West Ham United's brave performance at Stamford
Bridge on Saturday brought much praise from Chelsea boss Jose
Mourinho.
After watching his side scrape a narrow 1-0 victory thanks to a
22nd-minute free-kick from Geremi, the Portuguese boss admitted
that he felt "emotions of danger" in the last 10 minutes
as Hammers searched desperately for an equaliser, and claimed that
Alan Pardew's men will soon climb the Premiership table if they
continue the same level of form.
"We had chances to score more goals and kill the game, but we
didn't," said Mourinho. "Instead, in the last 10
minutes, it got tricky for us.
"Alan Pardew made changes in that time. He was doing his job
well, putting on yet more attacking players for those who already
had tried hard in the game. Players who are dangerous, who have an
eye for goal. These boys, Sheringham and Harewood, who came on - we
know what they can do.
"So there was a lot of emotion, danger and tension. I said to
my assistant Steve Clarke, 'look, we haven't taken our
other chances, they (West Ham) are creating pressure and now we
could be in trouble'. But that's football, I think we
deserved the three points, but West Ham, they deserve praise.
He added: "Both teams played with a good attitude and West Ham
came here to try and win the match, they didn't play just for a
point. From the beginning, they played an open game and gave us
problems with the possession they had."
And Mourhino also insisted that Pardew's men can look forward
with confidence, despite not being able to get the result that
their performance deserved.
He said: "For us it was a satisfactory performance because we
beat a good side. I see the quality of West Ham, their manager and
players and I don't think they deserve to be in the position
they are.
"They deserved to leave our stadium with self-belief for their
future because, for me, they are a very good team."
by Laura Burkin