Blast from the past
Stamford Bridge, 28th September 2002 – West Ham United’s last victory at the home of Chelsea. The Blues went into the match unbeaten from their first seven league games of the season. Atomic Kitten were number one with ‘The Tide Is High’ and Mel Gibson topped the UK box office in Signs as the Hammers arrived in west London rooted to the bottom of the Premier League having picked up just two points from their opening six league games.
The beleaguered Hammers were dealt a blow after just four minutes when striker Frederic Kanoute suffered a groin injury and had to be replaced by Jermain Defoe – Kanoute would not play again until Boxing Day, his absence playing a big part in the Hammers’ struggles in 2002/03. Despite this setback, the Hammers impressed in the opening 20 minutes in front of 38,929 before an irresponsible and unnecessary scissor challenge by Tomas Repka saw Claudio Ranieri’s Chelsea win a free-kick wide on the left and the Czech defender go into the book. Bolo Zenden’s delivery seemed innocuous enough until referee Mike Dean adjudged former Blues left-back Scott Minto to have held back Robert Huth and a penalty was awarded. Chelsea skipper Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink made no mistake, sending David James the wrong way from the spot with 21 minutes played.
Glenn Roeder’s Hammers equalised five minutes before half-time. Paolo Di Canio’s corner was knocked on by Trevor Sinclair into the path of Steve Lomas, the Ulsterman’s shot was parried by Carlo Cudicini but Defoe reacted quickest to turn the ball into the net.
The second half saw Di Canio take centre stage – three minutes into the second half, the Italian picked the ball up wide on the right from Sebastian Schemmel’s throw-in, cut inside, flicked the ball up with his right foot before hammering an unstoppable left-foot volley beyond the despairing dive of his countryman Cudicini. Chelsea’s equaliser arrived on 74 minutes, future Hammers manager Gianfranco Zola coming off the bench to curl a trademark free-kick into the corner of James’ goal after, this time, a clear foul by Minto.
It was Di Canio who had the last word though, with six minutes remaining – James’ long free-kick was poorly defended by the Blues backline and the ball broke for Di Canio at a tight angle to the left of Cudicini’s goal, the Hammers captain finding the tiniest of gaps at the near post to restore the Irons’ lead and claim West Ham’s first win of the season. My video below contains all the goals from this London derby, as well as interviews with manager Roeder and midfielder Lomas.
The Hammers, of course, went on to be relegated in 18th place that season while Chelsea ended up in fourth. Joe Cole was voted Hammer of the Year, with Defoe runner-up. Defoe was also the Irons’ top scorer that season with 11 goals in 42 appearances. Manchester United won the league and Arsenal won the FA Cup.
Chelsea: Carlo Cudicini, Mario Melchiot, Robert Huth, William Gallas, Bolo Zenden (Gianfranco Zola), Jesper Gronkjaer, Jody Morris, Frank Lampard, Mario Stanic, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Eidur Gudjohnsen.
West Ham United: David James, Sebastian Schemmel, Tomas Repka, Gary Breen, Scott Minto, Trevor Sinclair, Steve Lomas, Michael Carrick, Joe Cole, Frederic Kanoute (Jermain Defoe), Paolo Di Canio (Edouard Cisse).
Club Connections
A decent number of players have represented both West Ham United and Chelsea. Victor Moses spent the 2015/16 season on loan with the Hammers and is now proving a key player for Antonio Conte’s Blues. Others to have worn the colours of both clubs include:
Goalkeepers: Craig Forrest and Harry Medhurst.
Defenders: Tal Ben Haim, Scott Minto, Wayne Bridge, Ian Pearce, Joe Kirkup, Glen Johnson and Jon Harley.
Midfielders: Bill Jackson, Frank Lampard Junior, Andy Malcolm, Syd Bishop, Peter Brabrook, Alan Dickens, George Horn, Eric Parsons, Robert Bush, Scott Parker, Yossi Benayoun, Jim Frost and John Sissons.
Strikers: David Speedie, Len Goulden, Billy Bridgeman, Demba Ba, Joe Payne, Clive Allen, George Hilsdon, Carlton Cole, Billy Brown, Jimmy Greaves, Pop Robson, Billy Williams, Ron Tindall and Bob Deacon.
Bobby Gould played for West Ham and went on to be assistant and caretaker manager of Chelsea. Ron Greenwood and Gianfranco Zola played for Chelsea and managed West Ham, while Sir Geoff Hurst and Dave Sexton both played for the Hammers and managed the Blues. Avram Grant has managed both clubs.
Today’s focus though is on an Academy graduate who had two spells at Upton Park and spent seven years at Stamford Bridge. Joe Cole was born in Paddington on the 8th November 1981 and was a prodigious young talent who was linked with a £10m move to Manchester United before he’d even made his professional debut. Likened to Paul Gascoigne, Cole made his debut at the age of 17 in January 1999 in a 1-1 FA Cup draw at home against Swansea; his league debut arrived eight days later in a 4-1 defeat at Old Trafford. Cole was a key figure in the Hammers’ FA Youth Cup winning team in 1999 and also played his part in the senior team’s InterToto Cup success later that summer. His first goal for the club came in a 3-2 League Cup win at Birmingham in November 1999 while his first league strike came in the 5-4 win over Bradford in February 2000.
Cole scored five goals in 2000/01, including one in the 3-0 win at Coventry and strikes in the 1-1 home draws with Bradford and Coventry. He also notched crucial goals in the 3-1 home win over Derby and 3-0 home victory over Southampton as the under-performing Hammers secured their survival in the top flight the weekend before Harry Redknapp’s departure.
Cole made his England debut in May 2001 and scored his first goal under new Hammers manager Glenn Roeder in the 3-0 FA Cup third round win at Macclesfield in January 2002. The skilful midfielder was part of England’s 2002 World Cup squad and got his 2002/03 campaign off to a flyer, scoring from distance to give the Irons the lead against champions Arsenal only for the Gunners to eventually claim a 2-2 draw at Upton Park. The season was a turbulent one, with Cole one of the few players to emerge with credit from a campaign which would end in relegation. Joey also scored in the 2-1 home defeat to Birmingham, the 2-2 draw at Middlesbrough, the 3-2 FA Cup third round home win over Nottingham Forest and the 2-2 home draw with Newcastle. He was named captain by Roeder in January 2003 and was voted Hammer of the Year by the club’s supporters at the season’s end.
The 21-year-old Cole left West Ham United in the summer of 2003 to sign for Chelsea in a £6.6m deal, having scored 13 goals in 150 appearances for the Hammers. He made his debut for the Blues as a substitute a week after signing for the club in a Champions League qualifier away to MSK Zilina and scored his first goal in October 2003 in a League Cup tie against Notts County. His first league strike in a Chelsea shirt came in a 2-1 defeat at Aston Villa in December 2003. Cole became a regular in Jose Mourinho’s 2004/05 Premier League title-winning team, scoring nine goals in all competitions.
2005/06 saw Cole score a career-high 11 goals in a season in all competitions, earning himself a place in the PFA Team of the Year as Chelsea retained their Premier League title. The following campaign was an injury-hit one for Cole but he was back to his best in 2007/08 – he reached double figures in the scoring charts again, won the Chelsea Player of the Year Award and played in the Champions League Final. Cole also scored home and away against West Ham that season, refusing to celebrate his strike in Chelsea’s 4-0 win at Upton Park in March 2008. A knee injury kept Cole out for the second half of the 2008/09 campaign and his final game for the Blues was the FA Cup Final against Portsmouth in May 2010, Chelsea winning the match 1-0. After seven years at Stamford Bridge in which he scored 40 goals in 281 appearances and won three Premier League titles, three FA Cups, two League Cups, two Community Shields and was a Champions League finalist, Cole joined Roy Hodgson’s Liverpool on a free transfer in the summer of 2010. Earlier that summer, Cole had won the last of his 56 England caps at his third World Cup – he had scored ten goals for his country.
After a difficult start to life on Merseyside, Cole spent the 2011/12 season on loan at French side Lille but, after returning to Liverpool for the first half of the following season, 31-year-old Joey returned to the Boleyn Ground in early January 2013, signing for Sam Allardyce’s Hammers on a free transfer. He set up both goals on his second debut for the club as James Collins scored twice in a 2-2 FA Cup third round draw with Manchester United and scored himself in the 1-1 home draw with Q.P.R. and the 3-2 home defeat to Tottenham.
Cole started the 2013/14 season with a bang, notching the Hammers’ first goal of the campaign in a 2-0 home win over Cardiff in August 2013 before scoring in the 3-0 win over Fulham in November. His final goal for the Hammers came in the 3-3 home draw with West Brom in late December 2013. Cole’s last appearance for West Ham came in the 2-0 defeat at Manchester City in May 2014 and he left the club later that summer after his contract expired, signing for Aston Villa. Cole had scored five goals in 37 appearances in his second spell in east London, taking his totals for the Hammers to 18 goals in 187 matches.
Following a spell with Coventry, Cole, now 36, is currently playing for Tampa Bay Rowdies in the USL, the second tier of the American soccer pyramid.
Referee
Sunday’s referee is Kevin Friend. The Leicester-based official has been involved in top-flight matches since 2009 and took charge of the Hammers in our historic 3-0 victory at Liverpool in August 2015. He sent off Liverpool’s Philippe Coutinho and West Ham’s Mark Noble in that match at Anfield, with the latter’s dismissal rescinded on appeal.
Friend’s Hammers appointments this season were in September for our 2-0 home win over Huddersfield and, more recently, our 1-0 League Cup quarter-final defeat at Arsenal in December. He also refereed our 1-0 home win over Swansea last April. He is also remembered for the soft penalty he gifted Hull in our 1-0 defeat at the KC Stadium in September 2013 when Joey O’Brien was adjudged to have shoved Robbie Brady. Friend compounded the error by later denying the Irons a clear penalty when Jake Livermore handled in the area. Don’t expect much from Friend in the way of handball decisions – he also denied the Hammers a penalty in a match at Everton when Aaron Cresswell’s cross was handled by Seamus Coleman.
Possible line-ups
Chelsea manager Antonio Conte is without David Luiz and Ethan Ampadu but Thibaut Courtois, Davide Zappacosta, Ross Barkley and Pedro could all return. The Blues could suffer back-to-back league defeats at Stamford Bridge for the first time since November 2011.
David Moyes has yet to win a Premier League game away to Chelsea, drawing six and losing eight of 14 top-flight matches at Stamford Bridge. The Scot is without Sam Byram, Winston Reid, James Collins, Pedro Obiang, Michail Antonio and Andy Carroll. Argentine midfielder Manuel Lanzini is a major doubt but Chicharito should be available. A win would not just see West Ham’s first at Stamford Bridge since this preview’s featured match in September 2002 but would also complete the club’s first league double over Chelsea since that 2002/03 season.
Looking ahead to our next match against Stoke, Potters midfielder Joe Allen is one yellow card away from missing the match in east London – Stoke host Tottenham today.
Possible Chelsea XI: Courtois; Rudiger, Azpilicueta, Christensen; Moses, Kante, Fabregas, Alonso; Willian, Hazard; Morata.
Possible West Ham United XI: Hart; Zabaleta, Rice, Ogbonna, Cresswell, Masuaku; Fernandes, Kouyate, Noble, Mario; Arnautovic.
Enjoy the game – Up The Hammers!