THESE are edgy times down the East End. Nothing in the bank, a new manager high on idylls trying to coax beautiful football from a team low on confidence and a division tightening by the weekend. West Ham began the day two points off the bottom two but still within touching distance of respectability. They ended it all square with Portsmouth, a club also in the grip of uncertainty and change.

A second point from the last seven games — and a first clean sheet in 25 — was a small mercy as West Ham still had Robert Green to thank for a draw against a Portsmouth side intent for large periods on survival. The West Ham goalkeeper saved three times from Jermain Defoe, twice in three minutes just after half-time, and blocked another good effort with his legs when Portsmouth produced a rare flourish in the closing minutes. “On another day, Jermain gets a hat-trick,” said Tony Adams, the Portsmouth manager. “I think he was trying too hard.”

Predictably, the former West Ham striker was jeered at every turn — in contrast to the warm welcome accorded another Upton Park old boy, David James — and his missed chances were greeted with mirth, anything to disguise the truth that West Ham could easily have lost.

With the financial future so bleak and a fire sale in the January transfer window a real threat, the mid-table anonymity of last year might seem like the promised land by the end of this season, which is part of the problem. West Ham, a club with a proud history, have high expectations, too high on present form.

THE FORMER Newcastle United centre-half Titus Bramble is a laughing stock on Tyneside no more; instead he will be spoken of through gritted teeth as he silenced growing talk of the Newcastle revival with an equaliser a minute from the end, which was the least his Wigan side deserved.

Newcastle appeared to be heading for an undeserved three points thanks to second-half goals from Michael Owen and Obafemi Martins, but the team were still patting each other on the back when Bramble headed the equaliser.

Steve Bruce will have been delighted with his players for the fightback after they had beeen under the cosh for most of the second half as a result of the harsh sending-off of defender Emmerson Boyce.

Newcastle fans had been licking their lips at the prospect of a third successive home win after the Wigan team was announced and neither Emile Heskey nor Amr Zaki was on the teamsheet. The question was where Wigan would get a goal without their two most important players and within three minutes of the start we had an answer. Maynor Figueroa squared the ball to Olivier Kapo and with the Newcastle defence backing off, Kapo moved the ball on to Ryan Taylor ,whose shot looped over Shay Given.

FORGET that cliche about the mark of champions being the ability to play badly and win. What defines successful sides is a quality Liverpool exuded yesterday: efficiency. At a stadium that had been an abattoir for their title hopes in previous seasons, they won comfortably, decisively. No frills, no fuss. The top of the table no longer seems a steepling peak to Rafael Benitez and his men. “We’re really pleased to be there,” Benitez said, smiling, where once his instinct would have been to shoot down title talk.

There was only one moment when the outcome seemed in doubt. It came at a corner in first-half stoppage time when Rob Styles disallowed a headed goal from Gary Cahill, deciding that Kevin Nolan had blocked Pepe Reina in his six-yard box. “He gave a ridiculous decision against us at Old Trafford and this was another mistake,” said Bolton manager Gary Megson, but it just seemed one of those decisions that some officials would give, others not. Otherwise Liverpool were smoothly in control, their defensive play sound, their midfield passing sweet.

Inconsistency in forward areas is the remaining weakness that needs eradicating before they can be branded, definitively, the real deal. As Benitez noted, his side ended up losing at Tottenham after missing easy chances at 1-0, just as happened here. Styles’s call would have mattered less had Robbie Keane completed the straightforward task of sidefooting home Dirk Kuyt’s centre from five yards out, and Steven Gerrard could not convert in a similar situation before redeeming himself with a diving header from Fernando Torres’s exquisite cross, to seal the game at 2-0.

Ricardo Gardner could have scored twice for Bolton, but the “missed sitters” tally was at least 4-2 in Liverpool’s favour. Without having to be brilliant, they were just better than Bolton. It has taken until Benitez’s fifth season for Liverpool to acquire the same sureness in Premier League games that they have always had under him in Europe. The stats underline his remark that “we knew before what kind of game to expect and we knew how to play”. Liverpool, in other words, know how to win. Their best Premier League points total is 82, when coming third in 2005-06. They are now on course for 94 points — a tally good enough to win the competition in all of its 16 seasons except one.

“LA, LA, LA, LA, LA, LA, Keano” the chorus from the visiting faithful reverberated around the stadium, to the tune of Hey Jude. Victory was Sunderland’s thanks to a remarkable second-half revival, which propelled them into the mid-table of this League of the Absurd and suddenly the Sunderland manager’s status as a cult hero and fixture at the Stadium of Light was reconfirmed.

Yet what a difference a day makes. On Friday morning Roy Keane had been the subject of feverish speculation on radio that he was about to be sacked, or, more likely, in an act more typical of this complex character, walk out. His team had suffered four successive defeats, and that, we must bear in mind, defines a crisis in northeast football terms, no matter the quality of Sunderland’s football this season. With Keane, not so long ago touted as a likely successor to Sir Alex Ferguson, still having failed to sign a contract extension, rumours were rife.

By yesterday afternoon the visitors’ coach duly arrived with Keane on board. By the end of an impassioned encounter in which Sunderland’s triumph was narrowly merited, Keane said: “It’s all rumours. And I don’t answer to them. I’d be here all night. It’s nonsense. I just took it that people were bored.” He was asked, wouldn’t there be less uncertainty about his tenure if he signed a new contract? “I don’t think my contract is anyone’s business other than for myself and Niall. And we’re the most relaxed people in the world about it.”

Even so, before the game it was natural to wonder what the effect would be of another setback. At the interval there appeared every possibility of that. Chris Samba had just scored with a header from Morten Gamst Pedersen’s corner in stoppage time. In truth, though, it was poor reward for a half of Rovers domination. Stephen Warnock missed an opening before Roque Santa Cruz headed against the bar. Then Pedersen blistered Marton Fulop’s hands with a venomous free kick. The goalkeeper also saved superbly from Keith Andrews’ free kick.