Tottenham 4 West Ham 0Alan Curbishley's features have long been an incongruous combination of the boyish and the crumpled. He looks like a middle-aged actor playing an adolescent. These days, however, he is more worried about being typecast as a losing manager.
Consecutive 4-0 defeats by Liverpool and Chelsea was followed yesterday by another beating by the same scoreline at the hands of a Spurs side who showed little sign of being distracted by Wednesday's Uefa Cup second-leg tie against PSV.
West Ham have conceded 12 goals and scored none in three matches in nine days. It is the sort of slump Charlton supporters used to associate with Curbishley during his generally impressive career at The Valley.
It would be harsh to say his job at Upton Park is on the line. Last season he pulled them out of a steep dive towards relegation and before yesterday's match the club had taken 40 points from 28 games, double the number that had been won from the same number of matches last season.
If they fail to win another point they are probably safe from relegation. But the worry about Curbishley runs deeper than the desperate results of the past week. He has accumulated a large squad of long-toothed players and too many of them spend too much time in the treatment room.
When those players return from injury they are not match fit and, more worrying, they tend to get injured again. Yesterday Scott Parker, who can be pivotal in midfield, made his first appearance since December while Bobby Zamora started a game for the first time since August. Both were horribly off the pace. The questionable quality of Curbishley's purchases is a more considerable concern than the recent run of results.
There was also a problem yesterday with Luis Boa Morte who was sent off for the seventh time in English football for wild lunges at Tom Huddlestone and, just before half-time, Aaron Lennon.
"We've had a dreadful week," said Curbishley afterwards. "We've managed to shoot our goal difference to pieces. We've been good, defensively, all season and in one week that's been blown apart."
The match was in effect over in 10 minutes after two almost identical goals from Dimitar Berbatov. The first came in the eighth minute when Huddlestone took a free-kick deep on the right and floated it on to the Bulgarian striker's head. The second came two minutes later when Huddlestone, this time on the left, took another free-kick and Berbatov rose to beat Robert Green on his right side with another precisely directed header. Anton Ferdinand was the forward's marker but the pair were estranged from each other like sulking lovers.
When Pascal Chimbonda crossed from the left and Lennon dummied, Gilberto made it 3-0 just before the end of normal time and in the minutes added on Darren Bent made it 4-0 from Alan Hutton's cross.
"The sending-off killed us off a bit," said Curbishley. "I knew Luis was on thin ice but he's a very experienced player and he only had to get through to half-time. What could go wrong for us is going wrong for us at the moment. We've got to regroup and get on with it. Our aim is to finish in the top half and as high up as we can and we can still do that.
"We came into this game after two wallopings and I asked for a bit more aggression and application. We've let ourselves down.
"I've invested in players but I've not had them playing and it's there for everybody to see - Parker, Zamora, Kieron Dyer, Craig Bellamy and Julien Faubert have played 20 games between them. I can't rotate or rest players."
Curbishley certainly cannot rest himself.
