, where I complained about the lack of depth in our suqad. And that lack of depth is starting to show. Our last couple of games we've only barely scraped by. We were 3-0 up against Arsenal, and drew 3-3. We were 3-0 up against Wolves, and barely held on to win 3-2. We were 3-0 up against Leicester last weekend, had a 4th ruled off for offside, and then only by the smallest of margins managed to latch on to a 3-2 win. So, let's go through our injury list:

100% of our strikers are injured. That means 1 person by the way, Antonio the absolute powerhouse.
Declan Rice is our biggest star, best player and linked to numerous big-shot clubs for money only the Bank of England has. He's the one that keeps it all together. And guess what? Got himself injured on international duty, playing Albania I think. Our replacement for him is Mark Noble, the club legend and Mr. West Ham himself. However, they aren't the same type of player, and Noble is starting to feel his age. Him stepping up now is crucial for any hope of Europe, and thankfully for the past two games he's really stepped up, though he was subbed of after injury last game. Hopefully nothing serious, because we have literally no replacement.
Angelo Ogbonna is the core in defence, our only consistantly good player there. He's been out for weeks, leaving a shaky defence in its place. His leadership and calm is badly needed at a time like this, and hopefully he'll be back soon.
Creswell was injured against Leicester, and before this was one of the top assisters in the league. He's been thriving in a LCB role with Masuaku playing LB/LM outside him, with Cresswells vision and crossing complementing Masuakus dribbling and speed so that they together form 1 competent defender.

Not all is doom and gloom, some players have stepped up their game lately.
Pablo Fornals, a pacy hard-working midfielder/winger hybrid who has proper graft and has become one of my favourite players came back from injury a couple of games ago, and will be vital.
Arthur Masuaku, a legend for the ShedHeads group is back from injury. However, he needs Cresswell by his side to have any sort of defensive ability. And guess what, Cress is out. Our left side is in danger...
Bowen has had a weak spell these last couple of months with some poor decision-making, but he's been doing great up front, rotating with Fornals and Lingard. Hopefully this will carry on

And of course our star loanee, JLingz himself. Cast out by Manu he found a new home in London. Ridiculed by all, booted from England, the butt of all jokes. But look at him now: He's played 9 matches, and has 8 goals and 3 assists to show for it. The absolute legend, the absolute madman. He's been incredible, and will hopefully continue to be so for the rest of the season.
And look at those celebrations


And so, we can see the end on the horizon. But what end? Champions League, Europa League, or mid-table? Who knows, but I know that my dreams are flying high right now.

To finish off this post, I'll leave you with an old tweet from 2016 by one of the co-owners. For the first time since it was posted, and in spite of what the owners have done, not because of them, it might actually seem possible.