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Sam Allardyce received a ‘thank you’ text for beating Manchester City from Jose Mourinho – the man who last season accused the West Ham boss of playing “19th century football” writes Tom Hopkinson in the Sunday People.

Chelsea could only fire blanks when Allardyce’s Hammers earned a point at Stanford Bridge in January – prompting Mourinho’s jibe and Big Sam’s response that he “out-tacticed” the Special One.

But the Blues boss was far more complimentary this time after the Hammers did him a massive favour in the race for the title by beating City 2-1.

Morgan Amalfitano put West Ham ahead with a simple finish at the end of a lovely move and Diafra Sakho headed home his sixth goal in as many games from Aaron Cresswell’s cross.

David Silva pulled one back for City, who also hit the woodwork through Sergio Aguero and Yaya Toure, but West Ham held on to put the cat among the pigeons in the title race even at this stage.

Chelsea will move eight points ahead of City if they beat Manchester United at Old Trafford on Sunday.

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And speaking to broadcasters beIN Sport, Allardyce said: “Jose has just texted me to say ‘Well done big man’. This shows how important it was for him, never mind for us.

“He goes to Manchester United knowing his team will go and perform at their best and if they win it makes the gap even bigger. The result wasn’t for him. It was for us and everyone at West Ham. It will benefit him if they go and get a result at Manchester United.”

West Ham are flying in fourth place, and their manager claimed this win was even better than the 3-1 victory over Liverpool last month.

Allardyce – who was stunned afterwards when celebrity Hammers fan Russell Brand burst in on a BBC Match of the Day interview and gave him a kiss – said: “Perhaps this victory is better because they’ve got two of the most dangerous goalscorers in Europe with Edin Dzeko and Sergio Aguero.

“We had a terrific performance, that’s the big thing for me. It wasn’t a lucky victory. We made some outstanding chances. We took City’s back four to task and in my opinion they didn’t hold up.

“I think they didn’t hold up because of the quality of our play. That’s why we won the game. The performance had everything – grit, determination, quality, desire.”

West Ham 2-1 Manchester City in pictures:

While Amalfitano and Sakho scored the goals, Alex Song was the best player on the pitch and Allardyce reckons he is among his finest signings.

He said: “Songy has been in the shadow a little bit because of Enner Valencia and Sakho but this lad has outstanding quality. He goes along the style of Fernando Hierro and Jay-Jay Okocha who I had in my teams.

“His promoting and passing and also his protection of the back players is excellent. He led us as a team and the rest of the lads have responded. And I don’t think Valencia and Sakho really know what they have done yet.

“They’ve just come here, they want to play football and I don’t think they realise what a big impact they have made.”

The only downside was a shoulder injury to Sakho.

Meanwhile, City boss Manuel Pellegrini refused to be too downbeat by the result.

He said: “I don’t think this game was affected by our Champions League game in Russia last Tuesday. I don’t think we deserved to lose. We had a lot of chances to draw or win this game.

“I am only concerned about my team. We will see what Chelsea can do.”