English Premiership; Monday, April 19, 2010

English Premiership; Monday, April 19, 2010; Anfield, Liverpool

Liverpool 3 West Ham Utd. 0


There is no shame losing to Liverpool (do I say that about most teams?), but by all accounts, we were sloppy. One commentator said we played like a Championship team, and that does not mean we're about to win something, it means we're of the quality to play in the division below the one we're struggling in. The first Liverpool goal was scored by ex-Hammer Yossi Benayoun, a fantastic player, an Israeli, who refused to celebrate his goal, and again, this is something that also happens far too much, that is, ex-players scoring against us and refusing to jump up and down or skid across the watered pitch towards their fans.
Then all West Ham eyes turned to yesterday's match, a catch-up fixture, the reason I have waited so long to update the blog (sorry, I know you wait with anxious anticipation, to see what the outcome was between Aston Villa and Hull, Hull being three points behind us and occupying 18th spot, that is the last relegation spot. Thankfully, they were abject, Villa going to Hull's ground and beating them easily 0-2. That relieves some pressure, and manager Gianfranco Zola must use it to bang home the fact that if we beat Wigan on Saturday (the game is at Upton Park, that is, home) then we stand every possibility of surviving what is frankly a pitiful season. With three games to go, all we can get is 40 points (and we'll not do that). The last time we went down 2002/03 we gained 42 points.
There is much speculation that even if we do survive, Zola's job is in jeopardy, but this looks to me like lazy journalism. Not all the woe has been his fault, we've had injuries and new owners, and perhaps more importantly, his contract is long. but when any manager has had a hard time, out the journalists trot the usual suspects of the unemployed, the underemployed or the foreign-employed, so the names of Martin Jol, Steve McClaren and Avram Grant, even former manager Alan Pardew.