The West Ham manager’s dismissal would not have been a surprise to any (appalled) viewer of Junior Apprentice

Karren Brady – what is she like? One day she is sacking the West Ham United manager, Gianfranco Zola, the next she is on the BBC’s Junior Apprentice with Alan Sugar, assessing “Britain’s brightest and youngest business minds”. Gawd help us.

According to Wikipedia – and I accept that is not the most promising start to a sentence – Brady impressed her boss, David Sullivan, because she was “a sacker”. True to her reputation, she had the much loved but unrealistically remunerated Italian out of the Upton Park door in 10 minutes, with m’learned friends standing by, licking their lips over the afters. “Sackers” like Brady – who in truth does not do a lot on Junior

• ‘We have got a fantastic manager,’ says Noble
• ‘I am sure we will pick up points and climb the table’

West Ham United’s embattled squad remain fully committed to their manager, Gianfranco Zola, as they attempt to use Sunday’s hugely encouraging performance and point gained against the league leaders, Chelsea, as a springboard into critical fixtures ahead.

Mark Noble expressed the sentiments of the club’s senior players by stressing that the team were “putting their bodies on the line for the manager in every game” as they seek to hoist themselves out of the relegation zone over the Christmas period. The weekend draw arrested a run of three successive defeats and, with the bottom club Portsmouth due at Upton Park on Boxing Day, the east London club enter a congested period more optimistic that they can claw themselves to safety.

“We’ve got Portsmouth next up, and that’s massive, and then we’ve got Wolves [in mid-January] so there are some good teams to play at home, and if we play like we did against Chelsea in our away games too then I’m sure we’ll pick up points and gradually climb the table,” said Noble.

“We’ve got a fantastic manager here who believes in every one of us and tells us so every day. He spoke to us on Saturday and said some words that you could tell were coming from the heart. It wasn’t just to make us feel good or play better. Sometimes it’s a little bit fake, just to get you going, but he was really saying what he felt. You don’t normally see that.”I remember his first day, I’ll never forget it. The ball got zipped into him and he ‘Cruyffed’ a player and then, in one move he chipped Rob Green. I was like: ‘Wow.’ That was a Friday afternoon and you can’t be chipping the keeper [so close to a match day]. He apologised afterwards, and it wasn’t a flash apology. He was genuinely sorry.

“We gave him everything against Chelsea because he’s such a good man and you put your body on the line for him in every game. I would do that, personally, and I’m sure every other player would too. It’s a nice way to feel about your manager. Speak to a lot of players in the Premier League and I bet it doesn’t really feel like that. He’s a good man to play for and I would do everything I can to get us out of this position.”

Zola has endured a troubled season to date, the club’s financial woes providing a troubled backdrop while the team has laboured to only three league victories all term. Key players have suffered from injuries while the possibility remains that others will be moved on in January, if buyers can be found, leaving the Italian attempting to revive a club where confidence has proved fragile. The draw with Chelsea will help, not least because West Ham arguably did enough to win the match only to see Matthew Upson harshly penalised for a perceived foul, spotted by the linesman, on Daniel Sturridge.

That handed the visitors a penalty, eventually converted at the third attempt by Frank Lampard, and ultimately a point. “But is a draw against Chelsea a good result? I think so with the way we’re playing at the minute,” added Noble. “I thought all the boys were excellent and it was a good point. We got stuck into them. Myself and Scott [Parker] are English players and we know what you need to beat teams like Chelsea. But, given the position we’re in at the minute, we need that every game. It’s not just good enough to do it against Chelsea. You need to do it against every team.

“But this point can be the start. We needed a little boost and, obviously, with Portsmouth beating Liverpool on Saturday, we needed some sort of result. I was convinced we were going to get the three points because I didn’t think Chelsea really harmed us. But we were unlucky with the decision. Even so, we can be pleased with that performance and now we have to maintain that level in the games to come.”

West Ham UnitedPremier LeagueChelseaDominic Fifieldguardian.co.uk