James Collins is better-placed than most to highlight the qualities West Ham United will need to stave off relegation from the Premier League this season under Nuno Espirito Santo.
The big Welsh centre-back was there back in 2007, after all, when Alan Curbishley and Carlos Tevez masterminded that ‘Great Escape’.
On March 4th of that year, West Ham United would suffer a heartbreaking derby defeat by Tottenham Hotspur, thanks to Paul Stalteri’s stoppage-time heroics. Curbishley, Collins and co were rock bottom with ten matchdays remaining.
And their hopes of survival appeared to have suffered a potentially fatal blow on the day when Tevez finally opened his Premier League account.
Of the 41 points they accumulated that season, though, over half would come in a remarkable final nine games.
This is shocking! 😰 Relegation is going to be dire for West Ham…
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Now, James Collins is backing Nuno to emulate Curbishley’s success. But, if that ‘Great Escape’ is to be given a modern sequel, this will depend largely on whether this current claret and blue squad have the character, the mentality and the togetherness required.
James Collins urges West Ham United to learn from 2007 squad
Former midfield general Mark Noble said Carlos Tevez ‘kept [West Ham] up, relegating Neil Warnock’s Sheffield United in the process.
Collins, though, is at pains to point out that this was not a case of one star forward dragging his lumbering teammates over the line.
“2007 is known as the ‘Great Escape’ at West Ham because it literally was just that. Incredible!” Collins tells the Clutch Nine podcast, reflecting fondly on one of the most dramatic comebacks in Premier League history.
“We won 20 points [sic, 21, starting] in March! Around Christmas, if you are bottom of the table, the press says you are gone. But as a group of players, we never felt we were out of it. We were a good team with a great captain in Lucas Neill. Really good characters who never thought we were down.
“[The current Hammers team] have got to try and nick a result.”
Bobby Zamora’s Blackburn winner sparked the turnaround
Tevez’s winner at Old Trafford on the final day remains the abiding memory – in addition to a Rob Green-inspired victory away to Arsenal – but Collins feels that a highly-contentious 2-1 victory against Blackburn Rovers was the real turning point.
Bobby Zamora’s winner did not appear to cross the Ewood Park goalline. It stood, though, and West Ham had their first win in three months.
“We went to Blackburn and got a goal that was offside,” Collins remembers. “Then, Mark Noble got a penalty that probably wasn’t a penalty, but we won 2-1. The last nine games of the season, we won seven. That momentum just snowballed into us winning seven out of nine.
A couple of WINNABLE fixtures on the horizon! 🗓️
How many points will West Ham pick up in their next five games?
“We just didn’t believe we were down. We went to the Emirates that year, in the final nine games. Arsenal had 35 shots on goal, and we won 1-0. It was one of those games. I have to give Greeny a shout. He had the game of his life, and Bobby Zamora scored a great goal.
“Just a real hunger. Even our best player, our flair player, Yossi Benayoun, was on the line heading [clearances away]. That real desire not to go down; we knew what relegation would have meant for the football club.
“Just an incredible run. Carlos Tevez started scoring, we went to Old Trafford on the last day of the season [and won 1-0].
“It was backs-against-the-wall football, boys who played their best stuff when the chips were down, just going for it. Looking back now, it was an incredible situation to get out of.
“You shouldn’t celebrate [surviving relegation] as a career high, but it was for us because everyone had us gone. Except for those of us in the dressing room.”
West Ham will certainly need plenty of that ‘backs against the wall’ spirit when they host Manchester City on Saturday. The Hammers have not beaten City since 2015.
Nuno is without Aaron Wan-Bissaka and El Hadji Malick Diouf as well. Plus, while Jean-Clair Todibo has been much-improved of late, this is not a side boasting imposing, occasionally formidable centre-halves like Collins or his old defensive partner Danny Gabbidon.
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