West Ham could be relegated (even sooner than you expected)

West Ham could be thrown out of the Premier League or docked points over the always-a-little-too-murky transfers of Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano to Upton Park. This footballing equivalent of putting down a lame horse relates to an investigation into whether the Argentine duo are correctly registered because of the well-documented third-party ownership of Media Sports Investment which was central to the deal.

It is difficult to see how the Hammers could avoid relegation even without this latest saga, but their fans must be wondering how things can change so much in six months. In August the capture of Tevezcherano was heralded as a stroke of genius, the club was still revelling in nearly winning the FA Cup and Alan Pardew was a legend. Now the Argentine pair have flopped, last season's performance is looking like a fluke and Pardew is at Charlton handing out 4-0 spankings to his old club.

Over to Hammers hero Tony Cottee who has been doing the maths for the Telegraph. He said: "The biggest problem they have is that they are on 20 points and to stay up they need to get around 38. If you work on that basis, that's six more wins. There are 10 games left, and three of them are against Chelsea at home, and Arsenal and Manchester United away.

"Then we're saying they have to win six of the other seven. And who are they against? Bolton, Blackburn, Sheffield United, Tottenham, Everton, Middlesbrough, Wigan. They aren't easy games either. The goal difference is awful: they've got the worst defence and the worst goalscoring record. I would like to be optimistic, but it is going to take a superhuman effort."

Looking pretty bleak, I reckon. [Rob Parker]