I faced legends from Man United, Arsenal and Liverpool, but the Chelsea icon was my toughest opponent.
When you think about the Golden Age of the Premier League, a few strikers immediately come to mind.
Thierry Henry, Wayne Rooney, Alan Shearerall of whom are legends, but true loyalists will appreciate those who consistently scored goals outside of the “top six”. Darren BentYakubu, Mark Viduka.
Bobby Zamora can safely be counted among that cohort, forging an excellent senior career at West Ham, Fulham and QPR, playing against some of the best defenders the Premier League has ever seen.
He got the best of Jamie Carragher when he was sent off in 2009, scoring the first goal in a 3-1 win over Liverpool for Fulham, in addition to fighting Fernando River and Nemanja Vidic in manchester united.
And in April 2007, Zamora's delicious chip gave West Ham a famous victory at the Emirates as he made mincemeat of Kolo Touré and William Gallas.
But one Chelsea The player always managed to get under his skin, and no, it didn't happen like that. John Terrybut his somewhat underrated accomplice Ricardo Carvalho.
Speaking to talkSPORT at Ballerz, a state-of-the-art football center in Bluewater which he helped establish alongside Ferdinand, Mark Noble and Roberto Carlos, Zamora admitted that the former Portugal international gave him a tough ride, because he was a master of the dark arts. . .
He told talkSPORT: “Ricardo Carvalho (is my toughest opponent). It's not that he was strong, not that he was fast. But he would take your shirt off at the right time.
“It would make you trip over the ball when it's not near you. So after six, seven, eight, nine, ten times, you're not looking at the ball, you're looking at him and where he's going to be.” .
“And you'll get frustrated. You end up elbowing him, you get a yellow card and you can't do anything.”
3
3
It could be easy to see why Zamora hated playing against Chelsea, having faced them 16 times and never scoring: losing 14 times and drawing twice.
Meanwhile, against Liverpool, Zamora never scored more goals against any other club (3) and also against United. Arsenal, Tottenham and city of manchester.
But the former striker shouldn't feel so sad about failing to score against Chelsea during their Terry-Carvalho era; not many forwards did.
In his first season in the Premier League, Carvalho accompanied Terry at the back with Jose Mourinho on the bench and only conceded 15 goals in one season (2004/05), a record that has never been surpassed.
They also achieved the record for the most clean sheets in a season (25) and the fewest goals conceded away from home in a season (9).
Together, Terry and Carvalho played 158 games for the Blues from 2004 to 2010, winning three Premier League titles, three FA Cups and two League Cups.
