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Blast from the past
Stamford Bridge, 28th November 1964 – The Rolling Stones were number one with ‘Little Red Rooster’, Harold Wilson was six weeks into his first stint as Prime Minister and the first episode of The Likely Lads aired on the BBC a week later. The Hammers arrived in west London as FA Cup holders and were on the back of four wins and a draw from their previous five matches in league and European Cup Winners’ Cup. The Blues, meanwhile, went into the match having lost just two of their first 19 league games of the season.
Future Chelsea winger John Sissons started for West Ham, while former Chelsea defender and title winner Ron Greenwood was in charge of the visitors. Geoff Hurst lined up for the Hammers – he would go on to manage Chelsea. The Irons went into the game having scored in all of their previous 23 games in league and cup in 1964/65.
The Hammers made the perfect start when Alan Sealey gave them the lead after just seven minutes. The lead was doubled 17 minutes later courtesy of Martin Peters – the West Ham United and England legend (pictured below) sadly passed away a year ago today at the age of 76. Peters was voted Hammer of the Year in this 1964/65 season, with Bobby Moore runner-up.
A hugely impressive win was rounded off by the aforementioned Hurst seven minutes before half-time. The high-flying Blues had no response to the Hammers’ scintillating first half display and the visitors saw out a 3-0 away victory. The Irons would complete the double over Chelsea the following April, but the Blues would knock the holders out of the FA Cup in the fourth round in January 1965.
The Hammers went on to finish in ninth place in the 1964/65 campaign while Chelsea ended up in third. Johnny ‘Budgie’ Byrne was the Irons’ top scorer that season with 30 goals in 45 appearances. Manchester United won the league and Liverpool won the FA Cup. West Ham ended the season by lifting the European Cup Winners’ Cup.
Chelsea: Peter Bonetti, Marvin Hinton, John Mortimore, Ron Harris, Eddie McCreadie, Bert Murray, John Hollins, Terry Venables, George Graham, Bobby Tambling, Barry Bridges.
West Ham United: Jim Standen, John Bond, Ken Brown, Martin Peters, Jack Burkett, Alan Sealey, Eddie Bovington, Ronnie Boyce, John Sissons, Johnny ‘Budgie’ Byrne, Geoff Hurst.
Club Connections
A decent number of players have represented both West Ham United and Chelsea. Ex-Hammer Frank Lampard Junior is currently in the manager’s hotseat at Stamford Bridge while Victor Moses spent the 2015/16 season on loan with the Hammers and is still a Chelsea player, albeit currently on loan at Spartak Moscow. 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, Andy Malcolm, Joe Cole, 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, Clive Allen, George Hilsdon, Carlton Cole, Joe Payne, 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 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 a former Chelsea player who later managed West Ham United. Gianfranco Zola was born in Oliena, Sardinia, on 5th July 1966 and signed professional forms with Sardinian club Nuorese in 1984. He moved to Torres in 1986, winning the Serie C2 (fourth tier) title in 1986/87, before moving to Serie A side Napoli in 1989. He was a member of the squad which won the Serie A title in 1989/90 but his appearances were mostly as understudy to Diego Maradona that season. Zola made his debut for the Italian national side in November 1991; he left Napoli for Parma in a £13m deal in 1993 and appeared for his country in the 1994 World Cup, receiving a red card in a second round win over Nigeria. He scored his first goal for his country in a 4-1 European Championship qualifying match against Estonia in Salerno on 25th March 1995.
Zola won the UEFA Cup with Parma in 1995, by which time he was known as one of the most creative talents in the then-best league in the world, alongside world-class players such as Roberto Baggio and Alessandro Del Piero. After being played out of position by new boss (and future Chelsea manager) Carlo Ancelotti, Zola joined the Stamford Bridge club in November 1996 for £4.5m, a few months after appearing in England for his country during Euro ’96 – he had missed a crucial penalty in a goalless group game with Germany.
The 30-year-old Zola made his Premier League debut for Ruud Gullit’s Chelsea in a 1-1 draw at Blackburn on 16th November 1996 and scored his first goal for the club in a 2-2 home draw with Everton on 7th December that year. Two weeks later, Zola was on the scoresheet for a second time in a blue shirt, turning an ecru-clad Julian Dicks inside out to notch his side’s second goal in a 3-1 win over West Ham at Stamford Bridge. The Italian forward also scored for his country in a 1-0 World Cup qualifying win against England at Wembley in February 1997; his last goal for Italy came in a 3-0 win over Moldova in Trieste the following month. Zola would score 12 goals in 30 appearances for Chelsea in 1996/97, a season that would end in silverware as the Blues won the FA Cup. Zola was also voted the Football Writers’ Footballer of the Year, even though he didn’t arrive in English football until three months into the campaign.
The 1997/98 season saw Zola score 12 goals in 41 appearances, including a trademark curling free-kick against West Ham in a 2-1 home win for the Blues on 9th November 1997. By the time of that goal, Zola had made his final appearance for his country, in a goalless draw with England in Rome on 11th October 1997, a game which secured England’s safe passage to the 1998 World Cup and condemned the Azzurri to a play-off place – Zola had won 35 caps for Italy, scoring ten goals. Zola would win the League Cup with Chelsea in March 1998, by which time Gianluca Vialli had taken over as player-manager, and the 5’6 Italian came off the bench to score the winning goal in the European Cup Winners’ Cup Final against Stuttgart in May that year. Zola scored 15 goals in 49 matches in 1998/99, a season which saw Chelsea beat Real Madrid to lift the UEFA Super Cup and later qualify for the Champions League for the first time.
Eight goals in 52 appearances followed for Zola in 1999/2000, with Chelsea lifting the last FA Cup to be won at the old Wembley. Claudio Ranieri took over from Vialli early in 2000/01, a season which would see Zola win the Charity Shield and score 12 times in 43 matches – he scored from a free-kick in a 4-2 opening day home victory against the Hammers on 19th August 2000. Zola scored five goals in 50 games for Chelsea in 2001/02 and, in his final season of 2002/03, scored 16 goals in 46 appearances – his last match against West Ham at Stamford Bridge saw him score a fourth career goal against the Hammers, and his third from a free-kick, in a 3-2 win for the Irons on 28th September 2002. Zola made his last appearance for Chelsea in a 2-1 victory over Liverpool at Stamford Bridge on 11th May 2003, a result which saw the Blues qualify for the Champions League. 18 months later, in November 2004, he was awarded an Honorary OBE in a special ceremony in Rome.
After 80 goals in 311 appearances for Chelsea, Zola returned to his native Sardinia to sign for Cagliari. After winning promotion from Serie B in his first season, Zola played one last season in Serie A before retiring in June 2005. He became assistant manager of Italy’s Under-21 side in 2006 and helped lead them to the quarter-final stage of the 2008 Olympics.
Following the controversial departure of Alan Curbishley in September 2008, Zola became West Ham United’s first non-British manager. His first match in official charge of the Hammers was a 3-1 home win over Newcastle on 20th September 2008, but he was knocked out of the League Cup in his second match, a 1-0 third round defeat at Championship Watford. After a 2-1 triumph over Fulham at Craven Cottage, Zola’s Hammers went seven matches without a win before picking up a 1-0 victory at Sunderland. Diego Tristan became Zola’s first signing and an eight-match unbeaten run in league and FA Cup matches began with a 4-1 thrashing of Portsmouth on Boxing Day 2008 at Fratton Park; it was only ended by eventual champions Manchester United on 8th February 2009.
Financial constraints had forced Zola into selling Craig Bellamy to Manchester City in January 2009, with Savio Nsereko joining the club, alongside a loan move for Radoslav Kovac. The Irons were knocked out of the FA Cup in a fifth round replay at Middlesbrough but went on another five-match unbeaten run immediately afterwards, including a 1-0 win at Wigan which saw Carlton Cole score the winner, rounding off a delightful one-touch move involving six passes and four players. Zola was giving increased game time to youngsters James Tomkins and Jack Collison, and also handed a debut to Junior Stanislas. The Hammers looked set for a Europa League spot but a run of just two wins from the final seven games saw them drop from seventh to ninth in the Premier League table and miss out on a European place. Zola signed a four-year contract with the club towards the end of the 2008/09 season.
The summer window of 2009 began with the release of captain Lucas Neill and ended with the departure of centre-half James Collins, both mainstays of the back four. The desperate financial situation at the club saw limited funds spent on incomings, with Alessandro Diamanti the only player who cost a significant fee. Luis Jimenez arrived on loan, Kovac’s move was made permanent, Manuel da Costa arrived in a swap deal for Savio and Guillermo Franco signed from Villarreal. Youngsters Fabio Daprela and Frank Nouble were also brought in. Zola’s West Ham won 2-0 at newly-promoted Wolves on the opening day of the 2009/10 season but would go nine league matches without a win until a 2-1 home victory over Aston Villa on 4th November 2009 – Zavon Hines, another Academy product brought into the side by Zola, scored the late winning goal. By this time the Hammers had been knocked out of the League Cup at Bolton in the third round. Only two more wins were recorded before the end of the calendar year – the Irons had been 5-0 up at home against Burnley but were pegged back to 5-3 by full-time, and Avram Grant’s Portsmouth were beaten 2-0 at Upton Park on Boxing Day.
West Ham suffered a winless January to open 2010, and were knocked out of the FA Cup at the first hurdle by Arsenal at the Boleyn. The Hammers had to wait until February 10th for their next win, a 2-0 home triumph over Birmingham, shortly after the Blues’ former owners, David Sullivan and David Gold, had bought West Ham United. Three budget strikers were brought in – Benni McCarthy, Mido and Ilan – but only Ilan would have any sort of impact. Hull were beaten 3-0 at home ten days after the much-needed Birmingham win but the Hammers went another seven matches without recording a victory. Successive home wins over Sunderland (1-0) and Wigan (3-2) ensured West Ham’s survival under Zola – the club finished 17th with 35 points.
Zola was sacked two days after the end of the season – his final game in charge had been a 1-1 draw with Manchester City at Upton Park on 9th May 2010. In his final months at the club, Zola had seen outspoken co-owner Sullivan describe his team’s performance in a 3-1 home defeat to Wolves as “pathetic”, learn that the club’s new owners had made a bid for West Brom’s Graham Dorrans without his consent and discover that his squad (with the exception of Scott Parker) had been put up for sale behind his back. Zola was replaced by Avram Grant, who led the club to bottom place and relegation the following season.
Zola coached Italy’s Under-16s from 2011 to 2012 before returning to England to manage Championship Watford in the summer of 2012. He took the Hornets to the Play-Off Final in his first season but resigned in December 2013 and was appointed manager of former club Cagliari in December 2014 – he was sacked in March 2015. He joined Qatari club Al-Arabi in the summer of 2015 but was sacked at the end of the season. Zola returned to the Championship with Birmingham in December 2016 but took the Blues from just outside the play-off places on goal difference to just three points above the relegation zone when he resigned with three matches remaining in April 2017. Now 54, Zola returned to Chelsea as assistant manager to Maurizio Sarri in the summer of 2018 but left the club after one season having helped the Blues win the Europa League.
Referee
The referee tonight will be Christopher Kavanagh. The Manchester-born official has refereed the Hammers on nine previous occasions, most recently for our 3-1 win at Watford in August 2019. He also refereed the Irons on our previous trip to Vicarage Road for a 4-1 win in May 2019, when he sent off the Hornets’ Jose Holebas and awarded the Irons a penalty, converted by Mark Noble after a foul on Michail Antonio. Prior to that, Kavanagh officiated our 2-0 defeat at Chelsea in April 2019 and our 2-0 home win over Newcastle the month before, a game in which he also awarded the Hammers a penalty for a foul on Chicharito which was again converted by Noble.
Kavanagh had previously been in charge for our 2-2 home draw with Brighton in January 2019, our 1-1 draw at Huddersfield in November 2018 and our 1-0 home defeat to Wolves in September 2018. He was the man in the middle for our 2-0 win at Leicester in May 2018 and also issued Arthur Masuaku with a red card for spitting in an FA Cup fourth round defeat at Wigan in January 2018.
Possible line-ups
Chelsea manager Frank Lampard has doubts over Reece James, Hakim Ziyech and Callum Hudson-Odoi. Chelsea have lost just one of their last 14 Premier League home games against West Ham (winning nine and drawing four), though the only defeat in that time was in this fixture last season thanks to a superb Aaron Cresswell winner. The Blues have not lost back-to-back home league games against the Hammers since February 1996. Lampard is looking to avoid becoming the first Chelsea manager to lose his first three league encounters with West Ham, while only three managers have lost their first three Premier League games against the Irons: Danny Wilson, Sean Dyche and Ralph Hasenhuttl.
West Ham boss David Moyes is without Arthur Masuaku and has doubts over Fabian Balbuena, Aaron Cresswell, Jarrod Bowen and Michail Antonio. West Ham have won their last two Premier League away games, as many as they had in their previous 14 on the road (drawing three and losing nine). The Hammers last won three consecutive Premier League matches on the road in December 2018, under Manuel Pellegrini.
Possible Chelsea XI: Mendy; James, Zouma, Silva, Chilwell; Havertz, Kante, Mount; Werner, Giroud, Pulisic.
Possible West Ham United XI: Fabianski; Coufal, Diop, Ogbonna, Cresswell; Soucek, Rice; Bowen, Lanzini, Benrahma; Haller.
Enjoy the game – Up The Hammers!