West Ham have never won their first three games in the Premier League but with 2 down and a 0 point Palace rolling into town, things were looking good for another small piece of history this weekend. Not to mention the chance to remain top of the league through the International break.
Getting into the ground was considerably easier this time around, but getting there 90 minutes before kick off helps !
Continue reading “WHUFC (2) vs Crystal Palace (2) – EPL 2021-2022 28/08/2021”
As usual West Ham fail to capitalise on a good run of form and throw away a lead to a decent enough team, but not quite at our level.
As with most Hodgson’s teams, there was a straight 4-4-2 across the board, where defence and midfield play close together meaning we have to break down. Once or twice we did get through, and as you might have seen in the build up for our goal,once we do, it was plain sailing.
Anderson and Lanzini were nowhere near their best, therefore creativity was at a premium. In fact the whole team seem to have a bout of wooliness, that stifled any smart play. Haller had chances to score that he didn’t take , and they got very lucky with a rebound. The penalty was also slightly contentious but more likely to be given than turned down. So all in all, happy with the draw.
Aha, but we didn’t draw, we lost. TO VAR. I’m OK with VAR, but for clear and obvious errors only. It’s an assist, not a judge. For a player to be adjudged 5 mm onside , there needs to be something else with the same amount accuracy. The ability to match exactly when the ball is kicked/headed/whatever. Unless you can 100% match these two, any of these too close calls cannot be made, and you have to go with the on the pitch decision (which was offside). From where I sat, it looked offside as well, but there you go. Lose 2-1 and move on.
We are seventh in a league that outside the top one, looks pretty open.
WWW. Nothing to do with Tim Berners-Leigh but WHU’s current form stats.
Helped out by playing those around us in a fortuitous fixture list, only interrupted by the visit of Man City (describes by the Stop HammerTime podcast, as a “contractual responsibility”)
But the style of the wins has been the most encouraging. 3 goals in each ,and most of the action in the second half. So why the slow start ?
Against Palace, it was because they (Palace) came out like lunatics, having probably seen that the Cardiff game could have been all different if the penalty went in. Cardiff and Newcastle were more us feeling our way into the game. Against City that cost us the first goal.
So Palace go one nil up with a soft goal. No panic for West Ham and by half time , although still one nil down, I knew we would not only come back but would win easily. All we needed was a mistake and as all the teams around that position in the league know (including us) , it will happen.
Or you can just pop in a worldie, as the ever improving Robert Snodgrass did straight from the kick off. Surely that completes his transformation back into a West Ham player. He bent one in that didn’t look anywhere near the goal until the last second . From then on it was all WHU, with Hernandez taking a typical poachers goal to secure the lead. The game was over (nearly) when 2 minutes later Anderson bent in one that was better than Snodgrass’s and almost identical to the one he scored against Burnley.
Last month we met some Italian lads on holiday and they told me Anderson would be long periods of frustration interspersed with genius and the case seems to be in their favour. He cannot tackle despite making the run and taking the position, his passing sometimes is off, but boy can he shoot !
As we approached the end of the game we started to go backwards a bit defending our 2 goal lead. By now, with Grady and Anderson on the pitch we were a little lightweight in the tackling dept, and Palace kept coming, eventually getting their second, and making the last 10 more exciting than it needed to be.
So we go 3 for 3 and 10th in the league with struggling Fulham, Watford, Southampton and Burnley next up. 30 points for the new year would be lovely, but let’s not get too carried away.
Best encouragement for me, and worst for non Hammers, is we have proved we are not a one man show. we have won 2 games now with no Arnie. Perez is not his replacement however, and Carroll looked massively sluggish. But with the midfield chipping in with the goals, it will paper over the cracks. Noble looks like he’s back his own self as well, which is no bad thing.
January is coming and I think if we can pick up a couple of full backs maybe Byram and Masuaku can go. With Arthur it’s a shame, as the talent is there but the mistakes can no longer be ignored.
Once again Rice was awesome and this transfer window does worry me. Don’t forget anyone who is still in Europe can buy him and play him. Leaving the negotiations until the end of the season is madness, but lets hope it works.
MOTM Rice.
Warning Explicit content early on:
Continue reading “WHUFC vs Crystal Palace 14/01/2017 EPL 2106-2017”
Palace are without a win in the premier league this year and WHU are tearing up trees pushing for a CL spot. But in true West Ham style we blew a gift. Everyone seems to the blaming the ref, but I differ, and will explain below.
Continue reading “WHUFC vs Crystal Palace EPL 2015- 2016 02/04/2016”
Not a lot to report here. WHU were useless. Mark Noble excepted, who seemed to be enjoying coming out of the shadow of Kevin Nolan and more likely enjoying the next 5 years on 50k a week.
This was a game overshadowed by 2 events for me. One was the untimely and very sad passing of promising centre forward Dylan Tombides from a 3 year battle with cancer. The other was meeting with a good friend of mine who starts his chemo this week, after being diagnosed with some serious Cancer complications out of the blue resulting in massive operations less then 24 hrs post diagnoses. The words of Shankly went through my head, and i will have the disagree with the great man this time.
Dylan’s number 38 has been retired by the club and they held a very moving minutes applause before the start of the game witnessed by his brother and father.
The game to me was going to be a drawn out 0-0, that would secure league survival for both teams, and started as such. Sam set out his usual shocking formation, and Pulis didn’t do much better. But the Eagles seemed to have the upper hand as they were more lively up front even if it meant Yannick Bolasie diving all over the place like Tom Daly after a night on the piss. But WHU had possession, and outside of Andy Carroll getting a couple of chances, and one falling to the ever depressing Diame, neither team was going to break the deadlock.
The second half was more of the same, but WHU were retreating more and more into their shells, inviting Palace on. This meant more action in our box. Eventually the inevitable happened when Pablo Armero tripped Cameron Jerome in the box. Jedinak took the pen well, and that sealed the game.
There were shouts for penatlies on both sides, and that just about sums up the quality of the game all round.
So Palace are now safe, and we are not with 3 tricky games to go, West Brom (A), Totts (H) and Man City away on the last day. Other results will keep us up I imagine, so we must look to next season. I watched Sam this morning on Sky talking about improving the squad, but the reception he got at the end of the game (again), points to the fact that he probably wont be there to improve anything.
Last up, Palace fans, superb all day, plenty of noise and really got behind their team.
After the midweek drama against Blackpool with Robert Green’s red card, Lansbury’s heroics, and another 10 man win for West Ham, all we needed was a nice incident free quiet day. It was quiet alright, more due to the match being devoid of any drama, than for any good reasons.
Palace were the better team throughout . WHU were terrible. This maybe down to tiredness, of consistently being a man down, or a bad day at the office. Bottom line is that, if we play like that in the prem, then we lose 3 or more nil.
Noble had another good game, as did Faye, but my MOTM was Rob Green, who’s saves kept WHU in the game, and kept the score down to 0 0.
Collison has to pull his finger out. He was at least 2 yards off the ball all game. If he doesn’t get up to speed, he will have to leave. It’s that simple.
Another “famous” night under the lights at West Ham. Our last meeting at home to the Tractor Boys was the 2005 play off final semi final which saw a rabid full house, brass bands on the pitch and a comfy win for the Hammers that ultimately led to our last promotion back to the big boys league.
Tuesday night, was a far duller concern, and needed to shake off the hangover of the previous Saturday. However the score stayed the same but with the result in the opposition. so what went wrong ?
Simply, nothing changed from Saturday, with the midfield being devoid of ideas and tackles. Bullard and Bowyer played us off the pitch, and they were quicker in every department.
Beware false prophets !. Mr Nolan was brought in as the free scoring replacement for Scott Parker, and started well; until Parker left. Now he looks lost but worse still, off the pace. Noble is no better, as both are trying to fill the same void.
Sam Baldock played and looked lively, and unlikely to be muscled out, unlike Sears, but didn;t get any service from our midfield. CC again tried his best but needs more ball to feet rather than eight foot in the air.
Faye was superb again and looks a quality buy.
In short the Tractors Boys deserved the win, but had to work for it, and surprise surprise, east end old boy Bowyer popped up in the dying minutes to secure the win.
BFS has some big work to do this week, before the Palace game, and to be fair, it’s what he is paid to do.
We have been very lucky that other results have gone for us this week, but we cannot afford to lose out again this week, albeit to an inform Palace team.
COYI
Mrben09 