TWO SOUTH AMERICANS HAVE JUST arrived, a return to European competition is three days away and there is hope of investment from the Middle East. West Ham United’s horizons are broadening, but they were indebted to an Englishman yesterday for ensuring that the bubbles of expectation at Upton Park were not burst.
Bobby Zamora scored his fifth goal in four Barclays Premiership matches this season and he may need to maintain that kind of strike rate to ensure he is not sacrificed to allow Carlos Tévez into the starting line-up. The Argentina striker made his debut from the substitutes’ bench on the hour and showed enough flashes of brilliance to suggest that, while Alan Pardew, his manager, believes that he is not the finished article, he will soon be starting material in the West Ham line-up.
Zamora’s equaliser shortly after half-time, a deflection with his thigh after the unmarked Paul Konchesky had headed Lee Bowyer’s corner goalwards, gave West Ham a draw in a match in which Pardew seemed to acknowledge that they were fortunate to gain a point. The manager is convinced that Tévez and Javier Mascherano, the Argentina pair, will take his club “to the next level”, but he felt the short-term effect of their arrival hindered the team in the first half yesterday.
“We looked like we were carrying baggage from the week,” Pardew, who left Mascherano on the bench throughout, said. “The circus was affecting us. We played 5 per cent tentatively and that’s enough for us to lose what we are about. We can’t play like that.”
Aston Villa’s winless sequence in London was extended to 14 matches, but, as after the 1-1 draw against Arsenal last month, they will have left the capital with optimism. Martin O’Neill succeeding David O’Leary as manager has revitalised a team who spent much of last season in fear of relegation.
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O’Neill made his first unenforced change of the campaign to accommodate the debut of Stilian Petrov, his only addition to a squad that O’Leary was unable to rouse last season. The Bulgarian took the midfield place of Gareth Barry, who dropped to left back at the expense of Peter Whittingham, and immediately looked at home.
Petrov’s efforts to settle quickly were helped by Villa’s fine start. Gabriel Agbonlahor’s header from Barry’s inswinging corner in the fourth minute was pushed by Roy Carroll, the goalkeeper, into the path of Liam Ridgewell, a former West Ham trainee, who tapped home.
The young central defender, 22, was Villa’s third-highest Premiership scorer last season with five and he will be among the front- runners again this term if his team-mates continue to suffer the kind of bad luck they endured in front of goal yesterday. Juan Pablo Ángel headed two crosses by Barry against the bar in the first half and Villa were twice denied by desperate clearances after the break, Tyrone Mears hooking the ball away acrobatically after Petrov had lobbed Carroll before Anton Ferdinand knocked away a shot by Agbonlahor.
“There is genuine disappointment in the dressing-room, which is an encouraging sign,” O’Neill said. “We dropped the two points. We couldn’t kill the game off.” Martin Laursen, the injury-plagued defender, made his first start since the opening day of last season and the manager is anxious to avoid more absences in the camp. “We haven’t got the largest squad in the world and it might affect us later on. It’s going to be a long four months for us (until the January transfer window).”
West Ham’s only other good chance came when the subdued Marlon Harewood sidefooted wide when Thomas Sorensen, the Villa goalkeeper, cleared the ball straight to him. “He needs a goal and he is aware of that,” Pardew said of his striker, having substituted him on the hour. With Tévez hovering, Harewood’s failure to score this season is unfortunately timed.