Neil Warnock certainly has his fair share of complaints about the manner in which Carlos Tevez saved West Ham United from being dumped out of the Premier League in 2007.
But if you can ignore the highly contentious nature of that infamous double deal involving Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano – if you also ignore the time Howard Webb bizarrely awarded a goal to Bobby Zamora during a 2-1 win over Blackburn Rovers despite the Argentine blocking his effort on the line from an offside position – there were certainly odd moments of elite quality to sit alongside the never-ending controversy.
Remember that glorious free-kick, albeit coming in an eventual 4-3 defeat by Tottenham Hotspur? If that counted for nothing in the grand scheme of things, then Carlos Tevez’s final day winner at Old Trafford certainly did.
Against the club where he would end up winning both the Premier League and the Champions League, Tevez clipped the ball past an onrushing Edwin van der Sar. West Ham United pulling off the great escape while leaving Neil Warnock’s Sheffield United tumbling down the plughole.
In a week in which Tevez took it upon himself to ruin Paddy McGuinness’ evening – ‘no likey’ indeed, the Take Me Out and Top Gear host beaten four times by a ferociously fired-up 41-year-old in the 2025 edition of Soccer Aid for Unicef – former England striker Darren Bent recalls the time he came up against the former Man City, Man United and Juventus icon when he was starting to make a name for himself as one of the rising stars in world football.
Former West Ham United striker Carlos Tevez on the London Stadium pitch - FBL-ENG-PR-WEST HAM-BURNLEY
Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS/AFP via Getty Images
Darren Bent remembers facing Carlos Tevez at West Ham United
Carlos Tevez burned disappointingly brief but exceedingly bright at Upton Park.
A 4-0 London derby drubbing away to Charlton Athletic in February of that year is certainly not the first which comes to mind when recalling Tevez’s finest outings in a claret and blue jersey.
Yet, the man who put The Addicks two goals ahead during that 2007 Valley thrashing still looks back fondly on the time he shared a pitch with a young Carlos Tevez.
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“He’s underrated. People forget [how good he was],” Bent recalls. “I remember playing against him when he was at West Ham. He had that run at the end of the season where he basically saved them
“But he had this knack of just going past people, a little bit [Luis] Suarez-y. When the ball goes off peoples shins and you go ‘how has he got out of that?
“And he used to work so hard to win the ball back.”
Mark Noble admits Tevez saved West Ham from Premier League relegation
Remarkably, Tevez had to wait until April of that season to open his West Ham account. By the end of May, he had seven to his name.
An extraordinary if belated impact from a man who would go on to become one of the most influential, and successful, centre-forwards of his generation.
To paraphrase former captain Mark Noble, West Ham would not have escaped relegation without Carlos Tevez dragging them over the line almost single-handedly.
“When he came to West Ham, he was a joke,” Noble once said on Rio Ferdinand’s Vibe with Five podcast. “He kept us up that season.”