Appiah is currently a free agent, obviously meaning there is no transfer fee, and he is avaliable to join any club at any time (outside the transfer window, for example). Many fans, including Arsenal supporters, were surprised and perhaps disappointed that Arsene Wenger did not bring in a much-needed midfielder on deadline day. But surely the signing fo the former Fenerbahce and Juventus man would put a smile back on the faces of Gunners fans?

Appiah is a strong, experienced 'box-to-box' midfielder; always willing to give 100%. Several people, myself included, have pointed out the lack of presence in the middle of the park. But Appiah could be that presence and his experience will certainly help the likes of Diaby, Denilson and Ramsey who are not quite ready for regular football yet. Not only is he solid defensively, but he can create chances and scores a few goals, too. Him and Fabregas could form a solid partnership, and, as previously said, the best thing is he won't cost us a penny.

For me, it's a no brainer. Please Arsene, make Appiah a gunner!

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Last year I seem to recall, Spurs were going to finish above Arsenal!

So, who do you think will finish top this season?

We're always on the look out for new writers. So if you fancy writing about your team, please get in touch.

So here are the results :

No more than £600 - 13%
£600 to £1000 - 32%
£1000 to £1250 - 13%
£1250 to £1500 - 8%
£1500 to £2000 - 5%
I'd pay anything to watch my team 29%

So whilst I'm not surprised that 32% wouldn't pay more than £1000, I'm surprised that 29% of you said you'd pay anything to watch your team.

So, while many ticket holders are thinking of giving up their season ticket, because for them it's becoming far too expensive, there will always be a large number of fans that are willing to pay, what ever the club demands!

We're always on the look out for new writers. So if you fancy writing about your team, please get in touch.

We're always on the look out for new writers. So if you fancy writing about your team, please get in touch.

Given the cost and how difficult it can be to get tickets to see a match, I think if you're luck enough to get to a game, then you should stay and see your team through the bitter end.

Anyway, if your guilty of not staying, what's your reason?

Beaten in the Carling Cup, knocked out of the Champions league, out of the FA cup and now struggling to take 3rd position, when there was a time when I thought we could take second.

It was an all round team display of some proportions, but Id like to make special mention of 3 players;

Darren Ambrose – a useful squad player under Curbishley, he seems to have grown a leg since Pardew’s arrival. Pacy, and with the uncanny knack of arriving late in the box he took his goal very well and set up Thomas for the 4th. That West Ham tried to slow him down by kicking him in the air for first 10 minutes also does him credit.

Darren Bent – some Addicks feared he might never grace the red and white again, might not be fit to play in this game and could even have lined up in claret and blue for it. He stayed, he played, he scored. He IS the answer to England’s striking problems as a foil for Rooney. His speed and strength are massively underestimated, and give him any sort of a chance he just doesn’t miss. More than that, he does it all with style, modesty and good humour. In all honesty he is likely to be on his way in the summer whether we stay up or not, but he is quite simply one of Charlton’s all time greats

Alexandre Song – must admit I was sceptical about his signing, particularly as some Arsenal forums seemed to be none too concerned about his departure (David/Martin any thoughts?) By all accounts he made a reasonable debut at Old Trafford, but yesterday he was outstanding as ball winner and playmaker. Here’s hoping that much like Jerome Thomas, he may find life at The Valley more to his liking than the Arsenal stiffs…

I felt a little sorry for West Ham and the brave souls who stayed to the end. With Boa Morte, Upson and Neill watching from the stands it was up to the old guard to make a game of it, but they were not even close. It just goes to show that buying your way out of trouble is not always that simple, and with Curbishley used to presiding over mid season slides, there doesnt seem to be much he can do about it. Desperate times at Upton Park…

As for Charlton, March is crucial; away at Watford, then home to Newcastle before another potential 6 pointer against Wigan at The Valley. It’s far from over…

Green was the player of the match thwarting Ronaldo on numerous occasions. I'm by no means a fan of Ronaldo so to see him with his hands on his head time and time again was a joy to see. However, he was United best player by far. Rooney didn't have the best of games, his final touch letting him down, which pretty much summed up United's play.

It was great to see Teddy Sheringham assist in the goal and against his old team. How much longer can he go on playing at this level?

So whilst West Ham are still in the bottom three, Curbishley must be pretty pleased with his new teams performance. Long may it continue!

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These players weren't owned by Corinthians but by MSI, the company Joorabchian headed until earlier this year. Although the details of the deals have not been disclosed it seems likely that they remain assets of MSI rather than West Ham.

This is unusual in the English game though apparently is more common in South America, but is it good for the English game?

If handled properly, it could well be. Fans of several Premiership teams have been delighted recently to get rich new owners who have ploughed large sums into the playing squad. Chelsea are the obvious example but more recently Portsmouth have bought almost a new first eleven and we're waiting to see what happens at Villa.

While this is great for those clubs, it is likely to widen the gap between the haves and have-nots. It makes it harder for the other clubs to compete because they don't have the financial might to buy the best players.

But the MSI model could ease this.

Feelings among Hammers fans (and even the manager himself judging by his post-match remarks on MOTD2) are mixed. Who wouldn't love to get a £100m injection of funds but could the deal damage the club you love in the long run?

A lot of the focus has been on where the money is coming from. Rumours abound that Media Sports Investments Ltd - the company Joorabchian headed until he resigned earlier this year - is bankrolled by Russian and Georgian billionaires.

Abramovich has been mentioned as an investor though there is no evidence of this. The main names bandied about are Boris Berezovsky and Badri Patarkatsishvili.

Berezovsky is a Russian oligarch who was granted political asylum in the UK. He is wanted on charges of fraud at Russian carmaker AvtoVAS, as well as being the main suspect in a major embezzlement case at Aeroflot. He is also under investigation having told Russian radio station Ekho Mosky that power in Russia could be taken by force and he was working on it. Not too friendly for someone who supposedly helped Putin to power.

And so it was a dissapointment, that both the surprise packages of the season failed to play to their full potential. Saying that however, Wigan dominated the first half and shared the second half 50/50 in terms of possesion. What really annoys is that West Ham had just two chances on target, and scored both of them. Other than that they didn't do anythig, it was smash and grab stuff from the Hammers

The only realy bit of quality from a game devoid of such, came from the right boot of Scotland international Lee Mchulloch (pictured), who scored yet another stunning goal from 30+ yards out deep into first half injury time. Other than that, it was smash and grab stuff from the Hammers

How ironic it was that West Ham would do the same, scoring deep into second half injury time this time, but from only 3 yards out at most.

In fact, it was the second time in a row that we have lost out to an injury time goal at home, Manchester United did the same. Saturday was also the sixth game we have now gone without a home victory, something our gaffer Paul Jewell knows must improve if we are to claim a UEFA Cup spot.

After the game, he said: "Our home form has not been great since the turn of the year and that is something that needs to be addressed for next season." He added: "We don't want the season to fizzle out, we still have a chance to get into Europe but we have to do better in certain areas"
One of those areas that has cost us again has been our lack of communication between our defenders and goalkeeper. Someone pointed out that in our defence we have four different nationalities. Chimbonda can't understand much english (But understands what have the day off means ironically), De Zeeuw and Scharner speak very good English and Leighton Baines speaks Scouse.

So for me this isn't the reason for our defensive lapses. Without taking anything away from West Ham, both of their goals came from mistakes from our defenders. Paul Scharner, who has been fantastic all season, seemed to be tackled by Harewood as he attempted to head the ball back to Mike Pollitt, and the second one was our failure to clear our lines.

If these little mistakes can be ironed out, and we start to put the ball in the back of the net, then Europe will be within our grasp.

Next up for us is Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park. This is make or break for us, if we lose it, then Europe i believe will be out of reach for this season. But if we win, we are right back in contention.

But when you consider that we would havetaken fourth from bottom at the start of the season, a top ten finish would still be thestuff of dreams for us.

To kick things off, the coach i was on set off late, and then got caught in traffice, but luckily our drivers had Sat Nav and knew a short cut. But unknown to us, half of the other coaches heading to Upton Park were not as lucky. By the time we had reached the end of the M6, we had dodged two accidents , one which happened just as we got off the M52 (and of which got closed straight after us) we got a phone call through telling us that half of the coaches had to turn back as by 7:00pm (just an hour before kick off), most of the coaches had still not hit the Birmingham toll bridge!

Why Nicky Hunt, without a competitive game in eons, was given a starting berth ahead of Joey O’Brien is a question only Sam can answer, but at least we can paint ‘scapegoat’ on his forehead again, something we’ve not been able to do in a long while. He tried to clear the eventual og with the wrong foot, and subsequently hoofed the ball aimlessly out of play for the rest of the match, though in his favour Nicky did get several good tackles in on the West Ham players, who whilst able to pass and move forward fairly fluently in the last third, are wusses when it comes to actually keeping the ball.

4-1. Who’d have thought that? I couldn’t believe it when we went 3-0 up at half-time. My mind went back to 1997, when Bolton played Swindon at this time of year, namely my birthday, and won 7-0 or something like that (the infamous match where the Swindon commentator was in floods of tears as yet another goal went in). I was hoping for 5-1 by the end, but I won’t be greedy, there’s another game against the Hammers on Wednesday night that could finish that job off… one hopes.