From the moment we kicked off on Saturday afternoon, I knew we were watching a different West Ham United. When Payet drilled the ball towards the Middlesbrough corner flag as if he were looking to find touch in a rugby match, there was something different about the team. It wasn’t a misplaced pass and it wasn’t an attempt to relieve pressure, it was trying to show we wanted to take the game to the opposition. You got the feeling the team really wanted it, they wanted to put them under pressure from the off and try to get our season going.
We didn’t dominate the game by any stretch of the imagination and we clearly didn’t manage to get three points but for once this season, we looked like we could have (even more so than the game we actually won against Bournemouth). In essence, we looked far removed from the side that capitulated against Southampton just over a week ago. We are still miles apart from the levels of performance we reached last season and there wasn’t that much to get excited about on Saturday, but I was just happy to see a team that looked up for it. There was hunger from both the players and the manager. A hunger that many have claimed has been missing since the start of this season.
Now don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten how dire some of (most of) our performances have been this season. I’m just glad that we’ve seen some kind of change. It felt like we were the laughing stock of the Premier League after the loss to Southampton. Rival fans were gleefully rubbing their hands together at the sight of our poor start, whilst pundits and so called ‘experts’ were claiming we were already on a downward spiral. We are still in the early part of the season where the pressure on a team can build quite quickly. As the negative press and mauling of our performances by Chris Sutton and alike begun to mount up, I was starting to worry that we were in danger of hitting a real low in terms of confidence and being resigned to a relegation dogfight before the season was ten games old.
A draw at home to Middlesbrough is not a good result. Especially for a team that looked like it was challenging the top four last season. But you know what, I’ll take it. I quite often found myself claiming our draws last season were good results, even against those who were adrift at the bottom of the table. Why? Because we needed to keep the momentum going and show that we were hard to beat. Okay, so we haven’t got any momentum to keep going at the moment but with each minor improvement, we will get there.
There might be a select few out there who doubt our attacking prowess (even if it’s been lacking thus far) and it would appear the defence is the issue for most of us (just like it was last season). For me, the defence was one of the positives to take away from Saturday. What quite clearly wasn’t our strongest back four managed to shut out Middlesbrough for large periods of the game and were it not for a momentary lapse in concentration from Antonio when defending a corner, we could have come away with a clean sheet.
Collins and Reid in particular put in good performances. Not only were the nerves and moments of indecisiveness of recent weeks no longer present, they looked confident when passing the ball out of defence. I feel absolutely gutted for Sam Byram. It’s obviously another injury that we really could have done without but I had high hopes for a player who so far, hasn’t really been given a chance. At only 23-years-old, he is the kind of player who needs a run of games to get some Premier League experience and show what he can do. Unfortunately, it looks like he’s going to have to wait a little while longer to get that run of games.
Pedro Obiang proved what most of us already knew. He’s a good ball playing defensive midfielder who deserves an opportunity. One thing we’ve been lacking this season is someone in a holding role who does just that. Holds. The spaces left in behind our midfield when defending and in front of it when attacking is what has caused so many problems this season. With Obiang in the starting XI, Noble and Kouyate can commit to supporting the likes of Payet and Antonio without leaving massive amounts of space behind them. Obiang isn’t the saviour of our season but he can play a big part in it judging by what we saw on Saturday.
As surprising as the team selection was from Bilic, I think he deserves a lot of credit. There is a fine line between shaking things up to get a team going and losing the crucial element of stability. When Zaza came on, he looked like he had a point to prove. I’ll admit that he didn’t show bundles of quality on the ball but he put a shift in and I’ll be holding off on a damning verdict until I see a bit more of him. Payet was obviously the catalyst to our creative play and it was good to see his season properly get going. Being able to beat players with consummate ease is something that won’t disappear over night and we can rest assured that when we need that extra bit of quality, he can step up to the plate.
We now have the international break and while the eyes of the media might be on Gareth Southgate and England, my attention will firmly be fixed on West Ham. Some players might be away on international duty but this week is a good opportunity to regroup and really knuckle down. We can be under no allusions that to sort our season out is going to take a lot of hard work. Something I’m sure all of us will agree on is that Slav and the squad have got it in them.
I’m still hopeful and optimistic for the season ahead. We should never be in a situation where we are almost dependent on players returning from injury but getting Cresswell, Carroll and Ayew back is sure to give us a big boost. The next three games against Crystal Palace, Sunderland and Everton could really define our season. Two or three wins and we’re back on track, failure to get a win and we could find ourselves in some real trouble.
COYI!
Note: I just want to say a special thank you to LittleBoyLost for providing me with a ticket on Saturday. Very much appreciated and just a shame we didn’t get to see a win.