Hammers Hammered: West Ham 0 Chelsea 4 + Video
By dixon9
March 2 2008
An emphatic 4-0 away victory that was practically achieved in the first 25 mins gave the squad and the fans a much needed tonic after last weekend’s debacle at Wembley. West Ham uncharacteristically looked like rabbits in headlights as Chelsea cut through their defence in a ruthless 5 minute spell which saw 3 goals.
After only 2 minutes Anelka had a goal incorrectly ruled offside and the tone was set for a very attacking Chelsea display, apparently woken from the nightmare against Spurs last weekend.
The first goal came from a Lampard penalty after he sent Green the wrong way amid the usual barracking from his former clubs supporters.
Kalou, who, I’m pleased to say, was one of the main architects of the east end demolition, had been brought down clumsily by Ferdinand after poking the ball too far ahead of him as he ran in on goal.
The next saw an excellent finish from Joe Cole who directed his diagonal low shot accurately in from the left hand side into Green’s left hand corner. Cole didn’t celebrate the strike in a nice gesture to his former employers.
Next up a nice combination involving Kalou and Lampard, the latter, out wide spotting Ballack unmarked on the far side edge of the box, dinked his ball over and the German finished with aplomb with his first time half-volley.
West Ham fans started to leave in droves on 25 minutes – quite embarrassing for them but some had had enough. The “Academy of Football” was leaving school early.
Then came the controversy. Lampard, on defensive midfield duty at the time, won the ball off Boa Morte who brought him down from behind. Lampard fell on top of him and there were a couple of sly kick-outs from Boa Morte before they both got up and Lampard shoved him back down.
The incident looked like the typical 1st half handbags to be honest – and if you want to go by the letter of the law, you would have to send BOTH off. Unfortunately the linesman wanted his few minutes of fame and indicated to the ref that Lampard had slapped the West Ham player.
So a red for Lampard and a 3 match ban. Will we appeal? There are grounds for it but I’m not sure we will risk and extra game ban with a possible unsuccessful appeal resulting in Lampard also missing the Arsenal home fixture.
Grant:
'This week the assistant said Frank slapped the face of Boa Morte. If it's true I think the rule is a red card, if not maybe someone else needs to get a red card, but I must admit I didn't see it. If the assistant referee is right, it's a red card.”
The 2nd half saw little progress from West Ham apart from a lob from Carlton Cole which Terry did very well to hook back off the line.
It seemed that the 3 goal margin had put them off any attempted fight back against 10 men.
After some initial pressure from the east enders Chelsea began to break more and more out from our own half and one of these attacks resulted in our 4th goal.
Joe Cole fired in, Green parried out and Ashley Cole with his first league goal for us finished as if he scores every week after slotting in from the tightest of angles. And how he celebrated!
Ballack and Anelka were excellent, Carvalho superb as always, Terry looks to be getting back to his best and even Kalou had a good game.
Grant:
'I think we played very good, we used our chances in the first half, and made some more. Again, many goals from combinations, so I like it,'
'In the second half, we played with one man short but were very clever and controlled the game. They created not even one chance. We needed to play a little bit differently on the tactical side and I think we did it very well,'
Personally, I was still very disappointed that Grant hadn’t used 4-4-2 with both Drogba and Anelka up front…but hey ho!
Media allegations of player unrest and our famous team spirit finally dying seemed ridiculous with a benched Drogba smiling and animated and a determined Ballack, protesting profusely the sending off of Lampard.
Grant:
'I will not speak about the players that are not playing. Didier is a great striker, but it can't be a question of those who are not playing. I give my respect to all the squad, and he has been very good for us in the past, and he will be in the future.
'My reason for the team that played was that it could win the game. I am thinking of more than one game.'
So 3 goals of the 4 from 3 players who didn’t play at Wembley and it must be said that why this is a very welcome victory, the question mark hanging over Grant re his ability to take on the bigger teams will still be dangled until we face the next round CL opponents (if we go through) or for example Arsenal at home in the league.
HIGHLIGHTS
West Ham: Green, Neill, Ferdinand, Upson, McCartney, Faubert (Solano 66), Noble, Mullins, Ljungberg, Boa Morte (Ashton 46), Cole (Zamora 65). Subs Not Used: Wright, Spector.
Chelsea: Cech, Ferreira, Carvalho, Terry, Ashley Cole, Ballack, Makelele (Alex 84), Lampard, Kalou (Malouda 75), Anelka, Joe Cole (Essien 69). Subs Not Used: Cudicini, Drogba.
Sent Off: Lampard (36).
Booked: Ballack, Terry.
Goals: Lampard 17 pen, Joe Cole 20, Ballack 22, Ashley Cole 64.
Att: 34,969
Ref: Peter Walton (Northamptonshire).
Still suffering a CC hangover I couldn't be bothered
.
Instead I subscribed to SMS match day alerts and went out for the day - cost me a bloody fortune!!
Well done Chelsea and roll on Olympiakos.
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008:03:03:08:05:52 by Since 66.
Boa Morte's legs are black and Lampard's white. How could you mix them up?
You also missed Makelele's challange from your report.
Wonder why Curbishley took him off at half-time??
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