Michael Oliver certainly played a big part in this game. Most of his decisions went the way of the Baggies who managed to bag themselves a point in the final minute of the match. During that time, the manager was protesting about the awarding of the corner as they scored. Slav then smashed the TV microphone to the ground in a fit of rage, which saw him sent to the stands (along with the assistant manager from an incident before) in the dying embers of the match. Embers is the right word there: the manner in which we conceded that goal was appalling. Randolph had to push Fernandes to get him to focus, whilst our players were beaten in the air. Surely we bought Collins on for his aerial ability?
With such drama on show, it is very easy to blame the referee. Fans and pundits alike have questioned whether the Olympic Stadium is suitable for football matches. But something we can all agree on is that theatre shows wouldn’t go amiss. Just imagine… the pageantry of Mike Dean, and the melodramatic stylings of Michael Oliver – two fantastic performances in the space of roughly a month. Tell you what, we’re being spoiled rotten! We can’t expect to see too many performances like this on a regular basis. I hope we can go back to seeing more stock characters next time.
Tony Pulis commented that the atmosphere inside our theatre of football was good, thus disproving some of our critics. The second half, in particular, was extremely loud. The referee made a lot of decisions that were met with disapproval. You could tell that most of the fans at the ground became incapable of making sound judgements, judging by the excessive noise levels, and frustration building around the ground. They were booing whenever our players made blatant fouls, which the referee obviously had to clamp down on.
To be frank, I don’t blame the fans. We absolutely dominated when we stepped back onto the pitch after the break. In this match, we had 16 shots with a pass completion rate of 71% in the final third. It was quite tentative stuff watching the second half, as we struggled to create chances due to a lack of creative outlets. Even the initial goal came from Foster tipping Lanzini’s effort onto the crossbar only for Feghouli to react quickest to it and score. The way in which that ball went into the goal epitomised just how frantically we were playing. Antonio (as ever) had to play in quite a few positions. The frustrating thing with him is that he is good as a striker, but is also a good creator – that’s the dilemma we faced. When and where should we play him?
We have conceded at least a goal in each of our last four matches within the opening half-hour. This once more exemplifies just how frantically we are playing at the moment. When Feghouli went down, we should have been alert to the danger. There was no certainty that Oliver was going to give a foul on him by Brunt. Looking at the replay, it turns out the referee was right not to stop play. One form of theatrical art is improvisation – something done spontaneously without any prior practice. Kouyaté, and Randolph are to blame here, as Chadli nutmegged the former and scored between the latter’s legs. If they improvised even a bit, then we could have avoided the goal. Additionally, that goal in the final minute needed a bit of improvisation. Sure, Slav was protesting the decision, but that doesn’t mean that the players had to lose focus. This match showed that we can be our own worst enemies at times with the sort of goals we concede.
The world of theatre can be used to present the experience of a real or imagined event. It can also be used effectively to showcase our lives in short moments, and of course, football! Aristotle came up with the three-act structure. It is quite simple: it is made up of a setup, confrontation, and a resolution. Now, given that the Baggies scored even before all the fans had arrived, it is the setup. The confrontation is the point in the match when we scored. And the resolution is the point at which they equalised. The resolution was more of an anticlimax, but we can’t dwell on it for too long.
The fact that Carroll didn’t even feature on the bench meant that the entire setup had changed. Our setup could have been a lot different had he played any part for us in the match. Even if Andy didn’t start, he would have been a good option on the bench to come on for the final 20 minutes or so. Sure, we scored the crucial goal with Lanzini, though it could have come a lot earlier. This would have made the second act a lot more exciting. Imagine a confrontation with Carroll. Ha! Anyway, I think he could have given us a happy ending as well. Collins didn’t do much from the corner, but with the onus on Carroll, you can just imagine the Geordie clearing it away. At the start of the match, most would have taken a draw. The theatre we go to week-in, week-out can be quite melodramatic, but it is important to see the aesthetic value of the point we got today, in spite of Lanzini’s late goal. Speaking of aesthetic value, the Jewel scored an absolute scorcher!
Today's London Stadium attendance for West Ham v West Brom was 56,983 ???? pic.twitter.com/rdMWiEZ89j
— West Ham Football (@westhamfootball) February 11, 2017
A five-day training camp awaits the players in Dubai. Well, I say training camp… But seriously, no doubt there will be lots of exercise drills, and whatnot. I’m sure the team will be eager to get three points against Watford in a few weeks time. This match will go down as two points dropped. Only Bournemouth (6) have conceded more goals in the 90th minute of Premier League games than us this season (4). That is something we have to work on. Hopefully, the players will make sure we don’t concede late yet again. Mauro Zarate will likely be playing for the Hornets, so a bit of pride at stake. We are still in the top half, so no cause for concern just yet.