All you need is glove

OLAS 469 4th November 2009

Change is in the air. My heart feels warmer but my hands feel colder. I was aware of the change in temperature a couple of weeks ago. The slightly arthritic joints in my thumbs are my barometer and for a couple of weeks now they have begun to ache. Arthritis is notoriously responsive to temperature shifts. Still I figured I could pick up some West Ham gloves on one of the stalls near the ground on the way to the Arsenal game. No such luck. The stallholders told me it’s not cold enough. It’s a strange conception of business where they don’t sell what the customer wants because they don’t feel as cold as the customer. It’s a bit like going out on a rainy day in search of an umbrella and the shopkeeper or stallholder saying, “No we don’t stock them it’s perfectly dry in here.” No wonder Britain’s economy is going down the tubes. Never mind, because as I said it is feeling so much warmer in my heart.

Even if it wasn’t a victory it certainly felt like one. And to see Whinger pacing up and down like Mr Bean and looking so annoyed and frustrated and depressed emphasised that he saw it as points lost to us. It has been a while since we have shown the character to come back from the brink of defeat but the 2-2 draw against Arsenal should herald a turning point in our torrid season.

After giving fair warning in the first 15 minutes that we were not going down without a fight. Arsenal gradually assumed control. Though they barely deserved to be 2-0 up at half-time, the scoreboard doesn’t lie and it looked like we had a mountain to climb. Fortunately for us Arsenal are a bunch of arrogant tossers and just when they thought they were toying with us and casually seeing out the minutes until their victory was confirmed we came storming back.

Had Parker not been sent off when he was the one being fouled, I think we would have gone on to snatch a winner. Arsenal’s defence was completely rattled and we were riding the little bit of fortune that helped us back into it. You wouldn’t envy any keeper trying to keep out Diamanti’s free kick but Vito Mannone managed to push it right into the danger area where Carlton was quick witted and brave enough to get his head down to it.

With four minutes injury time being added we had to see out what seemed an eternity with our 10 men against the full 11 of one of the Europe’s top teams. That Arsenal failed was down to two factors – Robert Green with a wonder save to compensate for being at fault on the two goals; and the true fighting qualities of our team when they were undeservedly up against it.

In those last few minutes I felt more proud of the team than I have all season. They worked for and covered each other with absolute commitment and still tried, with the numbers against us, to go forward in search of a winner.

I thought for once we would see a fair representation of our display on Match of the Day. Silly me. Apart from our two goals all they showed were Arsenal’s attacking moves, yet the match stats show pretty even numbers of shots and corners. Between the tossers on MOTD and the morons who think it will boost ratings to hand free air space on Question Time to those who would deny free speech to everyone they disapproved of, if they ever got a sniff of power, BBC1 is not my favourite channel at the moment.

A few players deserve special mention both for positive and negative reasons. At half time I told my mate that our only hope of getting back into the match was getting Noble off and Diaminti on and this conversation took about 10 minutes to filter down from the Doc Marten’s Upper to our chirpy Italian coach. If the game started to shift back to us when an aggressive and tricky player like Diamanti came on, how much more so when Hines joined the fray, with his pace and willingness to run at defenders. Our desire to fight for every ball and drive ourselves forward meant that many times in the first half, even after going behind, we were winning corners and also free kicks which enabled us to float the ball into their danger area – and pretty much each one was wasted by Noble. I’ve been a big fan of his, when others have got on his back, but he seemed to be seriously lacking in confidence and ideas.

Which made it all the more surprising that he Noble kept his place in the starting line up at Sunderland, though to be fair, from what I saw of the game on Match of the Day, his game had picked up. Also back to his very best was Jack Collison who was the provider for both the goals and who worked his plums off during the Arsenal game.

When we went two goals up at Sunderland in 36 minutes the effect of the comeback against Arsenal was evident, and both goals were taken with great aplomb. Franco showed strength and speed to get to Collison’s low cross when challenged by two defenders and Cole took the ball in his stride beautifully before despatching it without any hesitation. You have to give Sunderland credit for their fight-back in the same way that we earned it a week earlier. They had won four on the trot at home and last time out beat Liverpool. They are building a good side and deserve their place in the top half, so a 2-2 result at the end was perhaps disappointing given that we had been two up but probably fair to the efforts of both teams. And more importantly suggested that we have broken the habit of losing.

It seems that 2-2 is our signature at the moment, with three of our last four league outings ending in that score. More like this and we will stop being known as “The Hammers’ and be renamed “The Desmonds”.

Now we have two home games in the space of a few days to prove that we have turned the corner, though the opponents in both will undoubtedly be tough. Aston Villa and Everton drew with each other at the weekend. Both have an abundance of skilful players. First up it’s Villa for whom Ashley Young and Gabriel Agbonlahor always stand out. And of course it’s the return of the Ginger Pele who has made an excellent start at his new club. He will know Carlton Cole’s game inside out, which is why will need something a little extra to unnerve the Villa rearguard. To me, that makes the case for starting with Zavon and bringing on Franco as reinforcement later in the game if necessary. I’d be tempted to start with Diamanti instead of Noble too, despite Nobes improvement at the Reebok, as he adds a bit more power, unpredictability and imagination to the line up and can really deliver in dead-ball situations. A big game under the floodlights where three points would truly make a difference. And as Desmond 2-2 said:

“I never doubted that ultimately we were going to be free, because ultimately, I knew there was no way in which a lie could prevail over the truth, darkness over light, death over life.”

Let’s prove it tonight. Get out there and get at them. All we are looking for is truth, life, freedom and a 3-1 scoreline. COYI!!!!!!!