So far this Premier League season has been wierd. You might be saying to yourself "well now that's an understatement" and to be honest I'd probably agree with you. With more or less the whole bottom half of the table consumed in a battle for survival including premiership oldboys such as Tottenham Hotspur, Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle United, the richest club in the world football along with newbies such as Stoke and West Brom, what a climax we should be in for. Yet, in this post I want to focus on the two teams who are currently sitting in 7th and 8th: Wigan Athletic and West Ham United. Whilst Wigan have held Liverpool twice this season and only conceded 8 in their last 11 (impressive when you consider they're joint third best in the league in that respect), the Hammers are unbeaten in 7 in all competitions with a forward in the shape of Carlton Cole who's scored 5 in his last 5.
Where are all the plaudits?? Cole looked like he was a player who was down and out not too long ago yet look at him now. 10 goals in 22 appearances so far this season seems not bad to me, not bad at all. We can only salute the man-management skills of Gianfranco Zola here in making the big striker believe in his own ability. There was always something there- why do you think Claudio Ranieri's Juventus recently made an inquiry about his availability? Ranieri groomed Carlton Cole at Chelsea and knows him better than most; moreover this suggests that the striker's recent run of form has not gone unnoticed on the continent. With Craig Bellamy gone and Dean Ashton still injured, on current form Carlton Cole looks more than capable of, to quote Rio Ferdinand, "taking up the mantlepiece" up front.
Although Wigan have lost two key players in Wilson Palacios and Emile Heskey, Mido's loan deal may be a smart piece of business by Steve Bruce. I reckon that the temperamental striker will discover a good understanding between himself and his fellow Egyptian, Amr Zaki, up front. In terms of the back 4, a couple of years ago every football fan loved to slate Titus Bramble and rightly so. His time at Newcastle will never be favourably remembered yet look at how he has turned things around with some stunning performances at the back alongside the Austrian hustler, Paul Scharner.
Both these two sides could be said to have doubtful long term futures. West Ham's Icelandic owners are in big trouble and you only have to wonder to what extent the Hammers will sell sell sell in the summer. Wigan are faced with the fact that they simply cannot compete financially with the big teams in the league and in Europe. They couldn't argue with Aston Villa and moreover will struggle to repel Real Madrid if they come in for Antonio Valencia. Dave Whelan is no Sheik Mansour but he remains one of the best owners in the country because more than anything, he strikes me as a realist who knows what Wigan can achieve but is not for one minute going to ascend into 'cloud cuckoo land'.
In short, let's give these two sides the credit they deserve. Let's applaud the management skills of Zola and Bruce and fundamentally let's take our hats off to Cole and Bramble- two players who would have been in our worst premiership 11s a few years ago and now I bet they grace a fair number of Fantasy Football sides. As ever, I'd be interested to hear your thoughts.
I feel you might be a little premature in your praise of Mido. Every club he has been at, we have have seen him flop. In my opinion, he is a mediocre player, and does not replace the physical presence of Heskey that Wigan used to their advantage so well.
I do agree with your points about Steve Bruce though. Although he wasn't particularly successful at Huddersfield or Crystal Palace, he has shown his credentials at Birmingham (even if they did get relegated, I would still argue that he did the best job that he could), and even more so at Wigan.