West Ham United Blog

West Ham punished for Millwall trouble by draw against Bolton

Well, no one needs to take any further action, we are now punished enough.  The Carling Cup draw has given a trip to  place where our recent record reads two draws and six losses.  West Ham are away to Bolton Wanderers in the Carling Cup.  Bolton's brand of turgid, one dimensional football has won them few friends in the Premier League and maybe they have finally been found out, with two losses in the league thus far this year. 

We deserved something last season, so hopefully we will get something this time round, but as they are a real bogey side for us, I'm not holding my breath!

West Ham sign striker!

Yeah, we got one!  A very warm welcome to Upton Park to Alessandro Diamanti, our new signing from SItalian side Livorno.  And don't we need one?  I love Carlton Cole, but he deseprately needed a striking partner and if the boys gel together, it could be a real bonus for us.  He is certainly a more established than Savio and we can expect to see him breaking into the first team pretty soon.  As we have announced this before 12pm, he could even be on the bench for Blackburn, I'd be amazed if he starts for us as he has only joined today.  Let's hope he is a 'Diamanti geezer' at least.  Hmmm, I'll get my coat.  Anyway, I'm pretty excited and IF we can pick up Gudjohnsen on a loan deal as well, then we have some real strength to the squad, but either way we have made a much needed siging today.

Read more at the BBC or the official site

PS Word on the street says expect to see James Collins head off to Villa....

Blackburn Rovers v West Ham preview

Well, it's been quite a week, but hopefully the focus can now turn to matters on the pitch.  But before we move on, I just hope the away faithful will be on their best behaviour this Saturday, the last thing we need is the wrong kind of headlines.  Games against Blackburn tend to be firm but fair and there is no reason for us to disgrace ourselves.

On to the game and Zola has some interesting selection issues following the game on Tuesday night.  With Hines and Stanislas making names for themselves and Nouble bursting with potential, it's nice to have some decisions to make.  My main thought however is that Jack Collison should be given a rest this weekend.  Grief has a strange way of ctaching up with you and I imagine the boy is emotionally shattered, even if he does not admit to it himself.  Zola and Clarke should put an arm round him, tell him to spend the weekend with his family and come back bright and breezy on Monday.

With that in mind, I think it should be 4-4-1-1 for us this weekend, in a similar way to how we lined up against Spurs.  So...

Green

Spector - Upson - Collins - Faubert

Stanislas - Parker - Dyer - Noble

Jiminez

Cole

Bench: Kurucz, Baked Beans, Kovac, Nouble, Gabbidon, Tomkins and Savio

I'm assuming Illunga is still out and that Dyer is back.  If not, we can expect to see Kovac in that Position.  Jiminez was impressive against Spurs and I think he can push on from that perfomance. #

As for Rovers, they are yet to win a game this season, having lost to Man City and Sunderland, so will be looking to turn round their fortunes.

Key player: Cole can't get all the goals, so we'll be looking for LUIS JIMINEZ  to start troubling the scorers

Key opponent:  Despite their start, Blackburn are quite a strong side and EL-HADJ DIOUF is usually a handful

Prediction: The boys put on some great performances on the road last season, and I'm feeling good about this one, so a hard fought 2-1 win to the Hammers.  Come on you Irons!

There should have only been one headline today...

...and that headline would have been all about the immense mental strength of Jack Collison, pulling on a West Ham shirt some 48 hours after his father passed away.  Instead, those headlines, that moment, was stolen by thugs and idiots invading the pitch at Upton Park.  I don't give a monkeys if 'Millwall' started it, and to be honest I don't really care about what happened outside the ground.  The cameras and the commentators are inside the ground and there can be no doubt it was idiots who claim to support West Ham who repeatedly invaded the pitch. 

Have we not had enough troubles in the past week without this heaping more grief on our club?  Do you think a fine or a game behind closed doors will do us good right now?  Do you want to be looked down upon by other clubs as visit their grounds?  Clearly the answer for some is yes but if it is, you are not a West Ham fan.  I understand the highs and lows of football, have been through plenty supporting this club for twenty five plus years, but invading a pitch during a game and bringing the club into disrepute is something that just does not need to be done.

Anyway, I'm bored of talking about this now, I want to go back to Jack Collison.  You have made yourself an Upton Park legend already mate, showing how much you want to put on the shirt and I am gutted for you that the ball hit the post rather than nestled in the net like I know you wanted it to.  It will come, don't you worry.  Congratulations to Hines and Stanislas as well for their excellent performances. 

But there can only be one man of the match for me: Jack Collison.  It's just a shame so many people wanted to ruin your night Jack, I can only apologise on their behalf, as you can be sure they don't have the brains to do so themselves.

West Ham v Millwall preview

Just a quickie tonight as this one has come around very quickly after the Spurs game.  I've already said I would have rather have caned Spurs than do Millwall tomorrow night, but that's probably because I know plenty of Spurs fans but no Millwall.  As the caning of Spurs did not materialise, it would be great to get back to winning ways against this lot.

Although Zola has said he has to play a strong team and the fans are clamouring for it, I'm happy for him to mix the team up a bit but still have a strong enough selection to win the game.  Carlton should get a game as I reckon he can do with the confidence of a goal but I'd like to see Nouble get a run out as well.  Okay, here's my team...

Green

Daprela - Tomkins - Gabbidon - Faubert

Stanislas - Kovac - Noble - Savio

Cole - Hines

Bench: Kurucz, Upson, Spector, Collsion, Nouble, Parker and Collins

Gives us enough strength through the middle but gives some youngsters a run out too.  I reckon we will ghost past this lot pretty easily and am predicting 4-1 to the Hammers with a Cole brace bringing our top fella back to life...come on you Irons!

Photos from today's game

David Bailey I'm not, but here's a few little piccies from the game today...

Getcha programmes

Rook takes Knight

Makes you proud eh?

The lads get warmed up

Daddy, can you get me a shirt with the player who will make the most appearances this season?

Crouch's invisibility ray superpower works wonders on the pitch

Hammers subs get warmed up, but we saw them too late....

Spot the ball....

West Ham 1 Spurs 2

Well, it was great to be back at Upton Park and in the sunshine, there was a pretty good atmosphere.  Unfortunately for us, there were not a barrage of new signings to welcome to the East End, just a quick wave from our loanee Luis Jiminez.  If this continues to be the case, it will be the difference between an average season and a great one.  This game exemplified this.

The lack of squad saw Johnathan Spector in for Herita Illunga at left back and Junior Stanislas in for Kieron Dyer, who mysteriously disappeared from the squad completely.  Overall, the Hammers played pretty well, especially in the first half where Spurs were denied the ability to play the flowing football and the Hammers probably had the better of the chances.

In the second half, Carlton Cole would have impressed the watching Fabio Capello with a finish supreme quality.  Sadly for Carlton, he then went on to provide a back pass to Jermaine Defoe who finished as we knew he would.  For me, the Hammers heads went down a little bit too much after that, and when Lennon put Spurs ahead, a bit of a lack of fitness on our part was showing.  We looked to the bench, but the young contenders are not ready to change games.

This sounds pessimistic, actually, it is the opposite.  We have a good side, top ten in this league I have no doubt.  What is frustrating is that we are only two, maybe three players away from being a very good side, but with the club in continued financial disarray, I'm not sure it going to happen.

Player ratings:

Green - 7 - couldn't do much about their goals and made some decent saves along with good kicking

Spector - 6 - did a decent job on Lennon in the first half, it was hard for me to see his apparent error which led to Lennon's goal, but I think Specs did okay

Collins - 7 - some immense, strong heading of the ball reminded us of what we will miss if he goes, I really don't want him to

Upson - 6 - fairly strong against the diddy men of Spurs attack

Faubert - 8 - my man of the match, after looking good going forward last week at Wolves, he did a good defensive job for us today.  This could be a crucial turnaround for us

Stanislas  - 7 - kept himself busy and made some good runs, good replacement for Dyer

Parker - 6 - better game than last week, made some crucial tackles for us

Collison - 5.5 - didn't think Jack was great today, lacked a bit of fitness towards the end and found it difficult against the Spurs midfield

Noble - 6 - did some things well, but would have liked a bit more from him

Jiminez - 7 - this boy is fitting in nicely, some nice runs and a great touch

Cole - 6.5 - oh Carlton, if it weren't for the error, you'd be looking at a possible man of the match.  Keep your head up mate, you gave Spurs a torrid time and are still a cracking striker

Zola/Clarke - 6 - the guys had to jig things round and I'm not sure I would have done things too differently.  I might have bought Hines and Nouble on a little earlier to have given us a better chance of the equaliser.

Overall, I'm not too disheartend, yes are North London rivals beat us, but if they think they trounced us, they are seriously mistaken.  They had a tough game and got the rub of the green to win it, and they know it.

Next up Millwall, bring on Tuesday night!  Oh, I took some pics today and will upload them soon.  Up the Hammers!

Callum Davenport Stabbed

West Ham Blog has just heard that Hammers centre half Callum Davenport was stabbed last night in an incident at his home in Bedforshire.  It is understood he was stabbed in the legs and his injuries were described as serious.  The club has issued a brief statement but not alot of detail has been released at the moment.  We wish Callum and his mum all the best in their recovery...

Football Bets for the weekend

As well as loving the Hammers and winding up Sp*rs fans, I love a punt (of the footballing kind).  So thought I'd share my thoughts on the bets available this weekend.

It's still silly season at the moment, with clubs getting to know newly promoted teams and new players coming in.  Wigan started off as world beaters on Saturday against Villa only to come a cropper against Wolves who the Hammers dealt with on Saturday.  Burnley threatened to be the whipping boys after a poor start at Stoke and then go and beat Manchester United.  The strength seems to be with Arsenal and Chelsea at the moment.  Spurs have started well, but we all know that will come to halt at the weekend!

Interesting bets for me are when a Premier Lague team at home are not fancied.  This is the case with two teams this weekend, as both Fulham (at home to Chelsea) and Wigan (at home to Man United) are both 6-1. 

Wigan have had a mixed start, beating a shaky Villa on the opening day before losing 1-0 to Wolves.  Last season, they played Man United and only a late Carrick penalty gave them a 2-1 win.  However, Fergie will be hurting from the defeat at Burnley, and it is very rare that United are stung twice, so perhaps backing them at 1/2 may be more sensible.

The Fulham game is more intriguing, I don't know how but Hodgson has made his side into a tough lot who get results.  Adding Damien Duff to the squad gives them a new, exciting dimension.  They have only won one of sixteen meetings with Chelsea, then again, I don't think they have ever been as strong as they are now.  Chelsea are pretty hot but they do have the capability to have an off day.  At 6/1 this is worth considering.

My dead cert for the weekend is Man City against Wolves - the first home game of the season at Middle Eastlands and an up for it crown cheering on a raft of new stars against the Premier League new boys.  Wolves will get some results this season, but this won't be one of them, and Man City at 1/3 are worth getting some money behind.

Sky Bet will give you a free tenner when place a £10 bet yourself when you use the banner below.  Put your tenner on City home win then take theirs and punt it on Fulham at home to Chelsea.  Good luck!

West Ham v Spurs Preview

No doubt you’ve already seen the updated facebook statuses and received the text messages regarding the temporary lofty position of our North London rivals.  And they wonder why they are one of the most disliked clubs in the Premier League.  To be fair they have started brightly, a narrow victory against a Liverpool team in disarray after the departure of Alonso and a victory at Hull who have not won at home in 2009, so hey, you can understand their excitement.

Whether West Ham benefit from a midweek break will remain to be seen.  It may have been nice to keep some momentum going after the fine performance at Wolves, but likewise the lads should be suitably refreshed and ready to rumble for this one.  The fitness test will be if we can perform to a high standard against Millwall a couple of days later, but I think Zola should use that game to blood a few youngsters.

As far as the team is concerned, James Tomkins should be back in the reckoning after serving the final game of his suspension.  Herita Illunga is expected to be fit, though we will get confirmation of that from the club tomorrow.  We don’t know if James Collins will even be at the club with Stoke still hovering, but for now let’s assume that he is.  Still, I think the pacier Tomkins should get the nod ahead of Collins as we seek to control an in-form Jermaine Defoe.  Apart from that, I’d line up as we did against Wanderers...

Green

Illunga – Tomkins – Upson – Faubert

Collison – Parker – Dyer – Noble

Jiminez

Cole

Bench: Kurucz, Gabbidon, Baked Beans, Spector, Savio, Stanislas and Kovac

Illunga will have to be alert to the runs of Lennon, whereas Faubert and Noble should have less of an issue with Modric as he tends to drift in a bit more.  In the middle, Parker and Dyer will need to get the better of tough tackling Palacios. 

Interestingly, Spurs keeper Gomes appeared to have damaged his thigh muscle last night, so Spurs could have Cudicini in goal, who has not greatly impressed on his few appearances for them.  Ledley King might be back, but Redk*app might start off with Crouch or Pavluychenko to partner Defoe up front, as he is going to have to start rotating to keep his players happy.

Key Player:   Noble – one of the local lads who knows what this game means to us, after a good start against Wolves, let’s hope Noble leads the troops for this one

Key Opponent: Former Hammer and blue lights fan Jermain Defoe has been on good form and we’ll need to keep an eye on him

Prediction: A very tough one to call this as Spurs have been a bit of a bogey side ever since they had lasagne for lunch and didn’t qualify for the Champions League and become the big club they have wet dreams about.  We will have to be in good form and really want this, but it won’t be easy.  I can see spoils being shared in a close 2-2 draw for this one.

Don’t let us down Hammers, come on you Irons!!!!!!!!