Jimmy Bullard played for West Ham once. What a character to have in the dressing room, eh? As well as rather good from 25 yards… not to mention funny goal celebrations!

Scott Parker got a score of 9.16. That is the highest score any player has ever received since I have been running these surveys. Let’s hope for a repeat on Saturday against Manchester United!

We have drawn Arsenal at home in the FA Cup third round. Bugger.

How on earth is it possible to leave a game you have won 5-3 feeling utterly deflated? Only at West Ham, eh?

For once in our lives we got the rub of the green, despite yet another awful performance from the match referee. We were thoroughly outplayed in the first 15 minutes, when we barely strayed over the half way line. How on earth we ended the first half 3-0 up I defy anyone to explain. Maybe we would have deserved to shade it by one goal, but 3? don’t make me laugh. However, in our predicament, we’ll take what we can get.

And what we got were two very dodgy penalty decisions – and we didn’t get two other cast iron penalty shouts. Jack Collison’s opener was a great goal, and clinically taken. At first sight it looked offside but the linesman played a blinder. It wasn’t. Stanislas’s goal was either incredibly skilful or very lucky, depending on your point of view. Up to that point he had contributed absolutely nothing to the game, but the mark of a good player is to sniff a goal when you’re having an off day. It was nice to seem him desperate to take both penalties too.

Prior to the first penalty, Carlton Cole had suffered a very bad injury and most of us thought he wouldn’t make it back on the pitch. I was horrified to ssee him grab the ball to take the penalty a few minutes later, but he banged it home and has now scored 7 in 13 this season. It is also worth bearing in mind that in his career at West Ham he has a strike ratio of better than 1 in 3 (23 in 66).

After the break we carried on where we left off with Guillermo Franco grabbing a sniffer’s goal, getting on the end of a superbly struck cross. In the first half he was unlucky not to score with two bullet headers and all round he had a brilliant game. It was after he went off in thw 65th minute that our collapse started. Zola presumably took him off in order not to risk him picking up a knock.

Just prior to that Luis Jimenez scored his first goal from the penalty spot, after he was brought down – or dived, depending on your viewpoint.

After that we went to pieces. Chris Eagles was a constant menace throughout the game and was by far and away Burnley’s best player. He gave Spector a fearful time down the left and his goal at the end was no more than he deserved. Burnley’s two previous goals had come from left wing low crosses which Stephen Fletcher got on the end of. Our defending was truly woeful.

But the main praise must go to Scott Parker who seems to get better and better with every game. I have never given a 10 to anyone before, but he got as close as anyone can. All he lacked was a goal. Franco was my second best player with Da Costa third. He looks a real prospect. Sadly the same cannot be true of Kovac, who had a truly terrible game apart from one superb low diagonal cross field pass towards the end of the first half.

To score five goals with what looked like our weakest lineup of the season was a feat. OK, we need to shore up defensively, but this performance showed why we can be confident that we will not be relegated. If Cole and Franco can develop their strike partnership and the midfield can chip in with goals like they did today we can all look forward to the rest of the season with optimism.

Green 7
Ilunga 6
Spector 5
Da Costa 8
Gabbodon 6
Kovac 3
Parker 10
Collison 7
Cole 6
Franco 9
Stanislas 6
Jimenez 6
Hines 4
Faubert 6

Please rate the performances of the West Ham players who played against Burnley. Only rate those who were on the pitch for at least 15 minutes.

Click HERE to vote.

Please use this thread to discuss the Burnley match as it progresses.

Yet another six pointer beckons this afternoon. Bearing in mind we have to play Man U and Chelsea soon, we really have to go for a win today and learn how to defend a lead. That task is made no easier by the fact that Matthew Upson is missing with a hamstring injury. Danny Gabbidon is tipped to come in at centre back, with Herita Ilunga hopefully fit to return at left back.

We need a physical presence in midfield to combat the way Burnley like to play so I wouldn’t be surprised to see Stanislas drop out for either Noble or Kovac. Diamanti won’t figure because of injury and I’d be astonished if Jimenez featured from the start, so I expect a midfield of Noble, Parker, Behrami, Collison, with a strike force of Cole and Franco.

I think it is really important that the crowd gets behind the team today, especially if things start to go against us. Make no mistake, we need three points today and I am confident we will get them.

According to the Evening Standard and KUMB, Matthew Upson is going to be out for several weeks having torn his hamstring in training. Well that’s a bit of a bugger, isn’t it?

So who will replace him in central defence? There are two candidates – James Tomkins and Danny Gabbidon. My own view is that Gabbidon is likely to get the nod purely because a central defence consisting of Tomkins and Da Costa would be incredibly inexperienced. If Gabbidon is indeed chosen to partner Da Costa it will be the first time he has been given a chance in his preferred position since his return from serious injury.

PS Incidentally, for those of you on Twitter, Danny Gabbidon is on there too – a@therealgabbidon

I believe that Hull City away was the third time this season that we have thrown away a two goal lead.  That must be a worry for Zola and Clarke because, lets face it, it’s not exactly professional is it?

Lets look at the Hull City match.  We raced to a 0-2 lead inside the first 15 minutes and should have grabbed a third.  Hull then scored a very lucky goal against the run of play.  What happened then?  Did we put our foot on the ball, retain possession and kill off a potential Hull resurgence?  No, we started making the wrong decisions right across the park and collapsed, conceding a a further two goals in the final two minutes of the first half! 

Yes, the first Hull goal was fortune, the free kick for the second was probably played for by Mendy, the penalty decision for the third was an absolute joke and we were then denied a reasonable penalty appeal ourselves.   All very true and unfortunate for us.  However, there is a degree to which you make your own luck in these situations.   Why did we start to wobble so badly and give away so many cheap free kicks around our penalty box after they got their first goal?

In addition, how many times this season have we struggled against 10 men?  Da Costa pulled it back to 3-3 in the 69th minute, that means that we failed to make our numerical superiority count in the final 20 minutes of the match! 

Actually in truth, we would have won if Stanislas, Jimenez or Collison had taken their chances in that final 20 minutes, which raises an issue that has concerned me for some time.  Our midfielders need to weigh in with more goals.  They need to support the strikers, get into the box and be far more ruthless in converting their goal scoring opportunities. 

The current situation is frustrating, because the team is playing consistently well, but sloppy mistakes are costing us dear.   In the summer I warned that it was crucial that we retained last season’s defensive unit and postulated how ironic it would be, this  coming season, if we started regularly hitting the back of the net, only to start leaking goals at the other end!!  And that is pretty much what has happened so far.

I believe in the quality and potential of this West Ham squad.  We have a core of quality, experienced players, supplemented by some top class youngsters.  We may need to bring in one or two additions in January, particularly to improve our defensive options.  However, to begin turning things around in the interim, we need better organisation,  we need to defend as a team higher up the pitch and we must be far more ruthless and clinical in punishing teams by taking our chances, especially from  midfield. 

In the latter respect, I really hope that Diamanti is fit for the Burnley match and Zola plays him at the point of the midfield diamond.  Diamanti could prove to be our Frank Lampard Jnr, in terms of grabbing an important quota of goals from midfield.  Failing that, lets hope that Kieron Dyer is able to follow up his excellent mid-week reserve performance and play that role against Burnley.  Dyer is undoubtedly a class player and it is so frustrating that we cannot get him fit enough to make that class tell in the first team.  Lets hope that he has finally won his fitness battle, at least for the rest of this season.  That would be a massive bonus.

In short, we need to start being more professional defensively and ruthless in killing teams off when we have them on the canvas.   Lets not continue to regret lost opportunities and dropped points.  We need professional,  cohesive and clinical team performances to turn it around and turn it around now, starting with Burnley at home and Birmingham City away. 

The players professional pride should demand nothing less of themselves!  Do they really need to be reminded of that?  I sincerely hope not.  We shall see come Saturday in a match that they must  and should win.

SJ Chandos.

Nani has broken his recent public silence to make a well timed intervention on the story concerning Behrami’s alleged transfer to Juventus. 

He has stated in an Italian radio interview that Valon Behrami will not be joining Juve, or anyone else for that matter, in the forthcoming winter transfer window.   Taken together with with Zola’s rebuttal of the recent Cole to Liverpool or Man Utd stories, that’s excellent news for us fans. 

He also dropped a heavy hint about West Ham’s priority in their January transfer dealings.  He denied a current interest in the Bologna striker Osvaldo and made the following statement:

“We have the fifth best attack in the Premier League for the number of goals scored and so it is certainly not the offensive zone where we need to intervene.”

“Generally, we are happy with our squad.”

Obviously this confirms that the priority will be to tighten up at the back.   Personally, I think that someone like Luke Young from Aston Villa would do us a real turn at right-back.  I would also like to see a seasoned pro brought in at centre half, along with dependable and experienced  goalkeeper cover.   We have some outstanding young defensive talent at the club, but this season is probably going to be a bit too early for most of them.  A couple of experienced, short-term, signings of the right calibre could really boost the squad, inject experience and leadership in to the back line/bench and help our youngsters develop.

I agree with Nani on the midfield, but is he right on the strike force?  I agree that we have two useful striking combinations in Cole and either Franco or Hines.  Once they get Diamanti behind them in the hole, pulling the strings, and scoring his share of goals, we should have a very useful and potent forward line.  

The Nouble-Dixon partnership certainly looked very promising during last night’s 5-2 reserve team demolition of Stoke City.  They are potentially two of the best striking talents in the English game and the club have shown great vision and guts in securing their services; especially in the circumstances surrounding Dixon’s fitness.   There will be many a shamed face at White Lane and Stamford Bridge if these two players realise their potential at Upton Park!

However,  given the choice, I would still probably bring in another striker as cover for Cole.  Neither Nouble nor Dixon should have too much pressure put on their young shoulders this season.  Nouble because he is only 18 and still learning the game.  Dixon because he needs to be given the space to regain form and fitness, with a view to making a first team bow before the end of the season.  If they accelerate their progress and put themselves in to the first team frame ahead of schedule, then that would be a welcome bonus!

There are so many variables relating to the Hammers possible January transfer dealings.  It is intertwined with the current complex financial and ownership issues at the club.  If there is an injection of investment or a successful takeover of the club then obviously our sights will be raised in terms of transfer targets. 

SJ Chandos.