Chelsea v West Ham - a throwback

With a crucial match in the title run in against West Ham at the London Stadium – out first visit their in the Premier League – coming up on Monday night, I thought it might be a good idea to write a blog re-living some of our classic battles down the years with our London rivals.

Chelsea v West Ham has always been a fierce derby even though both teams would probably not consider each other their main rivals – Chelsea would point to Spurs plus Liverpool and Arsenal in recent years as their rivals, while West Ham would point to Spurs and Millwall. But both sets of fans have always reserved a considerable amount of hate for each other.

One of my earliest memories was a clash in the first season that captured my imagination as a fan – the 1996/97 season. The Ruud Gullit revolution was starting to take shape with Vialli, Leboeuf and Di Matteo all brought in over the summer and suddenly supporting Chelsea was started to feel exciting as we started to move away from the mid table obscurity years of Hoddle. In the coming weeks before we faced West Ham in our final game before Christmas on 21^st December, we had added a new recruit – an Italian by the name of Gianfranco Zola, signed from Parma. This player looked skillful, diminutive and creative and little did we know seven years later he would be leaving Chelsea a club legend. He was brought in to partner with Vialli, who Gullit later admitted, was ‘not doing the business’. But Vialli would be injured for West Hams visit to us and so it presented an opportunity for Zola to partner up front with Mark Hughes …. little would have been anticipated from that until the two developed such an incredible in sync partnership together, that Vialli would pretty spend the remainder of the season on the bench.

In the opening 6 minutes a low cross was dummied by Zola for mark Hughes to turn and drill home a low shot for Chelsea to lead. A good start, but what followed minutes later arguably was the moment Zola became a legend as early as then with the Chelsea faithful. He had scored one goal previously – a free kick against Everton (not counting the free kick against Newcastle that Vialli nicked off him with his ‘hair’) – but this one was so much better. A counter attack in which Hughes picked up the ball on the halfway line and found Zola one on one with West Ham legend and hard man Julian Dicks, with Zola sending him the wrong way not once, but twice in a mazy run before drilling the ball home for 2-0. With a newly signed foreign player going up against the legendary Dicks and coming out on top, it arguably proved to be the end for Dicks who was moved on from West Ham the following summer. The Zola Hughes partnership wasn’t done there though, but not before Hugo Porfiro fired a long range left foot strike from outside the area past Keeper Frode Grodas (remember him?) a minute after Zola’s goal. On 35 minutes Chelsea restored their two goal advantage which West Ham would fail to come back from, as Zola out on the wing, sent in a cross for a classic thumping Hughes header. Chelsea would go on to lift the FA cup that season with the those two players spearing the front line for much of that season and hand Chelsea their first silverware for twenty six years, which would prove to be the springboard for much more cup success in the following years.

The second match I’m going to look at is an FA cup replay on 6^th February 2002. The first match at the Bridge had finished 1-1 with Kanoute cancelling out Hasselbaink’s opener. So Chelsea had to travel to Upton Park at a time when a different kind of revolution took place, years on from the ‘Ruud revolution’ and via Vialli’s reign, Claudio Ranieri was now charged by Ken Bates with moving Chelsea forward after seemingly going backwards during the Vialli years following rumors of player unrest. A first season brought much transition but this season Ranieri’s vision was starting to take shape. The game struggled to come to life until 37 minutes when Jermaine Defoe’s wild shot took an unlucky deflection off John Terry and in off the bar via Cudicini – 1-0 to West ham. The lead lasted four minutes though as a quickly taken Hasselbaink free kick fooled David James, who was still organizing the wall, and flew into the net.

West Ham regained the lead though on 50 minutes as Don Hutchinson’s low angled shot was spilled by Cudicini into the path of Defoe who side footed home into the empty net. Chelsea put West Ham under pressure for an equalizer and got one through substitute Mikael Forsell who intercepted Schemmel’s weak header back to the keeper to prod home under James for 2-2. So four goals all courtesy of defensive/goalkeeping errors – an entertaining game that looked to be heading for extra time. Up stepped future captain John Terry to powerfully header home a Graham Le Saux corner in stoppage time to give Chelsea victory and a place in round five of the FA cup. Terry was a few years away from being named the clubs permanent captain and this match winning performance was an early notification of how he would go onto be the greatest and most influential captain in our history. Chelsea would go on to reach the final this season as well, but would ultimately lose to Arsenal. However with Chelsea gradually showing signs of improvement and playing a more exciting brand of football under Ranieri following the slow build up play in the Vialli years, it wouldn’t be long before (the following year in fact) Chelsea would catch a certain Roman Abramovich’s attention and a whole new chapter in CFC history would be about to be written – while West Ham were a year away from relegation.

The final game I will recall is from 9^th April 2006 – when a very different Chelsea in the aforementioned Abramovich era, would be closing in on a second successive title but following a slight wobble, and with Man Utd breathing down our necks, the arrival of recently promoted West Ham to the Bridge was not the welcome fixture on paper that it previously would have been. I picked this fixture out because it featured a fantastic performance from under fire striker at the time, Didier Drogba, who produced one of his best performances in a Chelsea shirt at a time when it looked as though he might leave.

The game did not start well for us as James Collins headed home near post from a corner to put West Ham 1-0 after 10 minutes. With Chelsea dropping points recently and with Man Utd going on one of their traditional end of season winning runs, it was starting to look worryingly like Chelsea’s title challenge might start to falter. That worry looked more likely when Maniche was given a straight red card seven minutes later for a lunging challenge on Scaloni. So 1-0 down and down to ten men, not looking good but Drogba had other ideas. After 28 minutes, a long ball from Lampard found Drogba who went through on goal but saw his shot blocked by Hislop, only for the ball to ricochet back into his path for him to slot the ball home for 1-1. Just three minutes later, the West Ham fans who had been so boisterous at the start of the match, were stunned into silence when Drogba fired a low cross across the penalty area which found its way to Hernan Crespo at the far post to tap in and put the ten men ahead.

The second half showed Chelsea as the champions they were, and the champions they were soon to be as they put West Ham away despite having one player less. On 54 minutes a William Gallas shot from the edge of the area came crashing off the bar straight into the path of our other centre back Terry who volleyed home for 3-1. On 69 minutes the game was sealed when Robben’s deflected free kick was headed down into the path of Gallas who eventually got his goal and prodded home from close range. There was no doubt who the star of the day was – Didier Drogba who after arriving for a substantial fee of twenty four million, had somewhat struggled in his first couple of seasons and around this time had been touted for a move. But with this being a stand out performance that displayed his true qualities, Drogba ended up staying, winning the golden boot the following season and when on to become voted the greatest player in our history (replacing the previous winner Zola) whose final kick before his (first) departure in 2012 won us the Champions League.

Chelsea have already been to the London Stadium once this season when a fringe eleven lost 2-1 in the league cup, but tomorrow should be a stronger eleven in a crucial game at a crucial point in the season.  

Fans v Pundits

Following the Chelsea v Arsenal game this week, an interesting side story developed which I thought worthy of writing a blog on. It brought up the issue of 'Fans v Pundits' or 'Fans v Media' which is something that is finally being addressed of sorts in the wake of Chelsea's win over Arsenal.

It started towards the end of the game when an Arsenal fan - following Giroud's consolation goal in stoppage time - held up a banner saying "WENGER OUT!" which prompted commentator Gary Neville to describe the fan as 'an idiot' for pre-meditating the situation and bringing the banner into the ground before the game despite everything Wenger has done for the club.

Wenger of course has led Arsenal to great success in his first nine years at the club, winning three titles and four FA cups, including an invincible season. However the eleven years that followed have brought only two FA cups - both of which followed an eight year haul without a trophy, and no titles. Crucially though, Arsenal have qualified for the champions league - and reached the knockout stages - every season and have remained financially stable as well. This is likely why Neville believes Wenger's achievements should be respected - however it is the lack of progress and titles that has angered a large section of fans creating a Wenger in/out divide.

The main issue that seems to have derived from this is the issue of opinion - that fans opinions should be respected. This is what Neville got the most criticism for - although afterwards he made it clear he was not insinuating that the Arsenal supporter did not have a right to his opinion. In fact Gary Neville has a right to his opinion so if he thinks that Arsenal fans that want Wenger out are idiots then fair play to him - but I think it's all about perspective.

Fans pay money to go to games - and going to football now is expensive. I'm a Chelsea fan and no  one needs to tell me this - I made a judgement call based on circumstances not to renew my membership this season (boy am I regretting that now). But fans will literally pay money they barely have, wake up ridiculous hours and travel all over the country to watch their favourite team - they clearly care. While pundits like Neville and the rest of his team at Sky, as far as I'm aware, would not have been paying to attend Stamford Bridge on Saturday, they would have been getting paid to be there in fact. So is it right that Gary Neville can be so dismissive and patronising to a fan for expressing his opinion that he believes it is time for change? Especially as that fan would have been paying to be there. Surely we should respect his opinion?

I was watching a video on YouTube channel "Ball Street" the other day, which had Robbie from Arsenal Fan TV and Sophie from the Chelsea Fans Channel on there as guests - and Sophie made a point about how fans how currently disillusioned with how 'corporate' the game has got. You can't stand at games, at least not without stewards telling you to sit down (something a concerned Chelsea fan reached out to John Terry about on Instagram a few years ago) you can't sing in certain pubs - its all starting to feel corporate. I would add that I can relate to those points myself as a Chelsea fan but also that certain pubs that usually contain more 'atmosphere' are being closed down throughout Fulham (the famous Shed Bar being one), the influx of the prawn sandwich brigade and the prices themselves which are pricing ordinary working class fans out of the game. But this doesn't mean fans don't care less and to have Neville and co all suited and booted sitting in their corporate TV studio dismiss them as idiotic or a disgrace is, as Sophie mentioned, very patronising.

I am however, going to play Devils advocate - just for the sake of it :)

On some level, I can understand Gary Neville's particular singling out of Arsenal TV - as can anyone who has ever watched it. We have something similar at Chelsea and I believe Man City have their own version too, amongst other teams. But no one outside of Chelsea is talking about watching it, especially when we lose, but everyone wants to watch Arsenal TV when Arsenal lose. Why?

Simply that - without sounding rude - the kind of characters that are on Arsenal TV are so ridiculously over the top they set themselves up for ridicule. Hell even I watch some of their videos - it IS comedy gold in all fairness. Some of the points they make, can be easily dismissed. "We lost to Watford because of the rain". Really? To be fair the Arsenal Fan TV presenter did make a point that those fans do get interviewed every week, even when they win and are mostly positive.

The point is - do fans really know better? Just because they pay money does it necessarily mean they know better than the professionals of the game and that their opinions should be heard? Not always the case, although of course everyone does have a right to an opinion. A famous example that surfaced just recently in the wake of Frank Lampard's retirement was the 1997 video from the West Ham fan forum. In case you've not seen it, a West Ham fan tells then manager Harry Redknapp that two players they recently released - Scott Canham and Matt Holland - were both better than Frank Lampard and firmly disagreed with Redknapp, prompting Harry to famously and correctly predict that Lampard would go 'right to the very top', which he very well did. Redknapp's arguments were that Scott Canham 'definitely wasn't good enough as he's gone to Brentford and can't get in Brentford's team' (Scott Canham's career after that would be mostly spent in non league football) and Matt Holland 'might bounce back as a good First Division player' (Matt Holland did indeed bounce back as a good First Division player with Ipswich Town) so that's two more predictions Mystic Harry got right. The West Ham fans logic was 'I go to a lot of games and Reserve team games so I clearly know what I'm talking about'. He clearly didn't.

My point is fans don't know what goes on behind the scenes in training, with players attitudes and mentalities etc so do they really know better? If they don't is it then therefore understandable why the likes of Gary Neville would be so (even if they don't mean to be) easily dismissive? Perhaps he shouldn't have been so rude and at least worded it differently but maybe it's not hard to see his viewpoint. Fans don't have the insight professional and ex-professional footballers have - it's like the saying 'if you know, you know' etc.

I remember a few years ago I was mystified we sold Daniel Sturridge to Liverpool - especially as he started scoring loads of goals for them. Couldn't believe we let him go. But fast forward to now and we are hearing that Liverpool aren't happy with him either as he apparently 'doesn't work hard enough in training' and apparently doesn't have the right mentality. Seems unlikely they will keep him beyond the summer - which means he will have been moved on from Man City, Chelsea and (potentially, looking likely) Liverpool.

Yet four years ago I could not believe we let him go and i was very angry.

But then what do I know? I'm just a fan :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0GShEWw5x4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAjd_jTvURc

Chelsea 3 -1 Arsenal

Chelsea retained their nine point lead at the top of the table with a comprehensive win over their title rivals in a game that demonstrated just how accurate the current points gap between the two teams is in terms of showing just how much stronger Chelsea are than their London neighbours.

The reverse fixture earlier in the season was somewhat of a defining moment in Chelsea's season as Chelsea were bruised, battered and 3-0 down at half time and Antionio Conte decided to switch to his signature formation of three at the back at half time - and it was that change of formation that saw Chelsea go storming to the top of the league and win 13 games in a row. I even saw a tweet from one Arsenal fan who acknowledged 'We'd have been better off beating Chelsea 1-0 instead of 3-0 as hammering them has given birth to this Barca-esque team'.

Chelsea made one change from their midweek draw with Pedro coming in for Willian but ultimately remained unchanged from the team that had dominated the Premier League for the last four months. Much was made by the media of Arsene Wenger having to sit in the stands amongst Chelsea fans (due to his touchline ban) but I feel this was an attempt to make a story out of nothing as they always have seats reserved in the East Upper for managers/staff serving touchline bans and this has been the case for about 16 years or so.

A mix up with Courtois and the Chelsea defence almost let Arsenal midfielder Iwobi in with a shot - bit it was deflected around the post for a corner. After that, Chelsea took full control with their midfield dominating the show. They took the lead on 13 minutes when a Pedro cross from the right was headed against the bar by Diego Costa - before the ball dropped down and was headed in by Marcus Alonso. Alonso is becoming somewhat of an unsung hero for Chelsea - he has had a fair few critics regarding his defensive duties but the fact he has played every game in our winning run since we changed formations cannot be ignored. Arsenal fans though were furious that a foul was not given for Alonso's elbow making contact with Bellerin's head as he went up for the header - feeling that Alonso should have been sent off. It was a 50/50 ball though the fact Alonso's eyes were clearly on the ball mean it was correctly allowed.

Chelsea then started to create half chances and openings, with Costa shooting wide of the near post when assisted by Pedro, and the Spanish striker had the chance to put Pedro clean through on goal some minutes later but tried to take the Arsenal defence on and spurned the opportunity. Later in the half the roles would be reversed with Pedro spurning a golden chance to put Costa clean through.

Pedro himself would go close only for his left foot shot to be saved by Cech and out for a corner. (As a sidenote - Chelsea's corners haven't been that great lately I feel, either not clearing the first man or going to wide. I can't remember the last time we took a corner that led to at least a chance)
As the first half came to an end Arsenal created a few chances, with Courtois saving well from a Gabriel header and then on half time Ozil shooting low through a crowd that Courtois comfortably held.

The second half started well and Chelsea doubled their lead on 53 minutes with a wonder goal - picking the ball up on the halfway line, Hazard proceeded to dribble and bamboozle his way through the Arsenal defence and chip the ball over Cech for a sublime finish. For a player that received a lot of criticism last year for various reasons, he seems to be winning the Chelsea fans over again. One thing is for sure is that he is certainly better than Ozil, who was having another one of his 'missing' days.

No clear cut chances followed but Chelsea continued to dominate - with Kante immense in midfield winning every tackle. Gary Neville commented in commentary that Arsenals midfield of Iwobi, Oxlade Chamberlain and Ozil would not win you league - and it definitely showed. There was a flash point that will no doubt have been ignored by Arsenal fans still incensed about Alonso's 'foul' - and that was an elbow from Gabriel on Hazards face which was missed. Arguably more of a red card than Alonso but the media chose not to focus on it for some reason. Gabriel of course was sent off in the corresponding fixture last season when clashing with Costa.

Welbeck and Mustafi both went close with headers late on as Arsenal tried to get back into the game, but then the game was put to bed when two former players on opposing teams combined in a comical moment. Cech against his old club, seemingly forgot he was no longer a Chelsea player - or forgot Fabregas (who had come on as a sub) was no longer an Arsenal player as the Czech keeper passed the ball straight to the Chelsea midfielder who then lobbed him for number three.

Arsenal did grab a consolation in stoppage time with a Giroud header - a goal that I think Courtois should have done better with. Zouma - another substitute - should have been tracking him but he is probably still lacking some slight match fitness after his long lay-off. Lots of rumours that Courtois will be off in the summer. I am still not totally 100% convinced of how good he is as a keeper and I feel like if he really did want to move on to Madrid, then Chelsea should possibly make a move for Joe Hart, if City don't want him back of course.

So it finished 3-1 and at the start of the week, I'd have taken two draws but considering no one took advantage when we drew with Liverpool in the week, this is more than acceptable. Still nine points clear and having played most of our main rivals played twice accept for City, who we still have to face at home and United away. We're also still in the FA cup which I think, may become more of a priority the longer we stay in it providing our Premier League form continues to be good.

Plenty of reasons to be positive at the minute! Come on the Chels!