West Ham 1 – Manchester City 0

Manchester City and West Ham both went into this match with a lot of confidence. Manchester City, having ently knocked out FC Copenhagen from the UEFA Cup looked as though they were getting their form back and West Ham wanted to put the recent defeats away from home against Bolton and Middlesborough behind them and get a good result. Craig “I will do anything for money” Bellamy returned to the club which he once “loved” and new January signing Shay Given started in goal. De Souza “I want to go back home to Brazil” Robinho also started. For West Ham, Collison returned and Di Michele started after the midweek loss to Middlesborough. New signing Radoslav Kovac also started. WIth Shaun Wright-Phillips and Mark Noble suspended for Man City and West Ham respectively, the game looked as though it would be a close encounter and both teams could look for three points and they had good reason to. If Man City won they would move up to 7th and the same can be said for the Hammers to.

As expected, the game, eventually got free flowing but in the early part of the game Manchester City were on top with their passing but so were West Ham. After 15 minutes nothing had really happened but then a chance for Robinho was missed as Steven Ireland pounced on a Matthew Upson mistake and Kompany’s shot came to Robinho only to find that his audacious flick was extremely well saved by Robert Green. Robinho then had another chance to put Man City in the lead but his prod went wide. What a shame!!! Steven Ireland and Craig Bellamy were Manchester City’s main attacking threats but the young Jack Collison seemed to be coping well with the Man City playmaker.

The home team livened up a bit with a great bit of play by Carlton Cole and David Di Michele nearly resulting in a goal. A lovely turn from Di Michele enabled him to chip through to Cole who just failed to control the ball in the air. His header on to Di Michele set the whole move up but he just couldn’t quite finish it. Another good bit of play from Jack Collison and Herita Ilunga resulted in Collison having a shot and for the first time made Given make a good save. West Ham were looking more and more confident whereas Man City were left to rue the missed chances in the early part of the game. At this moment we still do not know what was going through Robinho’s head at the time of his prod wide of the goal! Then, heartbreak for the Hammers. Valon Behrami lunged in for a tackle on Wayne Bridge and his studs were caught in the turf and the injury to his knee looked serious. He needed oxygen on the pitch and was stretchered off to a standing ovation from the home fans.

Wes Ham’s new signing Savio came onto replace him but the half ended tamely and this injury dappened the mood at half time.

The second half started with West Ham looking the livelier of the two sides and Jack Collison had an opportunity to score when David Di Michele chipped through but the youngster could not quite get the connection he needed to score. A foul on Radoslav Kovac lead to Vincent Kompany being booked and 2 minutes later a wonderful run from Savio led to the goal. Savio got the ball from Carlton Cole after winning it well and he carried on his run before checking back and shooting forcing Shay Given to make an athletic save only for Collison to beautifully lob it over his head. The goal led to a fightback from Man City. Two chances for Caicedo soom came and after he evaded a challenge from Upson, he was through on goal but his shot couldn’t find anything more than the side netting. Then, after Steven Ireland chested it down to him, Robinho who clearly didn’t trust Caicedo came in and tried to shoot himself but Caicedo had already shot well over the bar by then. With two minutes to go Scott Parker fouled and injured Robinho on the edge of the box which left Elano to try and capitilise on this opportunity. He struck it well but a great header from Lucas Neill just before the line prevented the ball from going in and Man City were spent. The resultant corner resulted into nothing and West Ham came out of the match as worthy winners against a Manchester City side who just got cancelled out by a great performance from the men in claret and blue.

AWARDS

Miss of the match: De Souza “I love to miss the goal” Robinho had an excellent opportunity for Manchester City in the early part of the game but he managed to prod wide from under six yards out. Shame!!

Magic Moment: An inspiring run from Savio led to the goal which won the match for the Irons.

Villain: Craig Bellamy: Just simply for returning to Upton Park and then having the cheek to have a joke with Gianfranco Zola!!!