Brilliant. Just fucking brilliant. Alexis Sanchez. He scores when he wants. If I believed in reincarnation I’d want to come back as one of his dogs. To be so close to perfection. I could learn something. That was a Bergkampeque performance today. And the rest of the team was pretty good as well (minus one or two that is). How talented is this guy? How irreplaceable is he? Poor old Giroud. He’s got no shot.
We started so well and finished even better. In-between we were pretty good. As shitty as WH were we totally dominated. Man, that was so much fun. These type of games comes along so rarely you have to savior it.
Where to start? Alexis? Hmm, possibly, Quite a nice day from him. For a period I thought he was only going to pass to Ozil. But as the game wore on he developed a relationship with The Ox.
We had so many chances to score in the first 15 minutes – all down our left hand side. Between Monreal and Ox we could not seem to get that killer pass into the box. But WH, being of generous mind and body, decided to tee one up for us. Though to be fair it all came from our hard Coq intercepting the ball. But thereafter it was all Alexis. Dancing around Reid and laying it up for his friend Ozil. I swear if Theo was there Alexis would have shot himself.
The rest of the half was a little painful. We continued to dominate. We had numerous breaks and chances but could not convert any of them. You began to wonder whether we’d squander the lead at some point. How often when we looked to cross the ball from the left were Theo and Ozil on the far edge of the box and not running into open space? Also, it seemed like Ozil was essentially playing alongside Alexis in that first half.
The second half seemed to be progressing the same way. We would cut open their defense and fail to score. Until Alexis decided to cease passing and starting shooting. Their goalie was pretty good – excellent last week at Manure – but was made to look average by Alexis even though he made some fine saves. How can you not burst out laughing when Alexis turns it on like that? He created his chances out of limited opportunities where no-one else could manufacture a goal. It’s hard to know which was his best goal. The most important was his first but the most beautiful was the last one. That step-over was exquisite; it was perfect. Today Alexis was the king.
It was also interesting to note the development of The Ox. No longer on the bench nor the first substitution to go off. Today, aside from some little passing issues, he was excellent. Dynamic and forward charging. Of course, some of that was because of the acres of room he had to operate in. Theo, who had the same space, did not take advantage. He missed his chances and did not provide the same level of link up play as the Ox. I’m not complaining about anyone today. Not after a score line like this. But let’s at least note that Theo was not at his best. I was also a little surprised that he did not work as hard on defense given that he had BigEars behind him playing an unfamiliar role. Many times he could have worked back but did not. Even when he got his knee injury – and then his head banged – Theo did not seem sufficiently aware that BigEars needed help. Not that BigEars did badly. He’s an improvement on poor Jenkinson. Who would have fitted in perfectly in this West Ham team.
At half-time I was concerned that we’d pull a Man City – they had dominated Chelski but somehow contrived to miss the clearest of chances and then leak 3 goals against the run of play. BTW, Fabergas, while still a defensive liability, picked out a number of worldclass, pinpoint passes. Anyway, ManCity dominated and could not score. I feared that would be our fate once they brought on the BigPonyTail. Instead we tore them apart. Our breakaway movement was breathtaking. And a lot of that emanated from Ozil and The Ox. And, it seems now, that Alexis has found someone else besides Ozil that he trusts enough to pass to – The Ox. You could see when he did set up Theo he was frustrated. But today The Ox made good decisions and played the right forward pass. In the first half he tried a delicate pass beyond their back line with the outside of his right foot. That was a sign of his confidence and of things to come.
How nice was it to see Ramsey on the bench. Our Coq and Xhaka nailed down the defensive protection in front of our defense and still provided sufficient creativity to keep the ball moving forward. This has to be our pairing until either Santi returns or one of them accumulate too many cards (we know which one will happen first). Not that I was happy to see him come on. After Wednesday he should not have been the first guy off the bench. But Theo should have been the first guy off. It’s not clear what Ramseys role is now. But on a day like today I don’t fucking care about him. I care that our team hummed and cut through their midfield and defense. We were so quick on the counteract. We looked dangerous everytime. Again, poor Giroud. We just can’t play like this with him out there. Nor with Ramsey :).
It could have been 8 but I’m happy to settle for 5. I liked our defense. Not that they tested us much. BigEars was in the wars but did well. Monreal went unchallenged in defense and was effective going forward. So now we seem to have real competition for places between Ox, Theo and Iwobi. This is good for all of them; we can rotate them as needed and you know another injury is just around the corner. Elneny and Ramsey can come off the bench (in that order please) and Giroud can be our super sub. Midweek he should start while we wrap Alexis and his dogs up in cotton wool.
And who would imagine that the Ox would shot and also hit the target. Again, let’s prey this is the rediscovery of his football IQ. It has been missing for a while. But today he was a pleasure to watch. He was aggressive, defended well and creative going forward. Note also that AW switched The Ox to be in front of BigEars in the second half. Because unlike Theo, he did provide defensive cover. And he scored! Amazing. But having Alexis trust him is even more important.
So no complaints or moaning today. That was just so fucking enjoyable. This is why I love football. We murdered them. Can we play them every week? Are we good enough to win the league? I still don’t think so. But we’re good enough to rip apart so many teams and play the most consistently entertaining football in the league. Enough to make you proud to follow the best (see definition in last sentence) in England. In my little mind we’re already champions. I suspect that’s where it will remain though. Ok, I’m off to celebrate…..
– LB7