A second London derby in the space of two weeks - this
time against Premiership Champions Chelsea - awaits West Ham United
on Saturday, and Alan Pardew is backing his team to produce the
same level of performance that saw them take three points from
Arsenal recently.
The Hammers boss is aware of the fortress that Jose Mourinho's
side have built for themselves at Stamford Bridge, having gone 50
home Premiership matches unbeaten, but insists that his players
will go into the match with great optimism and confidence.
"Chelsea's home record suggests it will be difficult, but
that doesn't mean to say that we can't go there and get a
victory," he says. "What I am after is a performance
level like the one we put in against Arsenal.
"Energy levels will be very high for this game and I know for
a fact that all of our guys, every single one of them, are very
motivated for this match, as they are for every game. But what they
also know is how important this match is for West Ham fans.
"We know how important it sits in our schedule as well, so we
want to put in a good performance that hopefully get us the result
we want."
While the players are simply looking forward to testing themselves
against the current Premiership champions, the game has an added
impetus thanks to some long-standing friendships and connections
between both sides, something Pards believes will make for an
interesting clash.
"There are a couple of former West Ham old boys on the Chelsea
team," he says, "which certainly suggests there will be
no complacency from them, but it works both ways.
"There are a lot of friendships between the two clubs. Carlton
(Cole) came from Chelsea to us, so he still knows a fair few people
there. Bobby Zamora and John Terry are close friends, while Paul
Konchesky and Terry have a family connection.
"So I think there is a little bit of local rivalry that will
be going on during Saturday's match within these friendships.
That can happen in these derby games but it is something that is
underplayed at times.
"They will be staring at each other aggressively in the game
because each wants their team to win and have the bragging rights,
but come the end of the game, they will be friends again off the
pitch."
While Pards will be working on the best way to break down Chelsea,
he insists there are number of key factors that could be important
in terms of coming away with some points from the Bridge.
"Last season, I thought the home match with Chelsea was much
tighter than the score line suggested," he says. "Then at
their place, we started brightly but couldn't build on that, so
that is something we can learn from.
"Jose Mourinho is a great student of the game and it won't
have passed him by that many of his players have had full games
this week, while a lot of mine have been rested.
"They will also have one eye on the forthcoming Champions
League and, while they will view our match as important, they are
all key factors that we have to try and take advantage of.
"They bounced back with good results following the defeat
against Tottenham and some people might say they are back in form
and it's the wrong time to play them. For me, it might be just
the right time to play them, with a couple of other things for them
to think about."
Pards has been listening to those who have come up against Chelsea
this year in a bid to gain a better insight and he knows it will
also be an intriguing battle against the manager who likes to be
known as "The Special One".
"Jose is a flamboyant character who speaks his mind, but I
like that," he says. "One of his great skills is to be
able to motivate a team full of superstars. It's okay having
the products, but you have got to send them out there with the
right attitude to win games.
"One of their main men is of course Didier Drogba. There were
many who suggested that Andriy Shevchenko would come in and take
his place and that has only served to make Drogba hungrier. He has
responded to that because he doesn't want his place taken by
anyone.
"Chelsea do have a way of making it difficult for a lot of
teams to hurt them, but that's what we'll be working on,
the way in which it can be done and we will be very positive in how
we go about that."
He adds: "You have to have players on the pitch who are not
only diligent and will work to extremely high levels, but be able
to have that flair and make something happen - it can come down to
that.
"Also, you have to carry a threat going into these matches
yourselves. It's very rare that teams that don't have
anything like this gets a result. I've never set-up a team that
doesn't have a threat in it and I certainly won't start
now."
by Laura Burkin