I might be guilty of using the royal we in the headline, but I certainly missed this bit from Monday night’s 2-1 win over West Ham United.
Watching it “live-time”, as the ever annoying Ray Hudson likes to call it, I thought it was a great save by Thibaut Courtois. But no! It turns out to have been an even greater save by Victor Moses, sticking that right boot out and doing that thing a certain other wing-back used to do with uncanny regularity in a Chelsea shirt.
Victor Moses won’t quite be confused with Ashley Cole of course in terms of overall play, but there’s no shame in not quite reaching the heights of Chelsea’s greatest ever wing-back. That said, Moses put in an excellent shift at both ends of the pitch against the Hammers, even though he was faced with the prospect of having to defend against the cross-happy likes of Aaron Cresswell and Robert Snodgrass. He even won a header against Andy Carroll!
But the goal line clearance stands above all that as a most crucial turning-point of the match; even West Ham head coach Slaven Bilić lamented his team not scoring in that moment: “if we had scored in the 61st minute we could have put pressure on them”.
Not a bad way to celebrate that brand new contract signed last week! Well done, VicMo!