Late recovery rules out need for major surgery

WHEN Torres scored on Saturday, the man himself looked delighted, but that was nothing compared to the reaction of the fans or his team-mates.

I haven’t seen a goal celebrated like that for a very long time — the ground just erupted.

There was a moment just before he shot where the stadium almost held its breath — and then absolute mayhem!

At the final whistle the man in question made a quick exit and after a short interview for the TV cameras declined to join Ancelotti in the post-match press conference.

I can understand that decision. To make a big deal of this strike would be admitting that the lack of goals had become a big issue for Torres and the team.

There was a horrible moment when the floodlights flickered and the electronic advertising boards failed, where I thought that the game was going to be abandoned and the goal would have become null and void. How unlucky would that have been?

The monsoon-like weather slightly evened things up but West Ham were always going to lose this game — especially with Grant as manager (yes, I am still bitter).

Whereas I would normally not take much pleasure defeating a side in such dire straits, beating a fellow London side is always a day for celebration. Bragging rights apart, Hammers are gobby by nature and never tire of waxing lyrical about the “academy”, although there has been little evidence of that for at least a decade.

Although the Torres goal took all the headlines, I was particularly pleased to see Lampard finally score against them at the Bridge. West Ham fans have always been especially vile towards Frank and Saturday proved no exception. But he made them pay the best way he could.

There has been a lot of talk that his best days are behind him but I’d argue such claims are premature. He was out injured for a long time, and as such it will have taken him a long time to get back to his exceptional best. Our extensive bad patch has made too many people call for a baby out with the bathwater type of cull. A decent rest with no World Cup or European Championship, followed by a good pre-season will restore Lampard’s pivotal role for the club.

That extended “bad moment” led to a lot of panic declarations as to who was too old, or not good enough, or not of the required talent. Perhaps we were so drawn into the eye of the crisis that we neglected to take stock of some facts. Examples? We had cut the team perhaps too closely to the bone in the closed season; there had been some serious injuries to key players; we were trying to integrate new players; and that some of our players had simply hit a bad run of form.

After going through the pain and finally seeing light on the other side, it would be madness to perform major surgery on the team — tweaks, yes — a bit more strength in depth which would include the elevation of some of our young talents.

But let’s finish this season with a bang before we get bogged down in what will happen next, especially when Spurs loom on the horizon. It is a game which takes on greater significance given their battle with Liverpool and Man City for Euro places. It is still not clear whether Spurs have over-achieved this season or whether they really are ready to join the elite. In recent years this game hasn’t been the three-point banker it was for so long.

Our Achilles heel at the moment is pace — or more precisely, our lack of it. We have better and more experienced players while our current form is second to none. I hope that those factors will be enough.

There is that outside chance we could win the title so every point is particularly precious.

I hope we at least take United to the wire.