By Myles Palmer

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TWO AWAY GAMES NEXT, both winnable.

Promoted West Ham have been scoring plenty of goals, especially beefy centre forward Marlon Harewood, but Ajax are having a dodgy time under coach Danny Blind.

Promoted clubs enjoy a surprise factor before Xmas, and badly need to accumulate points, especially in home games.

There should be a gap in class between West Ham and Arsenal, even without Pires and Henry.

It's marvellous that Campbell and Gilberto have scored goals with headers from set-pieces, but Reyes and van Persie need to start scoring in open play and Upton Park is the place to do it.

Midfield dynamo Nigel Reo-Coker is one of the players of the moment, so it will be interesting to see what he can do against one of England's best teams.

GILBERTO has re-signed till 2009, which is great for stability.

I've met Gilberto and a pal has met him several times. He is a really good guy and his experience is vital right now.

LAST WEEK AJAX lost 4-2 at AZ Alkmaar, who are now bossed by Louis Van Gaal.

Wesley Sneijder scored two stunning goals and looks like a winger Arsenal should sign next summer : young, compact, constructive, very two-footed.

But the defence looks non-existent.

A few more results like that and Danny Blind, their captain and centreback under van Gaal, could go the same way as Didier Deschamps, who resigned from Monaco last week.

Ajax sold Ibrahimovic to Juventus, but have not been able to sign a good centre forward to replace him

Sneijder scored again in a 2-2 draw with Den Haag on Wednesday.

Ajax have only seven points from five matches and are now eight points behind Alkmaar, who have maximum points.

Feyenoord and RKC Waalwijk also have 15 points from five games.

So this may not be the ideal time to play West Ham, but it is a good time to play Ajax.

REAL MADRID are a bit like Arsenal right now, strugging to score in open play.

Two killer balls from Beckham last night, a free-kick and a corner, gave headed goals to Robinho and Raul, who scored from a Ronaldo pass in between.

Luckless Jonathan Woodgate, rusty after 17 months without playing for his new club, scored an own goal by trying to head away a fierce shot.

He was then sent off for a second yellow card.

Still, for him it was great to be back.

He won't take that disaster to heart because his team beat Bilbao 3-1 to take the pressure off coach Luxemburgo.

I'M NOW GOING downstairs to see if our vicious, rabid, punitive media is still crucifying Kate Moss.

They have declared this to be Cocaine Kate week.

A pretty young girl has done something naughty, so they have to crucify her.

It's like the Mick Jagger arrest in the Sixties, when The Times wrote a famous editorial about using a wheel to break a butterfly.

ON SECOND THOUGHTS, that's a bad analogy. In the Sixties the law wanted to break a butterfly on a wheel.

Forty years later it is the tabloids who do it to sell papers.

Clearly, London was a better place in the Sixties.

And the Times was a much better paper.Before Murdoch.

September 23rd 2005

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