In praise of Ginge…

James Collins has had a fine season and is starting to look a bargain at £2.5 million after his performance at Anfield. The view of most Villa fans was "he always has a mistake in him" but after a couple of early season errors against Swansea and Sunderland he's been a consistently solid performer for the Irons. And he must have made more blocks than any other player. You wonder what Villa might have been like if they'd kept Collins. They have a decent forward line in Benteke and Weimann but a young defence that needs an experienced leader. With Collins they would surely have been a mid-table side and not lost so many leads. Credit to Sam Allardyce for convincing Paul Lambert that Collins was surplus to requirements.

Kitchen capers

It's not that we're injury prone — but Big Sam Allardyce has injured himself in a fight with his kitchen, reports the Sun. At Anfield Big Sam was sporting four stitches on his brow and a black eye after apparently falling out with a marble worktop. "I'd say the worktop won hands down," quipped Allardyce. Perhaps he was trying to lob something in the mixer with only four minutes left on his oven timer? And let's hope he claimed for a penalty. Kitchens can be dangerous places for footballers. In the 1980s Wimbledon's Dave Beasant famously injured himself by dropping a bottle of salad cream on his foot… Rangers' Kirk Broadfoot was scalded by exploding poached eggs that he was microwaving, Sunderland's Kevin Kyle scalded his testicles heating up hot water for his baby's milk and Barnsley's Darren Bernard managed to injure himself slipping on his new puppy's pool of wee on the kitchen floor.

Anfield silenced

Liverpool 0 West Ham 0

"Gary O'Neil was simply phenomenal… this West Ham defence has been immense…" It's not often you hear that from the Radio London commentary team. Sounds like we had some towering performances from O'Neil, Tomkins and Collins while Jarvis had a fine second half. Plus a Collison header cleared off the line. A very unexpected point and this could be the point that secures our Premier League future.

Looking at MOTD2 we could have won it. Diame made a brilliant run beating five players only to shoot over the bar, while we should have had a penalty for Enrique's kick on Tomkins and Carlton Cole could have scored if he'd had a better first touch after a clear sight of goal. On the other hand, they had a goal correctly disallowed, Gerrard had a decent shout for a penalty and we were lucky when Suarez rolled the ball right across our line and past the post. Good to see James Collins get some praise from Alan Hansen too. Not often we get anything at Anfield. Irons!

Outsider to win?

Well, if Auroras Encore can win the Grand National at 66-1 then surely West Ham can beat Liverpool at Anfield for the first time in 50 years. Though to be honest, I won't be rushing out to the bookies just yet... not unless Liverpool have 11 unseated riders.

Sam's Labour of love

Now this really is a controversial political statement from a Premier League boss. In yesterday's Evening Standard Sam Allardyce writes, "I'm a Labour man and one of my good friends in Alastair Campbell. If your beliefs are at all controversial it's best to keep them to yourself because they are always likely to haunt you, particularly in the politically correct world we live in today." Presumably Sam would like to see more dodgy dossiers on opponents, lots of centre-left attacks, Balls get in the (dispatch) box as quickly as possible and Ed Miliband play a bit more in the style of Andy Carroll.

Gary looks like a player

There's been a lot of praise, and rightly so, for Andy Carroll since the WBA win, but the biggest revelation was the performance of Gary O'Neil. He had a decent game against Spurs, played well shielding the defence against Stoke and had his best game for the club against West Brom. I thought Noble being out would be a real loss, but O'Neil looks much more comfortable in a central midfield role. Seems like we've been playing him in the wrong position out wide. He did the simple things well against Albion, but also produced a great turn in one move and a fine dipping shot for his goal. His contract runs out in the summer and he's playing like he wants a new deal. He might be 30 in May, but O'Neil has plenty of experience at Portsmouth and Middlesbrough, doesn't complain when he's on the bench and on this form deserves a contract.

They've got Di Canio…

So Paolo Di Canio has made his usual low-key start to life at Sunderland. There's a lengthy interview with Di Canio in my 2002 book West Ham Irons in the Soul, still available on Kindle, where he discusses his eccentric, if not all stations to Barking, political views. He's very insistent that he's not a racist and claims that gay people, women, yellow and black people are all welcome round at his gaff. PDC denies being a fascist or "fan of Mussolini", though he does claim that Mussolini was "a true nationalist" and claims that the media misinterpreted his views as a "polemic". Not sure if Neil Ruddock, John Moncur and co would ever have used the word 'polemic' in their dressing room banter… Di Canio also reflects on travelling on the London Underground to Chigwell and controversially claims that he hasn't tried the cuisine in Ken's Cafe. Oh and the book also has his thoughts on piranah fish...