West Ham chief plays down Carlton Cole injury concerns

West Ham coach Gianfranco Zola tried to take the positives from this mauling.

He left England striker Carlton Cole on the bench until midway through the second half after the striker had barely trained all week, but insisted there is no long-term problem with his knee.

"It is vital that you pay attention to the positives," said Zola. "That does not mean you turn your back on the problems, we don't do that.

"All the team worked hard and gave everything and Scott Parker scored a cracking goal. I keep telling him he should shoot more than he does. He played a fantastic game and hopefully the goal is the first of many.

"Carlton's problem is no big deal. This week he could not train properly, he just trained a couple of days. So I thought it was an opportunity for me to make a couple of changes. But it is nothing major and he will be back soon.

"We have another tough match against Arsenal coming up and I don't want to go there already beaten. I have told the players I'm not going to give up on anything."