It was almost a perfect night. Had we scored three more goals it would have been, and it would have been no less than we deserved. This was a strolling performance by West Ham and one which saw the Allardyce style of football consigned to the dustbin. We passed the ball like we haven’t for four years. There wasn’t a single long ball played out from the back. OK, the opposition wasn’t exactly top quality but it took quite some time to break them down. Indeed, they were a nasty little team of divers and cheats. Luckily we didn’t rise to the bait very often.
Darren Randolph, making his debut in goal, didn’t have a save to make. He slightly mishandled one back pass, but apart from that was as safe as houses. The back four barely had a tackle to make. I was especially impressed by Lewis Page at left back. In the middle of the first half he made a mazy run down the right beating three players and that gave him a lot of confidence. Reece Burke was again imperious alongside captain for the night James Tomkins, while Joey O’Brien delighted in getting a lot further forward than normal.
In midfield I suspect the watching Slaven Bilic will have been especially impressed by Diego Poyet, who played quite deep and picked the ball up the defenders before spraying it around. He’s clearly learned a lot from Alex Song and although not all his passes came off, he will have learnt a lot. Similarly, Reece Oxford made a huge impression making his full debut at Upton Park at the age of 16. He has a wise old head on very young shoulders. His beanpole like physique will soon fill out, but at times it was like watching a young Rio Ferdinand. He seems to have all the time in the world, and he was unlucky to score, once with a header, and once with a rasping shot which just went over the crossbar. Matt Jarvis had his best game for a long time, especially in the first half, constantly beating his man and getting in cross after cross.
Up front Diafra Sakho bagged his first two goals of the season and hardly broke a sweat in the process. he could easily have had a couple more. But for me, the standout player on the pitch tonight was Mauro Zarate. He made Sakho’s second with an exquisite pull back and was consistently inventive. At times it was like watching Eyal Berkovic. He must have played himself into Bilic’s first team plans with this performance.
Of the three subs, Josh Cullen impressed most. He looked very confident and was unlucky not to score after running half way up the pitch with the ball. Elliot Lee was industrious and also had a good chance to hit the net, but hit the ball straight at the keeper. I’d never heard of Number 64 Djair Parfitt-Williams before tonight. He showed some nice touches and can go down in Hammers history as the player with the highest number on his shirt ever to play for the Hammers. Unless, of course, you know different.
A three goal margin is safe enough and I would be surprised to see any prominent first team players making the trip to Andorra next week. Or would that be a sign of massive ovr confidence? We will soon see.
All in all, nothing to complain about, and a job done very professionally.