The tragic events of the last few hours really do put things into perspective when it comes to lamenting the conceding of an injury time equaliser away to Leicester City, we had planned to do an article criticising the actions on the pitch of Hammers captain Mark Noble by comparing his approach and style of football to that of the old victor character Alf Tupper, the Tough of the Track.
After giving the situation a great deal of thought we thought we would go ahead with the article because no matter what, life does go on, even if our perspective is altered by tragedy. Saturday began with the disturbing news of Glen Hoddle's collapse and hospitalisation with a serious condition, then during the well contested and hard fought draw news began to emerge of the dreadful shootings in America, sadly a regular occurrence in that gun rich continent, then just as people were absorbing the events of the day came the terrible news and pictures of Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha's helicopter as it took off from the King Power Stadium around an hour after the match itself, we can only but try to offer our sympathies and condolences to all the family and friends of those affected by such a series of awful events.
The match was played out in atrocious conditions, the early rain was replaced by a bitter wind that must have had some of the newly arrived 'foreign' contingent of both teams wondering what they had let themselves in for as they experienced a bit of true British weather as opposed to the Halcyon Summer that greeted their arrivals. Leicester had the best of the early exchanges but after their initial forays were penned back by an industrious and inventive Hammers team who performed admirably especially given the absence of two out of three of the recognised strikers, talisman Marko Arnoutovic was unable to take to the field due to suffering from a similar virus to the one that put Chicharito on his back for several weeks!
Hammers efforts were rewarded by a smartly taken free kick, earned by the impressive Grady Diangana on his first Premier League start, Felipe Anderson's deft delivery arrived on the head of the outstanding Declan Rice who nodded the ball towards 'Rocky the General' Balbuena whose first effort hit the post but who followed the rebound in faster than the leaden Leicester could and neatly nudged the ball over the line to give Hammers a well deserved lead. Mention should also be made of the 'Herculean' effort put in by the once much maligned Robert Snodgrass who ran a greater distance than any other player on the pitch from either team, indeed on another day he could have had a brace of goals to celebrate.
Everything was going swimmingly until captain Mark Noble launched himself to an unwise tackle that was never going to escape sanction, initially the tackle just looked like one made by a player whose legs aren't quite what they once were, and Noble does have a history of giving away needless free kicks, but on closer analysis the tackle was seriously dangerous, a real ankle snapper which was not committed with malice aforethought but the outcome could have been catastrophic for the recipient. As it was referee 'Lord Oliv(i)er had little choice other than to issue a straight red card, the consequences of which were two fold, Manuel Pellegrini's careful preparations for the match were left in tatters as his game plan was completely turned on it's head by the totally unnecessary sending off.
Noble is a decent and honest man who is Mr West Ham, but he will know more than most that he cannot get away with tackles and actions that were acceptable in the past but have no place in the modern game, it is as if he is still stuck in the seventies when it comes to 'the Tackle', and whilst there is every sympathy for the fact that he tries hard there is also condemnation for the collateral effect of his dismissal. Apart from putting the rest of the team on the line and ensuring they had to put in a ridiculous amount of effort to fend off a Leicester City team that at one point had five strikers on the pitch.
As is now known unfortunately a fluke deflection off of 'Rocky' Balbuena's back left the superb Lukas Fabianski wrong footed as the ball snuck in off the post with just a couple of minutes remaining, Hammers could have 'nicked' the result in extra time had Angelo Ogbonna taken either of the two opportunities that presented themselves during the final frenzied minutes. Overall a draw was a fair result given the fact that Hammers were forced to play over half the game with ten men, the immediate implication of Noble's rush of blood means that Declan Rice is the only member left of the midfield trio that had shown so much promise, it also means that Manuel Pellegrini's options in midfield ahead of the important Carabao Cup match against Tottenham have become extremely limited given the injuries to Carlos Sanchez, Jack Wilshere and Pedro Obiang.
It is highly unlikely that the club will try to appeal Oliv(i)er's decision, to do so would run the risk of further sanction by the FA for a tackle that even when viewed with Claret and Blue glasses on was inexcusable in this day and age, 'Marky' the fans love you, but is up to you to keep the 'love' by not getting yourself sent off so stupidly, it's not as if it hasn't happened before is it? - Ed
