Pardew: 'My squad as good as big three'

Loopy West Ham boss Alan Pardew has made the extraordinary claim that his squad is a match for Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United.

Pardew's team is one of the favourites for relegation from the Premiership and boasts such stars as Tomas Repka and Bobby Zamora, but in his head they are on a par with the three favourites for the title.

Pardew said: "I have to focus on the players we have here now who I rate as good a squad as even Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal in most respects.

"We are back in the top division and all the players have their tails up. We don't want anything at the moment to take the edge off that.''

It is interesting to note that that Pardew left Liverpool out of the group he compares his squad too. Of course even he isn't so loopy to think his team were on par with the Champions of Europe. Now if only Arsene, Jose and Ferg can get the message!