A joy to see Lamps nail the Hammers

I LOVE playing West Ham — especially at their place as those good old Irons relish giving Frank Lampard a hard time for the perceived injustice he has done them.

They should be grateful for his move to Chelsea as the money gained probably saved them from financial ruin (not to mention the funds they received for Glen Johnson and Joe Cole when they were completely on their uppers).

God knows what they are bleating about as most West Ham fans slagged Frank off when he played for them — whining that his regular place in the team was through nepotism rather than talent. It must really stick in their craw seeing the player he has become.

Watching Zola on the sidelines, it was natural to draw comparisons with the little magic man and Lampard.

The Sardinian recently won the accolade of being the best player to have played for Chelsea, as voted for by the supporters. It may not be a popular opinion, but I think that Lampard has overtaken Zola in this regard and I count my lucky stars whenever I see him run onto the pitch wearing our royal blue.

The fact that he has not even made it into the list for the player of the season, demonstrates the bias in England towards the teams which play in red. Frank Lampard is a genius and I just hope the players in our youth squad are watching and learning, and taking note of his professionalism, because he is going to be one hard act to follow.

The game had an end of season feel about it with the majority of our boys seemingly playing out a training session. Only Lampard played with purpose, and that purpose was to rile the less-than-happy Hammers which he did beautifully by being the midfield maestro, dispossessing their players with ease, marauding forward and finally providing the perfect cross for Kalou to score the winning goal.

But the excitement was not over, with us being privy to the rarest of sights — Petr Cech saving a penalty. Having suffered his recent indifferent form it must have done his confidence the world of good and also given us supporters some hope should we be involved in any penalty shoot-outs some time soon.

The Everton game was a weird match, with both players and supporters turning up in body, but not necessarily in mind. I think the toll of the previous week’s activities told on both sides as neither seemed to be bothered about winning the game. As a supporter it was annoying because I want desperately to finish above Liverpool, but failing that we must finish in third place above Arsenal. We are notoriously slow starters in Europe so having to qualify for Champions League football would not be ideal.

Whilst the dodgy penalty and then the crushing of Spurs all but wrapped up the title race, I had a wry grin on my face not only at the thought of all those miserable Tottenham fans, but for all those Liverpool fans who had prematurely secured top spot in their minds for the weekend. It’s the hope that does you in, you know.

It’s that time at Stamford Bridge when we supporters vote for Player of the Year and for me it’s a straight toss up between Frank Lampard and Ashley Cole. I’m leaning towards the latter. He has played consistently well throughout the season, has saved our bacon on more than one occasion with his now trademark goal line clearances and has worked hard to regain the kind of form he enjoyed at Arsenal.

When the deal was first announced which saw Gallas go the other way, I was apoplectic with rage, thinking that Arsenal had done better from the agreement. But now that the dust has settled, we can see we have a player of distinction who does his job quietly and without fanfare. He had to also overcome a feeling of suspicion from some Chelsea fans, and now the most ardent anti-Cole merchant must admit the boy done good.

He will no doubt have been a big miss last night, but hopefully he can be recognised for the rest of the season where he has been outstanding and has rightly reclaimed his status as one of the best left-backs in the world.

As usual, I am writing this before travelling to Catalunya for last night’s match against Barca. Did we deal with Messi? Did we take advantage of their weak defence? Did we get value for money for our €72 tickets up somewhere near the stratosphere? Have we angered Platini by marching like gladiators towards Rome? More next week...

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