Speaking as a West Ham fan, few things in life are more satisfying than getting a result you don’t expect. When that result also means denying your rivals the Premier League trophy – especially when said rivals bought your best player for £100m because he wanted to win trophies – it’s utterly hilarious.
And so came to pass a glorious Saturday afternoon in February, watching our boys produce a performance for the ages to beat Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium. Make no mistake, this was no smash-and-grab, despite what some match reporting might suggest, and no, Troy Deeney, our goalkeeper didn’t need to be included in ‘Team of the Week’. Not only did this derail Arsenal’s title charge, but it also virtually guaranteed our own safety.
Not that we were ever likely to be dragged into the relegation picture – goodness, there’s some dross at the bottom of the league – but it was nice for our points total to start with a three going into March. I know this season hasn’t been great, but let’s be honest, points-wise, we’ve had worse ones.
A Habit of Beating the Gunners
Winning away at Arsenal is becoming a bit of a habit. Last season, again, completely unexpectedly, we won 2-0 at their ground with goals from Soucek and Mavropanos, a very nice late Christmas present. We were on a good run of form then, but even so I felt in that game we were a bit lucky; you’ll remember the controversy over whether the ball had gone out of play in the buildup to the first goal. This time, though, there was no luck – just a really well-executed game plan.
It’s a shame that when we play them at the London Stadium, we seem to enjoy leaking Arsenal goals for fun. I wasn’t at the home game this season, but when I checked the score while walking around Rochester Christmas market and saw we were four down inside 30 minutes, I wasn’t remotely surprised. These days, though, I feel like we’re made of sterner stuff.
Historic Title Denials: Manchester United
Popping a stinger on Arsenal’s road to the title isn’t the only time we’ve messed things up for would-be winners. I love that I support a club that, while not exactly a trophy magnet, still has a major say in who lifts the big prize at the end of the season.
The obvious one, of course, is our 1995 match against Manchester United, a game I watched agog as we made the curious decision to play 90% of it in our own penalty area. Ludek Miklosko, a hero of mine, kept the score at 1-1 with a string of ridiculous saves; had the Red Devils snatched another, they would have won the title, but there was no other way through our defence that day. Blackburn Rovers won it instead, despite losing to Liverpool. It was worth it to see the look on Alex Ferguson’s face – but that’s not the only time we’ve dented their title aspirations.
In the era before the Premier League – yes, football did exist before 1992 – Kenny Brown popped up in the second half to beat Manchester United 1-0, again majorly derailing their title chances. They went on to lose out to Leeds by four points. Unfortunately, we were already virtually relegated by then, which is why we weren’t in the inaugural Premier League season.
Silencing the Spurs
Fast-forward a bit, and I remember a great night at the London Stadium in May 2017 under Slaven Bilic, when we beat Spurs – sorry Tottenham Hotspur; their media department don’t like it if we call them anything else – 1-0. Lanzini was the scorer, one of my favourite players, if only for that equaliser against them to make it 3-3 a few years later. The win made us mathematically safe that season and put an end to their title hopes. How sad.
Hilariously, the same thing had happened a year earlier. When Tottenham Hotspur rocked up to Upton Park in March 2016, in our ‘farewell Boleyn’ season, they could have gone top with a win – but we were miles better on the night. An early Antonio header was the difference as we won 1-0 (again), but it could have been more. They never really recovered from that defeat and eventually finished third behind Arsenal and Leicester City. In other words, typical Spurs.
Bloody Noses for the Big Boys
So, there have been plenty of occasions where we’ve cost teams a tilt at the title. It’s one of the reasons I love this club: yes, we’ve never won the league, and yes, cup victories are rare, but when we’re in the mood, we can still give the big boys a bloody nose. I just hope that in the future, when we’re aiming for the title (I can dream), the same thing doesn’t happen to us.
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