The Hammers were absolutely brilliant tonight. Took the piss, took it well when we gave it back (apart from two lads who completely lost it...funny!), and were singing none stop for 90minutes. I wouldn't say I feel sorry for them because we've been there and in reality it isn't all that bad, I still went every week and enjoyed going most if the time, but I know how they're feeling with the "where will we be next season?" fears and not liking the manager.
I hope they stay up and get a decent manager. I thought they deserved to be the first thing I mentioned. Great fans!
Tonight we were fantastic on the pitch. Everyone, bar Kompany (who was strangely below par), were just brilliant. For the first time this season we really closed down any attack the opposition tried to start. I know they were poor but that's the best we've been in terms of balance between attacking and defending properly.
That is the type of football I want to see every week. It's not so much that I'm only happy if we score five or more because with that style of play I'm happy if we win 2-0. It's the disciplined and determined work when we didn't have he ball that was so impressive and it's been missing a lot this season, even in huge victories. Clichy, García of all people and Zaba didn't allow West Ham to do anything. At times there has been only Fernandinho displaying this sort of defensive play and usually, even against lower teams, we allow anything from four to eight really good opportunities for the opposition to get a good effort on our goal and I know they were poor but I was really impressed with how we just didn't let them do a thing all night. It started up top too; Edin, who frustrates the hell out of me usually, was even working his socks off...and "La Fiera" was just out of this world tonight, what a fucking player he is!
I'd like to see this in the league now. Take this determined and disciplined work rate when the opposition have the ball forward from now on. It demoralises teams. Great to watch.
For the first time Edin and Negredo worked together well. Before tonight they looked really average as a pairing but they weren't taking up each other's space, they were looking for each other to pass to, they were making runs for each other... I'm MUCH happier about the prospect of them playing together in the future. There were no signs of this in any game before tonight so maybe they can be even better in the future, building on tonight's efforts.
Would like to have seen Lopes get longer than 17minutes but that's my only gripe about tonight.
38000 there too which is about 8000 more than I thought would be.
