Archive for October 25, 2021
Classic Derby Win
Sunday’s win against Tottenham might not have grabbed so many headlines as this game deserved because of Manchester United’s 5-0 humiliation by Liverpool, but West Ham’s back to back derby victory was a game well contested, if not a classic. This game is followed by a visit of Manchester City in the League Cup on Wednesday night.
West Ham was captained again by Declan Rice in this third win within eight days. These are all but happy days for the Hammers and their fans, and Rice believes the resilience shown by his side in a game like this shows exactly how far they have progressed in the last 18 months:
“We’ve completely transformed the way we are, as players, as people and that’s down to the manager,” he said.
“It’s down to the players buying in to what he wants and every time we go out there, even if we’ve got beaten, we come off the pitch knowing we’ve given everything.
“We’re always in it to the end and we’re sat fourth in the table and we want to keep looking forward. We are a top side – we’re proving that in Europe and we’re proving that in the Premier League.”
And we hope the Hammers will prove that in Wednesday‘s League Cup Game against holders Manchester City, too. West Ham haven’t won against City since a 2-1 in September 2015, and they have only mustered two draws within these six years. In this away win in 2015 Aaron Cresswell and Manuel Lanzini already played for the Hammers together with Mark Noble and then midfield genius Dimitri Payet. The goals were scored by Victor Moses and Diafra Sakho. In the next game against City in this memorable Last Season at the Boleyn West Ham United narrowly failed in their attempt to complete a league double against Manchester City for the first time since the 1962-63 season and drew 2-2 at Upton Park, courtesy to two goals from Enner Valencia.
This draw was followed by a bad run of nine consecutive defeats by Manchester City in all competitions since January 2016, until Michail Antonio’s goal helped the Hammers to secure a 1-1 draw on October 24th last year at London Stadium behind closed doors due to the COVID pandemic.
It will be interesting to see if manager David Moyes will rest the prolific striker in this cup game or if he will play him in the starting eleven to try to knock out the cup holders with the help of his best hit man.
The last time that West Ham have defeated Manchester City in a cup competition was in March 2006 when two Dean Ashton goals at the City of Manchester Stadium secured a 2-1 win in the FA Cup 6th round. West Ham reached the final against Liverpool in that year and was only beaten on penalties after a last gasp equaliser from Steven Gerrard in a 3-3 draw.
Too Far To Fail?
Following the incredible 5-0 trashing of Manchester United by Liverpool on Sunday, Man Utd boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said he has “come too far to give up” despite overseeing United’s biggest defeat to Liverpool since losing 7-1 in 1895.
At this time United were still called “Newton Heath” and played in green and yellow shirts (pic: Wikipedia).
The number of goals scored by Liverpool in Sunday’s 5-0 was outnumbered on this weekend by Chelsea’s 7-0 win over Norwich, a team called the “Canaries” which are sporting the same colours as Newton Heath did back in 1895. But Manchester United’s heavy defeat grabbed almost all the headlines this weekend.
However, there was an other game in which seven goals were scored on the Saturday, too, when Watford with their new manager Claudio Ranieri won 5-2 at Everton. And Manchester City hit four goals in their 4-1 victory at Brighton – a round of many goals that was.
It was Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah who claimed a hat-trick in the win over Manchest United while Naby Keita and Diogo Jota also scored in the Reds’ dominant win. Cristiano Ronaldo couldn’t help, and Paul Pogba who was introduced at half time was red-carded soon after his introduction. Sancho and Lingard were unused subsitutes.
Manchester United now has four games without a win, their next game is against Tottenham away which lost 0-1 to West Ham on Sunday courtesy to a goal by Michail Antonio who on his day is as unplayable as Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah. Only a win over Spurs could help the Red Devils which sit in seventh in the Premier League move up the table.
United’s Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said the loss is his “darkest day” as manager but will carry on. Has he really gone too far to fail, is he still the right man at the helm?
Tough times for everybody at Manchester United …
EXTRA TIME 
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