No let up in the run of games now as the brakes are off in the rollercoaster season finale that will see either West Ham, Tottenham or Nottingham Forest ejected from the elite of English football.
Leeds appear – at least to the bookies’ eyes – to have made good their escape with now just an 8% chance of finishing in the bottom three according to OPTA. I wouldn’t be so sure.. there’s a couple of ‘relegation derbies’ which could yet impact their escape plans.
Nuno – laying ghosts to rest after thrashing former club Wolves and leapfrogging Spurs: Now ‘Forest are in his sights
The irony of Nuno Espírito Santo working feverishly to save West Ham United at the expense of one of his former clubs has certainly not been lost on Kat Lucas, writing in the inews.
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She claims:”
Suggesting that Nuno’s former relationship with both Tottenham and Forest is driving the Portuguese head coach forward in some kind of football driven revenge:
“Nuno has become an enigmatic figure at the heart of the battle for survival, the ghosts of his past dissipating at every turn. In Wolves, he gave one former club an unsympathetic shove towards the drop – in Spurs, he nudged another into mortal peril.
It is not only that he has organised a defence which looked unsalvageable under Graham Potter. The whole attitude has changed…The Hammers are ultimately showing enough signs of why they are still in with a fighting chance.
Indeed. However anyone who saw Nottingham Forest’s spirited performance against Aston Villa and Tottenham’s industrious but ultimately fruitless attempts to score during ninety minutes plus eleven against Sunderland will realise the fine margins that will determine this season’s outcome. And it isn’t quite done and dusted yet.
Under the radar for Hammers-watchers, Crystal Palace, our next opponents, dispatched Newcastle United 2-1 after going behind: It might suggest the game at Selhurst Park next Monday night might be more than just a formality. Plenty of time to worry about that one next weekend. Enough, for now, to enjoy how the table looks today.