Alan Irvine battles through West Brom storm

As he prepares for just the fifth Premier League game of his West Brom reign, a beleaguered Alan Irvine is already staring at signs of a crisis.

The Baggies boss has poor results to deal with alongside criticism of his captain, pressure on his own position and even social media rumours of a bust-up in the dressing room.

In the build-up to tomorrow's trip to Tottenham, Irvine dealt with all of the issues in a typically forthright manner.

He gave Chris Brunt his unequivocal support, backed himself to make a go of the biggest assignment of his career and rubbished stories of unrest in the camp with a smile and a joke.

But Irvine knows only one response can prevent the mounting criticism of him and his players, and that involved turning around their fortunes on the field.

"That's the nature of the job," said a philosophical Irvine. "Anyone who's down the bottom end of the table is going to be in that position where they're under pressure.

"But it's four games in and it can change very quickly.

"I see Paul Lambert's been given a new contract and, if I remember rightly, he was under a great deal of pressure last season and gone through some difficult times.

"Results don't help, that's for sure. Until we start winning games then it will be difficult for me. All I can say is that I believe we will get this right.

"The players are great to work with. It's a pleasure to work with them on a daily basis.

"They are very open to the work we're doing on the training ground and I feel really confident with the group of players we've got here and the work we'll do that we'll get good results.

"I'm bearing up fine. I've got a fantastic squad, I work in great surroundings and I work with a group of great people and I enjoy my job.

"I don't enjoy it when we give away goals or lose games but I enjoy my job. I've thrown myself into it as I do in any job.

"I do an awful lot of hours, travelling and thinking and I'm working really hard, along with anybody else, to get this right and I believe we will get it right."

While the bulk of last weekend's criticism was reserved for Irvine, Brunt copped a fair share of his own.

The midfielder, a regular target for supporters' frustrations in recent times, heard ironic cheers for an Irvine substitution increase in volume when his number was displayed during the 2-0 defeat by Everton at The Hawthorns.

The Northern Ireland international has heard it all before, and Irvine has dismissed the idea of taking his skipper out of the firing line after the two men spoke this week.

Irvine said: "I spoke to him when we came back in earlier in the week and said 'how are you?'

"He said 'I'm fine' and that was it. He's a Premier League player and if you're a Premier League player you've got to deal with setbacks.

"The biggest difference between players in the Premier League and players in League One is in the head.

"You've got to be resilient and able to bounce back from setbacks and deal with difficult times.

"Chris is a Premier League player. He's been that for a long time and will continue to be that and one of the qualities he has is mental toughness.

"I think it would really bad management if I jumped on Chris and punished him in any way by leaving him out.

"He's an important player here and he wants to play at his best, but like any other player he can't always play at his best."

Inevitably, a poor start to the season prompted rumours, too, of dressing-room unrest around the defeat to the Toffees.

Twitter and Facebook carried stories of a supposed bust-up with Boaz Myhill, Joleon Lescott and Stephane Sessegnon cited in wildly-varying versions of events.