Blind Hammer examines what lessons can be learnt from the Palace result.
1. We confirmed that we are a team with players that opponents fear. I am willing to bet now, if I was a betting man, that West Ham will continue to benefit from teams having players sent off for the rest of the season. Alan Pardew moaned that Palace were unlucky to have Gale sent off. Palace was not unlucky nor was West Ham lucky. Just as Sunderland were not unlucky to have Jeremain Lens sent off against us in the previous game. The sending off in both cases had nothing to do with luck but in both circumstances the consequence of the pressure that the West Ham midfield was exerting and the fear of Payet that opposition teams have in particular. Without the pressure our midfield was exerting neither Lens nor Gale would have felt compelled to make the desperate challenges they made. Not since the days of a rampaging Devonshire and gliding Brooking have we placed such dominant game pressure on teams.
2. This change is not just about midfield pressure but also arises from our new style of play. We will continue to win free kicks in matches. The ball playing characteristics of the current team style inevitably draws more challenges and fouls. It is rather less likely that fouls will be awarded if we were relying simply on floated long balls up for Carroll and Sacko to battle for possession. With the floated long ball it is just as likely that Carroll and Sacko will concede rather than win free kicks.
3. We have more than one match changer and match winner. Apart from the obvious talents of Payet, Lanzini is proving a hot potato.
4. We have strength from the bench. The winner on Saturday was born out of interventions from the bench; Mauro Zárate’s made several telling interventions, including his floated cross which allowed Carroll to power over a tiring defence to set up Lanzini’s winner . I cannot recall a time in recent history where West Ham have had the ability to call on players of such match winning calibre from the bench.
5. West Ham continues to defy Mark Lawrenson’s predictions. Yet again he confidently predicted a Palace victory, at heart he is still unable to believe that the results against Arsenal Liverpool and Manchester City were anything but flukes. This has come on top of his patronising so called “fear” that West Ham would be relegated, and his assertion after the Liverpool game that Liverpool had been beaten by a team that “was not very good”.
6. Slaven Bilic was proved right of his critique of Match of the Day. Despite their recent protestations they were yet again wearily predictable by devoting the entire lead front running time on the program once more to Manchester City, Arsenal and Manchester United. The post-match analysis was almost exclusively concentrated on these “big” teams. . The only surprise is that Crystal Palace versus West Ham managed to squeeze ahead of Chelsea v Aston Villa.
7. James Collins continues to defy people writing him off. In the early stages of the commentary on BBC London Collins was identified as a “slow” weakness at the heart of the West Ham defence. This assessment died away as the match continues.
It is exciting times to be a Hammer. The severe test of Chelsea awaits us on Saturday. A positive result is by no means certain. Yet potentially Bilic may be the grave digger for José Mourinho’s Managerial career at Chelsea in much the same way he did for Steve McClaren whilst Manager of England.
A win against Chelsea would certainly start to make people like Lawrenson sit up and take notice.
COYI
David Griffith
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