Fading silver

There is almost nothing to be optimistic about concerning West Ham's match with Chelsea Wednesday at Upton Park, but it's my nature, when presented an overcast sky, to see silver linings everywhere.

Chelsea's exciting 2-1 victory on Sunday against Blackburn at Old Trafford in the FA Cup Semifinals went just about as well as West Ham manager Alan Curbishley could have hoped. The Blues were stretched by Blackburn to two extra-time periods. Chelsea striker Andrei Shevchenko was injured and will miss Wednesday's fixture. Chelsea may find an extra smidge of urgency thanks to Manchester United's 2-0 win over Sheffield United expanding Man U's lead to six points at the top of the table.

At least West Ham should be well rested, as they didn't exactly play all out against Sheffield United. OK, that was finding a silver lining in a hurricane. More seriously, Curbishley was unhappy with the effort by striker Carlos Tévez, and Curbishley discussed the problem with his Argentinian star. The idea seems to be that the team feeds off Tévez's energy, so when he came out flat, in Curbishley's opinion, that left the rest of the team flat, too. It's fair to note that Tévez played well at the outset of the second half at Sheffield United. It was during this period that West Ham had its best chances, and Tévez was in the middle of them, but they couldn't dent the net in what was a 1-0 deficit to Sheffield United at the time.

West Ham has managed three wins against the top four clubs -- two against Arsenal and one against Manchester United -- and lost to Chelsea 1-0 at Stamford Bridge back in November. Of course, any silver lining regarding the Hammers' play against the top clubs has to be measured with the poor results against the other teams scrapping for survival at the bottom of the table: two losses to Charlton Athletic, a loss and a tie to Watford, a win and a loss to Sheffield United and a loss to Wigan with the fixture at Wigan remaining. West Ham also drew twice with Fulham.

The fixture with Chelsea will not be televised on Fox Soccer Channel, and neither will Saturday's with Everton. I am thinking about giving Setanta Broadband a trial. For $11.99, I can watch matches on Setanta for a month, which would take me to the end of the Premiership season. Has anyone tried Setanta Broadband? Do you have any suggestions for working it?

(Music to write by: Charlatans UK, "The Charlatans UK.")