26/01/2002  Chelsea 1 West Ham 1

Frederic Kanoute turned up like the penalty box poacher he 
is to rescue West Ham's FA Cup ambitions at a passionate 
Stamford Bridge.

The Hammers striker conjured the equaliser with just eight 
minutes remaining in a match during which West Ham rarely 
looked like doing anything other than taking a knockout 
punch.

Chelsea boss Claudio Ranieri must have left Stamford Bridge 
scratching his head over how his men can be so brilliant one 
minute and so ordinary the next.

Indeed, Chelsea are a bit like the nursery rhyme. When they 
are good they are very, very good, when they are bad they are 
horrid.

In the first half they were quite magnificent. In the 
second their long-suffering fans must have had their nerves 
shredded as first West Ham came back into the game and then at 
the end threatened to snatch it.

That would have been a gross injustice, for rarely can a 
player have given a more comprehensive display of the striking 
art than Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, who directed proceedings in 
this typically rumbustious London derby with stirring 
panache.

It might be going too far to claim this was a one-man show 
by Hasselbaink but such was his terrorising influence on the 
West Ham defence for the 75 minutes he was involved that it 
wasn't far from it.

Indeed the exquisite skill with which the Dutch striker set 
the tone with the first goal after 21 minutes was worth the 
admission money alone on an afternoon when Stamford Bridge was 
sprinkled with empty seats. Can it be the FA Cup is losing its 
magic after all?

Surely not with the likes of Hasselbaink around. When he 
picked up the ball 40 yards out on the left touchline there 
seemed to be no danger. As he slipped the ball onto his 
left-foot, however, the West Ham defence backed off and backed 
off with dangerous complacency, considering Hasselbaink is 
hardly the sort of striker who needs a second invitation to 
shoot.

On most occasions he might have unleashed one of those 
venomous drives for which he is famous. Not on Saturday. 
Instead he laid open his body one way and clipped the ball 
with his left foot the other and the arc with which it sailed 
into the top right corner of West Ham's net was such that even 
from the edge of the area goalkeeper David James barely 
moved.

It might not quite have ranked with the wonder goal with 
which Gianfranco Zola clinched the third round replay against 
Norwich but it wasn't far away on an afternoon which 
threatened to cement Chelsea's superiority over their London 
rivals.

It wasn't just Hasselbaink's striking prowess, however, 
which marked out his performance as special. It was his superb 
link-up play, the way he acted as provider for the likes of 
Zola and fellow-striker Mikael Forssell, the latter being 
guilty of wasting two chances in the first-half courtesy of 
Hasselbaink's work which the Dutchman would surely have 
converted.

As it was Hasselbaink, who gave way to Sam Dalla Bona in 
the 75th minute with what looked like a leg strain might have 
had a hat-trick himself by half-time in a match in which the 
Blues for long periods were back to the form which beat the 
Hammers 5-1 at Stamford Bridge only last Sunday, rather than 
the side which surrendered humiliatingly to Tottenham in the 
Worthington Cup in midweek.

Spare a thought, however, for Ranieri who must be as 
perplexed as everyone by his side's wildly fluctuating 
form.

But also spare a thought for West Ham's boss Glenn Roeder, 
who saw his side completely outclassed in that first half but 
then stirred them into a comeback which was as spirited as it 
was courageous.

It has to be said West Ham were again transformed as an 
attacking force by the introduction of Jermain Defoe, who came 
on in the 65th minute for Rangvald Soma and immediately asked 
questions of the Chelsea defence.

He might well have pinched the equaliser himself if he had 
not been unceremoniously hauled down by John Terry.

But together with Kanoute he led the rally which eventually 
bore fruit when Michael Carrick took a free-kick on the left 
side of the penalty area.

The ball fizzed across the box before landing at the feet 
of Kanoute, who swivelled in one movement and dispatched the 
ball past Chelsea goalkeeper Carlo Cudicini.

West Ham probably just deserved their replay for their 
brave rally though Ranieri would hardly agree.

It used to be from match to match that the Chelsea boss 
didn't know how his side would perform. After this he can't 
tell from one half to the next.