In the absence of points, West Ham fans will cling to whatever positives they can find. The faithful may have learned in recent seasons to be suspicious of forwards who began promisingly – Alessandro Diamanti, Diego Tristán, Savio, Ilan, Mido and Guillermo Franco all flickered before fading into oblivion – but the latest striking hope, Victor Obinna, could be the brightest of all recent arrivals at the Boleyn Ground.
Despite having wasted two clear chances by volleying weakly, the 23-year-old Nigeria international was named as man of the match by the club’s sponsors. That can be construed either as a sign that they are bored of giving the accolade to Scott Parker or as recognition for an energetic and exciting performance by a player who is on a season-long loan from Internazionale.
“I wanted to come, no one forced me,” said Obinna, when asked how high his hopes could have been when he left the European champions to join the Premier League’s most beleaguered club. “I wanted to play in the Premier League because I felt this was the type of game I want to play.”
His manager at Inter, Rafael Benítez, reckoned it would suit him. “He told me to give it a try – he knew what I could do in England with my pace.”
It took Obinna half an hour to adapt to his new surroundings – at first he gravitated, either on instruction or by instinct, towards Chelsea’s deep-lying midfielder, Mikel John Obi, seemingly marking his compatriot. He thus found himself too far away from Carlton Cole to benefit from the striker’s knock-downs and not close enough to the wings to exploit the space left by Ashley Cole and Paulo Ferreira as they flew forward.
Eventually, however, Obinna did shift wider and his menace began to emerge as, given space to get up a gallop, he ran dangerously into the box, curling a shot wide in the first half and later delivering a delicious cross that the substitute Frédéric Piquionne managed to head against the bar from a yard.
That was enough to differentiate Obinna from most of his team-mates, though he claims to be convinced that take-off is imminent. “We played better than Chelsea but not in terms of scoring goals and football is all about scoring,” he said. “We will improve for the next game.”
Four games into the season, no West Ham forward has scored. Obinna foresees a fruitful partnership with Cole. “I really like playing with him because I like to play down the side, him flicking the ball for me,” he said. “We have to keep practising more, I have been here only a week – it is not easy to get an understanding.”
Given the way West Ham have defended so far this season, their striker will need to start scoring soon. They have conceded three goals in every league game and the confidence of their goalkeeper, Rob Green, seems sow low as to be subterranean. With his World Cup blunder against the United States still grating the memory, Chelsea fans jeered Green prior to kick-off and the home faithful joined in after his blunder led to the visitors’ farcical second goal. An attempted clearance by Matthew Upson ricocheted over Green and into the net after the keeper had spilled a gentle freekick from Didier Drogba.
Mockery is sure to accompany Green wherever he goes for the foreseeable future, and his manager called for him to take inspiration from some of the game’s most illustrious names.
“Supporters were very tough with [David] Beckham after 1998 and very hard on [Cristiano] Ronaldo after 2006,” said Grant. “Rob’s a good goalkeeper and he needs to react like a man, which he is doing.”
Man of the match Victor Obinna (West Ham)
Premier LeagueWest Ham UnitedChelseaPaul Doyleguardian.co.uk
