The drip feed of points continues. Five points from our last three matches in an unbeaten run isn’t too bad for a team fighting relegation but that masks the problems we had in trying to break down the worst defence in the league last night. An excellent win against Southampton and a gritty display at Chelsea was followed by a dominant but laboured performance against Stoke. Had we taken three points last night I think we would all be feeling a sense of relief that we were just about safe from the drop. We don’t do easy though, never have, and now this relegation fight is more like death by a thousand cuts. However, there are still a lot of scenarios to play out in this relegation battle. Have a look at Brighton’s run home and you will see just how things could change over the next few weeks. Burnley away and all the top four still to play makes our run in look a little more palatable.
So, what of the performance last night? I thought we played fairly well, controlled most of the game but of course we so nearly could have lost it. Joe Hart’s blunder with eleven minutes to play was his fourth of the season that has led to a goal being conceded. He is also fourth in the “goalkeeping error leading to a goal league” – two behind Petr Cech, but Hart has played nearly half the games that the keepers above him have in this unfortunate statistical table. It has again given Moyes a problem as to whether to keep Hart in goal for the remainder of the season. It seems like Groundhog day again as this seasons revolving door of Adrian or Hart mirrors last season’s similar scenario with Adrian and Randolph. Personally, I think Hart will play this weekend but the game after is against Manchester City and he won’t be eligible to play in that one anyway.
On a brighter note Declan Rice again put in a fine performance. Despite Reid and Collins being injured at present, I doubt either would be selected ahead of the youngster if all three were available. Noble had a good game but the rest of the team, whilst doing just enough to control most of the possession (around 60%), rarely stamped themselves on the game. I had a little moan last week about how we wasted our last minute corner kick at Chelsea. Judging from our first corner kick last night it is still an area that needs work. Playing another short corner the return pass caught us offside and I don’t know how many times I have used the analogy of Groundhog Day in my articles recently! In some ways I can’t wait for this season to end. If Moyes is to remain he will at least be able to put his stamp on the team during the transfer window. West Ham over the past two seasons have at times been a difficult watch and with the players we have that should not be the case. Injuries have taken their toll and have not made the job an easy one for either Bilic or Moyes, but this side is screaming out for a Carvalho type player.
Referee Michael Oliver had a couple of tough decisions to make in the Champions League match between Real Madrid and Juventus last week but got them both right. Last night we had three goals disallowed and the officials were again correct in my opinion. There wasn’t much in the offside call for the first but Arnie was a fraction off. For the second he is definitely interfering, again in an offside position, and Andy Carroll’s handball was plain to see before Hernandez rifled home from inside the box. It would be nice to get a little rub of the green but we can’t complain too much when the refs get it right. Where I do think the officials erred last night though was with the amount of added time at the end of the game. Stoke committed a plethora of niggling fouls in the second half and the amount of time taken up in restarting play from these indiscretions alone would have amounted to the four minutes that were added. As for Ramadan’s substitution I am actually wondering if he is still making his way off right now? That alone seemed to take four minutes!
David Moyes started with the team that grafted a point at Chelsea and I am sure some critics would be questioning whether that was too negative an approach? Arnautovic looked quite isolated at times and many promising movements between him and Mario more often failed to produce anything that might resemble cohesion. For the final minutes a front line of Carroll, Arnie and Chico played ahead of Lanzini but I doubt we will ever see those four start in a West Ham team. If Moyes had taken a more attacking approach from the start and we lost the game, how would have Hammers fans reacted? At the end of the day we snatched a point with a 90th minute equaliser from Andy Carroll. We probably deserved more based on both teams overall performance but as I stated early, we never do easy, and this relegation fight looks like going all the way to the wire.