Archive for December 4, 2021
Massive 3-2 For West Ham
West Ham’s massive 3-2 win over Chelsea means that the Hammers now have beaten Liverpool and Chelsea and cemented their fourth place in the Premier League table. The victory ended West Ham’s run of three league games without a win since their magnificent 3-2 victory over Liverpool before the international break.
Operating with a back three of Craig Dawson, Moussa Diop and Kurt Zouma, West Ham soaked up Chelsea’s pressure before attempting to strike on the counter.
Chelsea took the lead with a well placed header from Thiago Silva throughout the first half, Manu Lanzini levelled from the penalty spot for West Ham, but Chelsea restored their lead as Mason Mount drilled an impressive volley into the West Ham goal shortly before the halftime whistle.
But West Ham didn’t only come from behind once, they equalised again in the second half courtesy to a system change in midfield and a well-taken goal from the impressive Jarrod Bowen. Then Bowen almost made it 3-2 moments before Arthur Masuaku‘s winner in the 87th minutes: with a cross-turned-shot he caught Chelsea keeper Mendy by surprise and scored the winner for West Ham.
Chelsea have conceded multiple goals for the first time this Premier League season. The last team to score multiple Premier League goals versus Chelsea was Aston Villa in a 2-1 away win on 23 May, the last team to get more than two goals over the Blues were West Brom with. 5-2 win on 3 April. For only the third time in 53 games since Thomas Tuchel took charge as head coach, Chelsea conceded more than one goal – and N’Golo Kante was missing on each occasion.
But anyway, West Ham also missed Ogbonna from the beginning and lost Johnson and Zouma in this game due to injuries!
Oh, I’m so chuffed about this famous win over Chelsea for West Ham, the fourth one in four years! My thoughts go back almost four years when Marko Arnautovic‘s first goal for West Ham secured a 1-0 win for David Moyes’s men at London Stadium in 2017 (pic below). Since that win the Irons had beaten beaten Chelsea twice: in July 3-2 at home and, before that, 1-0 away in the same season. A double over last season’s Champions League winners Chelsea, like 2019/20, would be possible this season, too!
https://youtu.be/DxHA_fN0Df4
Masuaku’s goal somehow reminds me of Paul Konchesky‘s 3-2 against Liverpool in the FA Cup final 2006. This was also a cross which wasn’t meant to be a shot on goal – and went in anyway! But this time there wasn’t Steven Gerrard to equalise, and West Ham can celebrate a massive win!
The Hammers are now only six points behind Chelsea in the table and four ahead of Arsenal, who face Everton at Goodison Park on Monday.
David Moyes interview: “We showed great character and resilience once again”
Match report (The Times): Arthur Masuaku exposes first cracks of the Thomas Tuchel era at Chelsea
Extended highlights: https://www.whufc.com/news/articles/2021/december/05-december/extended-highlights-west-ham-united-3-2-chelsea
🇬🇧 Best Place to Spend Christmas?
Fraser Nelson writes in The Telegraph that Britain is perhaps the best place in Europe to spend this Christmas. Bavaria’s winter markets have closed, France’s bistros won’t let anyone in without a pass sanitaire, Belgium has banned private parties and Ireland’s pubs are all under curfew. But in Britain, the vaccinated and the unvaccinated can walk, work, eat and drink where they like. At least until now…
Unless the omicron variant changes everything, we may well see in the New Year having overcome the virus and upheld the basic values of liberty. Britain is starting to look like the new Sweden: keeping calm and carrying on.
Sajid Javid, the Health Secretary, has flatly ruled out compulsory vaccination, seeing it as not just illiberal but counterproductive: “If you make the vaccine attractive, people will want it,” says one senior official. “If we start to threaten people, it all changes very quickly.” Right now, Britain has face masks on public transport. And non-binding advice from one minister to go easy on “snogging under the mistletoe”. And, so far, not much else.
Last time around, Britain locked down longer and harder than anyone else in Europe. This time, Javid’s instinct is the opposite: not to jump too soon, trust the boosters and see what happens. Quite a gamble. But this time, it’s one the Government is willing to take.
EXTRA TIME 
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