What a weird game that was! Chelsea had about a dozen clear cut opportunities to put this game way beyond West Ham. At times it looked like a training game.
Still we could have nicked the game and Chelsea would not have been in a position to complain because we were disciplined all game and put up a good fight.
Yes, it’s easy to say from my armchair we should have attacked Chelsea more or not given them so much time and space on the pitch to play their brand of football which is a beauty to watch for the neutral without a shadow of a doubt.
The man of the match decision was not really a contest this time: Finally, Joe Hart gave us the kind of performance we were hoping he would deliver a bit more regularly this season. Of course the way you concede goals heavily depends on the way your defenders do their job, yet a good or even great goalkeeper is at his best when his defenders are beaten and the ball is destined for the top corner.
Hart pulled off about five fantastic saves that gave us the chance to come away from Stamford Bridge with any kind of credible result. Yes, I said before the game Chelsea were there for the taking. But when they outplay you virtually all game, like they did against us, then you have to take the point, make a bow, say Thank You and bugger off!
As a West Ham fan I was expecting things to go wrong at some point in the game and when Cresswell went off injured I just thought “Alright, here we go again, join the queue Aaron and remember: Out of the door. Line on the left. One cross each.” Or something like that, you get the idea!
But there were other instances when strangely we got the rub of the green. Two close offside decisions leading to goals, rightfully not given. Mark Noble who could easily have been given a second yellow after going in all guns blazing into a fierce tackle. Not given. And upfront we were as efficient as your average German factory worker.
One decent chance, one Mexican Little Pea, and boom shakalaka!!!
Was Moyes a bit negative in his approach, especially first half though ? Maybe, but I’ll give him credit for juggling a thin squad and putting out a team that can still fight.
Injuries keep dragging us down and apart from getting a Director of Football in (pronto please as work on assembling a squad for next season should be well underway already) this area needs to be addressed sharpish.
Just imagine where our team might be in the table if we had only been in a position to play our best starting XI in just ten games or so. Maybe next season!
As it is we have put some more daylight between us and the chasing pack. Six points it is now and if you look at a team like Southampton I can see them getting six points at the most in their remaining games. Which means the Stoke game is still absolutely vital. Arnautovic should be relishing playing against his former teammates and hopefully it’ll be him scoring the goals against Stoke that will help keeping us up.
I have made the arrangements now to fly over for the Everton game and I am absolutely certain now that we will be mathematically safe at that point anyway.
Still it should be good fun as we also play Manchester United the evening before I fly out. So it’ll be watching that game on the Custard and Jelly, a few hours of sleep (probably), three cups of Rosie and over to Blighty. At that point I will hopefully have made up my mind about whether to renew my season ticket or not.
Still undecided on that front I’m afraid.
Covering the Hamburg football scene this can be handled quickly. St.Pauli are still in a relegation battle while Hamburg SV gave themselves a fighting chance by totally unexpectedly beating 2nd placed Schalke in Hamburg by a 3:2 scoreline. It was also a weekend where I couldn’t muster the effort to watch either Concordia team.
The U23s won 4:0 at home apparently and are virtually guaranteed promotion now to the next level.
While Concordia’s first team have effectively nothing to play for anymore and that’s exactly the vibe they’re giving out, losing yet another game yesterday, 0:2.
It’s also been announced that two more regular starters will leave Concordia in the summer. On top of that the current manager will vacate his place in the dugout to get promoted upstairs to become Cordi’s new DoF, so the search for a new manager has apparently begun with immediate effect.
So, another long week ahead now before we face Stoke, on Monday evening, under the lights. I hope it’ll be a similar atmosphere and performance like against Southampton. I hope a few of the currently injured players will at least be ready for the matchday squad, like Lanzini or Collins.
For the time being though we can all breathe a bit easier what with the point won at Chelsea. This should be a much more relaxed and jolly week at West Ham, that’s for certain! COYI!!!