Chelsea 0 West Ham 1
By Hugh Southon
So where do you start?
O with David Martin keeping a clean sheet on his Irons debut and ending the game – like me – in tears?
O with Aaron Cresswell’s perfect goal?
O with Declan’s inspired performance?
O with a performance of guts and courage from each of them?
O with a hefty chunk of humble pie
O or with a celebratory night out?
That was incredible and a million miles from anything we have seen for weeks from the Irons and it shows exactly what can happen when you chase, close down and refuse to leave the opposition alone whoever thy might be.
This was an astonishing response from a team who have been all but written off under Manuel Pellegrini along with the boss himself – and yes my hands are in the air, I was among them.
The response was one of raw guts and courage with Pellegrini pulling every trick from his book of experinece as he got us back on the road.
He left out the club’s most expensive signing, Seb Haller, for the amazing Mikey Antonio and instead of naming the team on Friday morning as is his usual practice waited until 1-pm on match day.
That must have kept everybody on edge with little time to think of anything other than giving their best possible performance and my God they all did that.
The Hammers took a lead in the 43rd minute via a magnificent counter attack and a wonderful shot beyond the Chelsea keeper from Cresswell – his third strike of the season.
They had defended like heroes throughout the first half and did so again in the second bt courtesy of the new Fifa ruling that it’s handball whether intended or otherwise had a second ruled out by VAR when Antonio’s bunded effort at the far post was ruled out.
He had also seen a header saved in the first half and failed to control sufficiently to score from close range but hey the man was magnificent and always causing problems.
It was a magnificent performance and at the end every Hammer went to Dave Martin to hug and comfort as his game ended with tears.
A day to remember but this is the level we now expect every week!
Oh and we are up to 13th!
why did it take 8 games?
I think the words “oh ye of little faith” come to mind
I shed a tear or two when David Martin hugged Alvin in the stand!!
The joys of supporting such an infuriating team!!.
Was Afraid of this ..really happy we actually tried and got a great result Hugh and don’t want to spoil your excitement but 1 win won’t make up for the last 6 weeks of absolute dross …yes they worked hard and got a result but isn’t that what they are paid to do and let’s be honest it’s the first shift they have out in for 6 weeks so forgive me if I don’t go overboard quite yet….if they carry on like that for the next 5\6 games then I may be different until then well done good win but I will see how it goes for the min
We’ll happy 😃😃but ..if he had dropped Roberto before today We may have not been under so much pressure anyway lets just enjoy tonight and well done to Martin and rest of the boys they turned up today it’s about time we can enjoy a Saturday night
Agree with you completely , Hugh. This was vintage WHU – 8 weeks of crap followed by an absolutely top notch performance. Congratulations all round – including Pellegrine. Were we correct to criticize him to the extent that we did ? Yes, I think we were, especially for continuing to select Jimenez. But, one or two more performances like this & I am going to have to withdraw my criticism of him. He got it right today & we were all rewarded by magnificent performances from all the team, especially Martin, Cresswell, Noble, Rice, Fredericks – no, ALL of the team – particularly Antonio. Why did I have to travel to Gran Canaria in order to see a performance like this? And, why couldn’t they have played like this before ? On second thoughts, Jimenez being dropped must have been the catalyst. Surely he has played his last game for the team !
I agree – a great performance from the team – I felt that even Fornals put in a shift and tracked back to support Cresswell
The great performance does raise the question of why did we not do this earlier – I have my theory – we stopped pretending to be a “big team”
Last season our early turnaround happened when we played Everton with three genuine midfielders (Rice, Noble and Obiang) and we did that the following match against Chelsea 0-0 at home – today our formation was 4-2-3-1 rather than a 4-1-4-1 and not only did it make us more solid defensively it also enabled us to attack faster on the break
I hope that we can continue in this vein at Wolves and stop worrying about whether to sack our manager
Great result and performance but still a little bitter sweet for me if it saves Pellegrini for a while.
Well we have been saying it for weeks and at last the changes pay dividends.Sure Pelle was told it had to be this way or else.Doubt Roberto will wear a West Ham shirt again and rightly so.Now we need to kick on and make sure it continues.No excuses after that performance.Well done lads.
I think his entire carerr ended today
Just shows how having a ropey goalie can sap a team of confidence and energy Hugh.Seen some bad ones over the years but hard pressed to think of one who can literally destroy a team like Roberto has over 2 months.
Was really expecting the worse and thought we would get a right bashing .
Really happy to take the smile off Lampards face . Wonderful day for Martin . He waited for his chance and Wow how he took it . But let’s calm down because this performance is just typical of West Ham . Where it came from is a mystery after so many very poor games . It still doesn’t let Pelligrini Off the hook though because one good performance out of nine is not the greatest track record . Pelligrini’s decision ( under pressure from the fans ) to put Martin in goal was definitely a huge factor but also it was the desire to beat Chelsea and little frank
Not going to get carried away just yet let’s see what happens v Wolves and then the Ars
The fact is that Seb and Yarmo have not been chasing back and pressing and the difference when we press from the front is apparent. Also we’ll done Alvin’s boy!!