Venue: Upton Park
Date: 1 December 2012
Kick-off: 12.45
It seems such a long time ago Chelsea were sitting at the top of the Premier League, with a 4-point lead and playing the sort of football we can only dream of now. Because right now, we’re 7 points off the pace and on recent form, show no signs of doing anything to close that gap.
It’s been over a month now since we’ve had a win, Fernando Torres looks about as likely to score for us on the pitch as Carlos Tevez could off it, and Chelsea’s latest ‘interim’ appointment is showing about as much dynamism as my nan after her cocoa.
10th place West Ham meanwhile, have lost a couple on the bounce although at least looked to have given United a game midweek in their marginal defeat.
MANAGERS’ VIEWS
Going into this game, you’d be forgiven for thinking Sam Allardyce is rubbing his hands at the prospect of facing a far from threatening Chelsea side. Not so for the West Ham manager, who insists “I would say not because in the last two games they have not conceded a goal. At the heart of every good side is producing a clean sheet. Rafa has already sorted out what was a problem under (former manager) Roberto (Di Matteo), and now they have got a couple of clean sheets in a row, so it will not be long before they can turn that into a victory if they continue to defend like that. It will be more difficult to break Chelsea down than it would have been, chances will be few and far between.”
On his own squad, Allardyce says “Every man needs to continue to put the shift in they are doing to try to get a result. While we have lost two games back-to-back for the first time, when you look at the size of the teams they are against, I don’t think there is any reason for the players to lose confidence. The key issue for us is to try to get some points on the board as quickly as possible in this difficult run of fixtures.”
Chelsea’s FSW meanwhile……continues to say nothing of any consequence.
SQUAD NEWS
For West Ham, Andy Carroll (knee) faces a late assessment, although Noble returns after missing the midweek game against United following 5 bookings.
For Chelsea, John Terry (knee) and Frank Lampard (calf) are injured and David Luiz will miss out after a fifth yellow card of the season against Fulham in midweek will see him suspended for the game.
TEAMS
WEST HAM (Predicted line-up): Jussi Jaaskelainen; Joey O’Brien, Winston Reid, James Tomkins, George McCartney; Mark Noble, Mo Diame, Matt Taylor, Matt Jarvis, Kevin Nolan; Andy Carroll.
CHELSEA (Predicted line-up): Petr Cech; Branislav Ivanovic, Gary Cahill, David Luiz, Ashley Cole; Oriol Romeu, Ramires, Oscar, Juan Mata, Eden Hazard; Fernando Torres.
LAST SEASON
N/A
PREDICTION
Our most recent record at Upton Park has been good but then, under Allardyce West Ham have lost just once there so far – almost 2 months ago now against Arsenal.
Only four teams – Chelsea being one of them – have conceded less goals than West Ham in the league this season, but they’ve struggled to find the net themselves, with just 16 goals so far and we’re not exactly on fire from an attacking point of view lately either.
Another nil-nil then?
Blue is the colour
