Yesterday's victory for West Ham against Chelsea summed up everything that West Ham are about this season - power, pace and physical and mental strength.
Chelsea dominated the first half and probably should have scored 2 or 3 more than the 1 goal Juan Mata scored on 13 minutes and West Ham's only concrete chance came when Kevin Nolan put the ball into the net with an overhead kick, but it was disallowed when James Collins was penalised - harshly in my opinion. Something dramatically changed in the 2nd half for both teams, Sam Allardyce brought on Matt Taylor for Gary O'Neil and Mohamed Diame came on for James Tomkins. Two great decisions from Big Sam as both players changed the game, Diame gave the team more of an attacking threat but was able to come back and defend when needed. Although they're both 'box to box' midfielders, Matt Taylor seems to be more purposeful than Gary O'Neil. Playing O'Neil can sometimes create the danger of having no one on the right hand side as O'Neil tends to drift infield to become a central midfielder.
Diame added an extra dimension to the Hammers' play. He acted as a wingman for Kevin Nolan and both of them caused the Chelsea defence havoc, although Nolan didn't play as well as he has done before this season - possibly a cause of Andy Carroll's absence. The addition of Diame also allowed Mark Noble to stay back as a lone defensive midfielder, but knew that he had Diame to back him up when Chelsea went forward. Diame is also a goal threat, with his powerful left foot proving a menace for Petr Cech yesterday.
An unexpected hero from the match was Carlton Cole. Players tend to do well against their former clubs and Cole certainly did that against Chelsea, he scored one and provided the assist for Diame to score the team's second. He was named man of the match by Sky Sports and I can't disagree with that, it was probably one of his best games for West Ham ever. He'll have to reproduce the kind of performance he showed yesterday for the next 6 to 8 weeks as Andy Carroll is out with a knee injury, but Modibo Maiga will be itching to play as well. Competition for places is always a good thing at football team, but loaning out youngster Rob Hall to Birmingham could backfire if Cole or Maiga get injured in the next few weeks as Vaz Te is out of action as well.
It was probably West Ham's best game of the season, beating the Champions of Europe after coming back from 1-0 down was fantastic, especially as the performance was good as well. The only bad thing about the game for West Ham was that they didn't play that well in the first half. After Chelsea scored, they were allowed to dominate for most of the first half by West Ham. This sort of thing has happened before this season for West Ham. A prime example was against Stoke a few weeks ago, Stoke dominated the first half and scored, but West Ham played well in the second half and got a draw. It was a game the Hammers probably should have won given the amount of chances they had.
TB 2012.
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