Like most West Brom fans this week, I'm still basking in "shock of the season" glory. But I've been an Albion supporter for more years than I care to count, and so a bit like Kevin Federline during his marriage to Britney Spears, I'm wondering when the other shoe will drop. Needless to say, that could happen this weekend when long-time EPL rivals Bolton Wanderers visit the Hawthorns.
Unlike the Gunners, the Trotters are the type of team that the Albion have to beat on a regular basis to achieve the nirvana of mid-table Premiership mediocrity. So this is a critical game. Let's face it, going to the ball is terrific, but it's really only fun being Cinderella when the EPL prince puts the glass boot on your foot proclaiming a long-term commitment.
Few managers know this better than Bolton boss Owen Coyle. This time last year, he was winning plaudits for Burnley's improbable fast start to the EPL season, one that included home wins over Manchester United, Everton and Sunderland before the end of September. But fast starts can fizzle even quicker. When the leaves fell last autumn, the Clarets began falling down the table as well, and ultimately went the way of so many Albion EPL teams through the years -- down through the relegation trapdoor after one season.
Coyle, of course, joined Bolton in January, turned the team around and secured EPL play for another season at the Reebok. And he seems well on the way to building on that achievement. The day after the Albion upended Arsenal last week (mentioning this match could rapidly become a drinking game, but I offer no apologies), Bolton almost turned over Manchester United. More remarkable than the 2-2 score was the skillful possession game of the Wanderers. Under Coyle, "Route One" has taken an exit ramp detour.
One of the pillars of the new Bolton passing game is U.S. international Stuart Holden. He's been in Coyle's starting XI for every EPL game this season. On Thursday, Bolton announced that the former Houston Dynamo midfielder had signed a contract extension through 2012-13. Not bad for a player who signed a short-term contract in this year's January transfer window and then missed most of Bolton's stretch run after Nigel De Jong broke Holden's leg in the U.S.-Netherlands game on March 3.
While most of the British media and football public continue to underestimate American players in general and Major League Soccer in particular, Coyle clearly knew what he had in Holden. It's a pity that MLS couldn't have found some designated player money for him, but his success with Bolton can only help U.S. soccer and other MLS players potentially looking to move across the pond.
Holden is a story to watch this season. He's overcome some tough breaks, literally and figuratively, and if a relatively unheralded MLS alumni becomes an EPL fixture, maybe folks on both sides of the Atlantic will realize that soccer has gained traction in America, and is much more than a "kick in the grass." (I should note that just this week I've seen kids wearing Juventus and Manchester United replica jerseys in Cooperstown, N.Y., the so-called birthplace of baseball.)
Talking about woes, Holden, unlike his Albion opposition this week, has suffered the indignity of losing at the Emirates this season. Since that 4-1 pounding on Sept. 11, the Trotters have picked up points at Aston Villa and home to Manchester United. And that's the formula for EPL survival: keep grinding, keep picking up points.
That's the lesson West Brom's manager Roberto Di Matteo and his Emirates heroes need to learn this time around. In order to avoid a "boing, boing" fate again, the Baggies can help themselves enormously by building on that win at Arsenal and bouncing Bolton as well.