As long as a repeat of the infamous ‘Great Escape’ of 2006/07 remains possible, the long-suffering West Ham United supporters will still have some hope to cling to as the second half of the Premier League season gets underway.
After 24 matches in that iconic campaign, the Hammers were sitting 18th with only 20 points to their name.
Funnily enough, that is exactly the same position West Ham United find themselves in now, two decades later. Nuno Espirito Santo’s side even have the same number of points as Alan Curbishley’s outfit did.
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A good omen? Perhaps.
Like Nuno, Curbishley came through a tough start at Upton Park to write his name in the history books. But if the current incumbent is to do the same, he will need a few heroic, backs-against-the-wall performances between now and the end of May.
Former goalkeeper Rob Green reflects mistily-eyed on that heroic 1-0 victory away at Arsenal in April of 2007. A game in which The Gunners mustered over 30 attempts on goal but came up against a shot-stopper who, if he had opted to twist the knife, might have found himself in very exclusive company.
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Rob Green wishes he had tried to score when West Ham United stunned Arsenal
Of the six goalkeepers ever to score a Premier League goal – Alisson Becker, Asmir Begovic, Tim Howard, Paul Robinson, Brad Friedel and Peter Schmeichel – Green would have been the first ever to find the net and keep a clean sheet in the very same game.
“[Tomas] Rosicky, Freddie Ljungberg, yeah there were big names playing [for Arsenal, including Emmanuel] Adebayor,” Green says opposite Carlton Cole on the Ironcast podcast.
“I sat in my flat that night, the night before that game. I sat in my flat on my own because we could go home and then report to the hotel. I just sat there and I just thought; ‘Whatever happens, I’m going to be alright. I’m going to be okay as a person, I’m going to be fine.’
“And there’s only probably four or five times in my career where I played carefree. Like, not worried!”
As Arsenal grew increasingly desperate, goalkeeper Jens Lehmann trotted into the West Ham penalty area for a late corner. After plucking the ball out the air, Green would lead a rapid counter which ended with Luis Boa Morte rolling the ball into the side netting.
If he’d had his chance again, though, Green might have found that open net impossible to resist.
“The only regret I have one regret about that game was right at the end of the game. Cesc went to take a corner, Cesc Fabregas,” Green remembers. “He crossed it in and I went, ‘I’m coming for this’, and I’ve caught it.
“And big Jens Lehmann had come up for the corner. I looked, and the goal was open. And just behind me, Jens went, ‘Please, Greeny, don’t.’ Out of respect, I didn’t!
“Partly out of respect, partly this half-niggling bit in my mind [where I was worried], ‘I’m going to smash this and hit you on the back of the head!’.”
West Ham are in EXACTLY the same position as in their ‘Great Escape’ season! ⚡
What is your favourite memory of that 2007 escape?
Green recalls Carlos Tevez heroics and ribbing Noel Edmonds
The legendary Carlos Tevez ignited West Ham’s successful survival charge, of course. But Curbishley could also rely upon a mountainous rearguard; James Collins and Danny Gabbidon protected Green’s goal brilliantly during a run of seven wins in nine games to end the season.
One suspects a British TV legend put the ‘House Party’ in Noel’s House Party once Tevez had lifted his shot over Edwin van der Sar to cap a final day triumph at Old Trafford.
“We were in a hotel before the game, weren’t we?,” Green says. “And Noel Edmonds was in the hotel. We were at the Lowry. We’re in the hotel, we’re waiting, and everyone’s really, really nervous. Beyond nervous silence.
“Noel Edmonds is in the lift with us and someone’s quietly in the corner just gone, ‘Deal or No Deal?’ I think he just turned around and went, ‘You boys better win today.’ And everyone just went, ‘OK mate.'”
“You just hear people almost crying on the pitch [at full-time]. They gave us bottles of champagne in the dressing room! It was an amazing time in the dressing room afterwards because they had the champions’ champagne.
“I think I nicked a bottle. I think I’ve still got it. I put it on my trophy cabinet!
“I think [Curbishley] let the lunatics run the asylum. You think of that wonderful run we went on. There was a point in the season he just went, ‘Right boys, what do you want to do?’ and the lads went, ‘Five-a-sides.’ So we just did five-a-sides every day and went out and played.
“I remember him doing a tactical session – I think we were about to play Wigan – and he tried to do a tactical session. The lads looked at him and they were so perplexed as to what he put on that he just went, ‘Forget it. I’ve tried tactics. I tried.'”
“It did someone like Carlos Tevez a favour. He used to walk out on a Friday, he didn’t even do his boots up. You’d say, ‘Right, set pieces. Practice set pieces. Carlos, go and stand on the halfway line.’ And that was it. That’s all he’d do. And he’d go out and play like a demon on a Saturday.”
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