#690 Missing XI

On this day, 2002: Chelsea 2-3 West Ham - Paolo Di Canio scores sublime volley

On 28 September 2002 at Stamford Bridge, West Ham beat Chelsea 3-2 in the Premier League, a first win of the season so cold the Bridge leaves wondering how the basement club ever wrote that script. 

Hasselbaink puts Chelsea ahead from the spot after twenty minutes, but Defoe, an early substitute, pokes home the equaliser before the break when Cudicini parries a corner scramble. 

Then Di Canio takes over. Three minutes into the second half he flicks the ball up outside the area and volleys from about thirty yards, Cudicini beaten before he has time to set. Zola's sublime free-kick levels it with sixteen left. The Bridge thinks a point is coming. 

Di Canio refuses. Six minutes from time he slips through after a defensive muddle and finishes from an acute angle for the winner, then urges every teammate to the final whistle. It is chaotic, mercurial, and thoroughly early-noughties West Ham: trail, equalise, volley, survive, nick it late. 

Chelsea finish 2002/03 fourth in the Premier League. West Ham end eighteenth and go down, and this three-two remains the September afternoon Di Canio's brace dumped the Bridge.

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