With every week that passes, the last few anyway, we look increasingly likely to finish where we currently stand - in 5th place and heading for Thursday nights on Channel 5. We're still in contention, hardly cut adrift regardless of the result of Manchester City against Chelsea, but the margin for error in the final stretch of the season has shrunk to almost to nothing. Today's goalless draw is one the games we'll look at at the end of the season if we don't finish in the top four.
We bossed the game from the word go playing some really good football in the sunshine and hitting the woodwork three times. In the third minute Michael Dawson hit a delicious strike from the edge of the box against the bar. Jermain Defoe and Luka Modrić put shots wide, Rafael van der Vaart went close with a half-volley from a corner, and Aaron Lennon, cutting in from the left, beat Rob Green and hit the inside of the post. The rebound came out to Defoe and with an open goal in front of him he missed the target, the ball coming off his heel.
Carlton Cole had a one-on-one that he made a complete hash of, then forced a save out of Heurelho Gomes in the first minute of the second half. Vedran Corluka was having a dismal game in terms of passing, but he was linked up well with Modrić to create a chance for Defoe, another one which he missed from inside the 6-yard box, hitting the ball straight at Green's legs. To be fair it did involve swiveling and a limited amount of time, but he ought to have put at least one chance away today. I couldn't see it from all the way at the top of the north stand, but on television a t-shirt was visible through Defoe’s lilywhite jersey prematurely celebrating his 100th goal for the club. Despite all the chances it's still 99, and more importantly just one point.
West Ham's full-backs kept our wingers relatively quiet. Bale isn't at full fitness yet and the tactic of swapping him and Lennon back and forth didn't make a great deal of difference.
Mark Noble's overhead kick was close and Demba Ba had a good effort. Roman Pavlyuchenko came on for Van der Vaart and was lively having a couple of decent speculative efforts and with five minutes to go Green somehow tipped Bale's free-kick on to the bar. He was tremendous when we lost at Upton Park too.
With 29 games gone our three strikers (four if you count Robbie Keane) have contributed 11 goals. It doesn't matter if you have the best midfielder in the division (Modrić was excellent as usual) if you're getting nothing from the forwards.
In other news Bale has signed a new four-and-a-half year contract.
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