Sport-Blog.com

Sunday 17 Dec 2006

West Ham United 1 Man United 0
It always happens. When a new manager takes over a club, the players usually raise their game and try to impress their new boss. Even a team a team as messed up as West Ham was able to come up with the goods to defeat the league leaders, Man U. Alan Curbishley was not exactly an exciting choice as a manager, but he is a solid manager, and he brought stability to the club immediately. West Ham played liked they did last year and frustrated Man U, who desperately needed the points, throughout the match. With Chelsea winning at Goodison Park, Man U were under pressure to win to keep their five points lead. But it was not to be. Now the lead is only 2 points. But then again, in the January transfer window, Man U will have Henrik Larsson, who has already started training. In that area, Man U will have several capable strikers to choose from, as oppose as Chelsea's reliant on Didier Drogba.

West Ham manager Alan Curbishley said, "There has been a lot of criticism of the players and they've got to answer that and face the music. We had the first training session on Friday and they responded. Now we've got something to build on."

Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson said, "We have been throwing away lots of chances recently and this was another example of that. It's something I've spoken about with the players over the last few days. I am not so sure Chelsea are on a charge. They got a fantastic win where they've clawed it out of nothing (at Everton). We have got to put on a charge of our own, which is the stuff champions are made of, and we've shown we can do that. The Championship race was not going to be decided in December but I am happy with the form of the team and we're playing well."
"We didn't deserve to lose but we have to gather ourselves and start another charge," said Ferguson. "We have got to show our mettle. That's the true mark of champions and we've proved it in the past. Two fantastic strikes won the game for [Chelsea] out of nothing. It's been a very important day for Chelsea and it's not been a great day for us but the championship race is not going to be decided in December."
West Ham United
Robert Green, James Collins, Anton Ferdinand, Paul Konchesky, Hayden Mullins (Yossi Benayoun), Jonathan Spector, Lee Bowyer, Matthew Etherington (George McCartney), Nigel Reo-Coker, Marlon Harewood, Bobby Zamora (Teddy Sheringham)
Subs Not Used: Carroll, Tevez
Booked: Reo-Coker, Sheringham, Ferdinand
Goals: Reo-Coker 75

Man Utd
Edwin Van der Sar, Rio Ferdinand, Gabriel Heinze (Ji-Sung Park), Gary Neville, Nemanja Vidic, Michael Carrick (John O'Shea), Ryan Giggs (Ole Gunnar Solskjaer), Cristiano Ronaldo, Paul Scholes, Wayne Rooney, Louis Saha
Subs Not Used: Kuszczak, Silvestre
Booked: Heinze, Vidic

Referee: Dowd, P
Venue: Upton Park
Attendance: 34,966


Everton 2 Chelsea 3
Didier Drogba once again rescued Chelsea with a late goal. As much as he is unlikable, there is no denying that he is about the most important player at Chelsea right now. Shevchenko was once again on the bench. One has to wonder what would Mourinho do if Drogba ever got injured.
Of course, Mourinho had to cause a scene by accusing Everton striker Andrew Johnson was cheating, "He's dangerous for opponents because you cannot trust him, and I was not happy with that. But I think he was a bit embarrassed and he behaved very well after that. In my country we call them 'intelligent' players. In other countries you can use different words and are critical. I've been in this country for three years now and I am influenced by your culture. It is a country I admire, I am proud to be part of it. For me when a player chases a penalty, he is no longer an intelligent player."
That of course angered Everton manager David Moyes, who responded, "He (Mourinho) has got a big 15 stone striker up front who is quite partial to it (diving) himself. I saw the incident on television and I don't think it was a penalty but it certainly wasn't a dive either. A few weeks ago the Chelsea keeper got caught by a Reading player, who was criticized for that. Our player is slightly bumped, straddles the goalkeeper and jumps over him. He's missed the keeper and he gets criticized for that, so you can't win."
Everton have submitted a formal complaint to the FA.

Johnson said: "I merely jumped out of the way of Chelsea's goalkeeper as he came out at my feet. I do not consider myself to be a diver. I was not trying to get a penalty. I have to say that I feel greatly disappointed that my integrity as a footballer has been unfairly questioned. I believe the incident highlighted by Mr. Mourinho was badly misinterpreted by him. I hope that the Chelsea manager will retract his statement."

Everton manager David Moyes said, "I can't be critical of my team in any of their performances except for the way they conceded the goals. When we got to 2-1, we knew they'd change their system, chase the game and push people forward and I thought we'd coped with that and seen it off - but for Lampard's goal. You can tell everyone what he's capable of but I thought we should have got to the ball quicker when it was rolled back to him, so for me that was disappointing."

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho on coming for behind, "Players with normal personalities would put their arms down and the game is lost. But they kept believing until the last second and fought for the result. I told them it's about belief. If you don't believe you have no chance. At this moment, everything looks like it's against us so they need to be very strong, and that belief they had was very important."

Everton
Tim Howard, Joleon Lescott, Phil Neville, Alan Stubbs, Joseph Ikpo Yobo, Mikel Amatriain Arteta, Lee Carsley (James Beattie), Simon Davies, Leon Osman, Victor Anichebe (James McFadden), Andrew Johnson
Subs Not Used: Wright, Naysmith, Weir
Booked: Neville
Goals: Arteta 38 pen, Yobo 64

Chelsea
Henrique Hilario, Khalid Boulahrouz (Wayne Bridge), Ricardo Carvalho, Ashley Cole, Michael Ballack, Michael Essien, Ndjitap Geremi (Salomon Kalou), Frank Lampard, Claude Makelele, Didier Drogba, Arjen Robben (Andriy Shevchenko)
Subs Not Used: Hedman, Ferreira
Booked: Carvalho
Goals: Howard 49 og, Lampard 81, Drogba 87

Referee: Halsey, M
Venue: Goodison Park
Attendance: 33,970