Well… I was hoping for at least three points for the Hammers over the holidays and already they have four. I didn’t dare hope for a home win against Man Utd., but that’s what we got.

All together it was quite a good day for the family’s teams, with Crawley Town getting a 5-1 away win and Spurs putting 6 past Reading. That didn’t do much for me, but Jayne and the kids were happy with it. (Its encouraging to see that Spurs’ defence is still leaking goals though) A shame that Southend and Brighton both lost, but you can’t have everything can you?

West Ham now have Portsmouth and Blackburn in their sights, but have to play at the Emirates next – and then the transfer window opens. Perhaps we will get rid of a few of those players who we have not been using, (Quashie? Boa Morte?) and see if any of those rumours about chasing Nicky Shorey turn out to be true.

There was an interesting article in the Guardian the other day about betting on football which had some calculations based on regression to the mean. I think the gist was that teams which over- or under-achieve in the first half of the season compensate after the holidays. I reckon that means Man City and Portsmouth, maybe Blackburn and Villa too will get fewer points in the second half of the season and (unfortunately) Spurs will pick up a bit. With any luck Fulham will do better too.

I am quietly confident about West Ham’s chances…