Chelsea vs West Ham - The Verdicts
Two weeks ago, when West Ham held Liverpool to a draw at Anfield, the newspaper reports hardly gave West Ham a look in as they bemoaned Liverpool's failures to wipe the floor with the minnows from London. This week however the press actually acknowledge that there were two teams on the pitch yesterday and most single out Scott Parker for special praise.
The Daily Mail say West Ham had "a much-deserved first-half lead" with " the ubiquitous Scott Parker dismantling almost every Chelsea attack before sparing Robert Green's blushes by clearing his colleague's misplaced punch off the line."
"West Ham were excellent, an impressive combination of determination and defiance and so much better than they were against Tottenham six days earlier. Green again made some crucial saves, Matthew Upson and Calum Davenport were terrific in defence and, as well as Parker, young Jack Collison shone in midfield."
The Daily Telegraph say that, "From back to front, Zola’s players were filled with fortitude. Robert Green made stunning saves from Lampard and Didier Drogba in particular. Matthew Upson and Calum Davenport dealt well with Chelsea’s aerial threat. Parker was magnificent in turning Zola's tactical instructions into reality, strangling the life out of Chelsea’s midfield. Alongside Parker, Mark Noble and Jack Collison ran their young bodies into the ground for the cause, giving hope for the present as well as the future.
In attack, in a real tale of the unexpected, Carlton Cole dragged Terry through an assault course of mind and body."
The Guardian were also impressed with Scott Parker who "was tough and effective."
The Independent says, "The heroes for Zola were his centre-back Matthew Upson, Scott Parker in midfield and Robert Green in goal. They could easily have collapsed after conceding the equaliser on 50 minutes but West Ham held it together. If Carlton Cole had kept his nerve with just Petr Cech to beat in injury time this would have been a historic, if slightly undeserved, victory."
The Times says that "for once their (West Ham's) big earners justified their pay packets. Scott Parker was outstanding, Bellamy used his pace to give John Terry a difficult afternoon and Lucas Neill was flawless."
posted by Keir Clarke @ 10:26 AM
6 comments
6 Comments:
I would question The Times "Lucas Neill was flawless." quote , did he not kick Fat Frank over in the box ? . but in truth when you do so very little like Lucas, its hard to get a lot wrong i would guess
I can only read the online papers, but it did appear they gave the Hammers a bit more credit. Except for The Sun, which wrote it up like a robbery with Neill wearing the mask and pistol whipping Lampard.
most of the team was excellent. i don't think neill deserves any praise -at all. although i loathe terry, it would have been nice to see him wipe bellamy all over the field. it's almost as if he is a pitbull who just can't stop making horrible tackles, shoving other players and mouthing off to the referee. CC just seems so immature -all the time. i wonder if he just lacks confidence in himself. how many times did he miss excellent opportunities or even better yet, was dispossessed of the ball?
So Neill deserves no praise at all for successfully marshalling the back 4 and giving a real leader's performance, helping us to get us a point at the Bridge against a forward threat of Drogba, Anelka, Joe Cole, Lampard, Deco and Ballack, arguably 6 of the best players in the world?
Right.
Strange how the Times raved about those players, but gave them all 6 out of 10 in the match ratings though.
...and anonimous?? you wanted Terry to wipe Bellamy all over the pitch. Wat team do you support.
I agree that he is a pain in the arse, but he is the best attacking threat we have and i would have been made up to see him score more. Cant believe that all hammers fans would not thnk the same.
So most of the team was excellent except Cole Neil and Bellamy? not sure if we wathced the same game!
we definitely watched the same game...
sorry, i refuse to give neil credit for the performance of the back four. if anything, i would give credit to zola or the coach.
bellamy scores, yes, but he is also challenges the referree way too much. he also makes NASTY challenges/tackles. it takes away from his game and the WHU game in general.
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