WEST HAM UNITED had only eight managers during the entire 20th century. Tomorrow, when Gianfranco Zola joins a club in turmoil both on and off the field and becomes their fifth helmsman of the 21st, he might just comprehend that his task is to clean out East London’s very own Augean Stables.

Although he visited the dressing room afterwards, the little man remained inscrutable in the directors’ box as he watched his new charges hand West Bromwich Albion their first Premier League victory of the season.

After an exhilarating afternoon, Zola had much to ponder from the third minute, when Albion’s Chris Brunt scuffed a cross from the left. It drifted to the right, where Borja Valero introduced himself to The Hawthorns by ignoring overlapping full-back Carl Hoefkens and crossing for James Morrison to leap above a flat-footed Matthew Upson and head past Robert Green for Albion’s maiden Premier League goal from open play.

Shambolic in defence post-Anton Ferdinand, George McCartney and even John Pantsil, if the opening was bad for the visitors, it got worse before 20 minutes had passed as Dean Ashton was replaced after taking Leon Barnett’s elbow to his ear and receiving seven stitches for his trouble, and Albion also missed a veritable smorgasbord of chances.

Roman Bednar headed wide of an open goal after Green had flapped at a corner; Barnett hit the side-netting with an effort that was a dictionary definition of the phrase “centre-half’s shot” and when Robert Koren sprinted through West Ham’s flimsy central defence a second seemed inevitable until the Slovenian’s feeble shot.

At that point you’d have bet your shirt; an unsponsored one for both teams since Albion have mysteriously failed to secure one and the demise of the holiday company XL forced the visitors to rather shabbily cover the company’s logos with patches rather than use new shirts; on a home landslide. But as Albion manager Tony Mowbray has pointed out, things are never quite as they seem at the highest level and for all the undeniably Premier League quality of their approach play, Albion still defend like Championship makeweights. “It could have been 6-6,” noted Mowbray.

First Calum Davenport’s cross was met by David Di Michele’s downwards header as Paul Robinson chose to appeal for offside rather than jump. Scott Carson fumbled and Mark Noble gleefully tapped home. Then, Noble’s corner was met at the back post by Davenport, who nodded down for Lucas Neill to crash home his first West Ham goal.

The mayhem continued unabated. Green fumbled a Brunt free kick into Barnett’s path. The goalkeeper promptly felled him and Bednar smashed home the penalty. So, after 45 minutes of thrilling attacking, inept defending and wayward finishing, we were right back where we started.

There was no respite in the second period as both teams, having no defensive laurels to rest upon, flung themselves at each other. At one end Carson was foiling Bednar and at the other, a Noble corner created havoc and Di Michele tried an overhead kick when a more utilitarian approach might have been better.

Slowly, though, the balance of possession began to tilt the home side’s way, but when the ball fell to Jonas Olsson 10 yards out, the debutant centre-half with the turning circle of the Titanic, more concrete booted than spring-heeled, stood on it.

Albion’s winner came when Robinson hurtled up the left and his tantalisingly weighted pass found Brunt, who outpaced Upson with eyebrow-rais-ing ease and after initially getting the ball caught in his feet, prodded it past Green. Oh, we should have got something,” lamented caretaker manager Kevin Keen. “Next week I’ll sit down with the new manager and see where we go from here, but this has been a great experience.”

Naturally, Albion had neither the serenity nor the clinical nature to sail home insouciantly and before that no-win monkey was finally quelled, Carson had to save brilliantly from an unmarked Scott Parker at point-blank range. “It’s a relief,” admitted Mowbray, “but now we’ve got to keep winning. We must improve.