As this frantic, deranged, ever-so-unpredictable Premier League season enters it’s final third, all the noise and all the attention is focused on it’s loftiest peak. The two Manchester clubs going at it as if it were 2012 all over again. And like 2012, Big Sam finds himself entwined with the ‘R’word.
If we were to make ourselves a brew, roll the years back to March of 2012, we’d find Sam Allardyce’s West Ham sat top of the Championship table, ahead of the chasing pack – Reading and Southampton by a whisker – on course for automatic promotion. The wheels fell off a bit thereafter as West Ham failed to win a single game in all of March and a key 4-2 drubbing at Upton Park saw them slip. They eventually finished 3rd behind their promotion rivals and had to go through the play-offs. They did what was required beating Ian Holloway’s Blackpool 2-1 at Wembley to reach the promised land. The Premiership.
9 years and 5 Premier League clubs later, as the swift Black Country breeze blows by the Hawthorns, Big Sam finds himself in an unprecedented situation. He’ll be feeling the deja vu, no doubt about that. He has seen it all before, he has done it all before. He’s been parachuted into worse situations but NEVER has he EVER failed to take his team over the dotted line above the bottom three of the Premier League table. Staying up on all four occasions. West Ham, the season after he brought them up, defied all odds securing a top-10 finish. Sunderland, from 18th to 15th keeping them up in his solitary season at the Stadium of Lights. Everton, very recently were dragged from 19th and made to finish 8th! His final day survival story with Crystal Palace really needs more than words to do itself justice. A Wilfred Zaha winner in the dying minutes against Hull moving them exactly a spot above the drop-zone. You had to be there.
Needless to say, the man has the necessary skill and the experience needed to pull off another miracle with West Brom. A look at the squad he inherited from Slaven Bilic tells us the components to work with are there. The essentials of an Allardyce blueprint, at the very least. A good ball playing centre half to ping one for the striker to chase or get in behind in Ajayi, good midfielders to run the channels and keep the ball in Gallagher, good wide players in Pereira and the recently acquired Snodgrass. A focal point in attack in the form of Diagne, fullbacks who’re more than capable defensively in Furlong and Ivanovic and a short stopper of very good Premier League pedigree in Sam Johnstone.
But when you delve deeper into the season so far, the teams ahead of them are significantly stronger propositions than the likes of Cardiff, Hull and Ipswich. Seasoned campaigners Burnley – the one mid-table side I wouldn’t put my money on to go down. Brighton – criminally underperfoming xG. Newcastle – hot and cold. Fulham – well drilled, defensively resolute. Which two teams should West Brom be looking to leave behind? Where are the six points that Fulham have on them gonna come from? How to turn 1 point into 3?
One thing’s for sure, this relegation battle promises a lot. And unlike a certain Yorkshire club which I’d loath to mention, West Brom are right in the middle of this race for survival with a very good shout of staying up. Big Sam is no stranger to the pressure and nerves involved and I have no doubt in my mind that he’d be trusting the same tried and tested bits that have bailed him out before. Defensive solidity, maintaining shape, attention to set pieces both offensively and defensively, playing the first pass forward and winning knockdowns and second balls.
This rather intriguing survival race kicks off Sunday with West Brom hosting Bruce’s Newcastle. With a 100% survival record on the line for Big Sam, I have a feeling this might just go down in the archives of Premier League relegation battles as one of the best ever. Watch out, lads.
Into Added Time 