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Zola Vindicated - Upson

Matthew Upson is delighted by West Ham's recent improvement - which continued with a well-earned point at Anfield tonight - and thinks it vindicates manager Gianfranco Zola's work on the training ground.

Dec 1, 2008 5:35:03 PM

EPL: Gianfranco Zola, Liverpool v West Ham United (PA)

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EPL: Gianfranco Zola, Liverpool v West Ham United (PA)

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Matthew Upson

West Ham's goalless draw against Liverpool - their first point at Anfield for nine years - followed a win at Sunderland and suggests that manager Gianfranco Zola may be slowly turning things around for the Hammers.

Certainly impressive central defender Matthew Upson feels that Zola is starting to get the benefits of sticking to his footballing principles.

Although Liverpool went one point clear of Chelsea at the top of the table, the Hammers went closest to scoring when former Liverpool striker Craig Bellamy hit a post - and overall they probably carved out the best chances to break the deadlock.

It was the Hammers' third clean sheet in a row, and as far as Upson is concerned, the tighter defensive unit is central to their improvement.

Upson told Setanta Sports 1: "It's a massive result: it's another clean sheet and perhaps at the end we could have nicked something."

And talking of his manager Zola, he added: "He stuck to his beliefs. He had had a bit of pressure to change things.

"He has got us more organized and drilled and started to change things.

"I'm very happy here at the moment, the team are doing well, I've just got to take each game as it comes."

After hitting the post and testing the Liverpool defense on a couple of other occasions, Craig Bellamy told Setanta Sports:

“We need points at the moment, obviously. But, look, I’d love to see Liverpool win every game from now until the end of the season, except when they play us because, obviously, I’m a West Ham player now.

“We tried to make it as frustrating as we could for them – we got men behind the ball – but we also tried to attack when we had the opportunity.

“We did have one or two decent opportunities as well.”

He added: “I played here and it’s very difficult to get a result here because they’re an outstanding team with outstanding players and probably the best support in the world.

“We know we’re up against it. You can hold back and try and counter-attack and we did do that and maybe we could’ve got a goal at the end.”

--Mark Hinton, Goal.com