Let me get this out of the way. While I know West Ham told enough Porky’s during the Tevez saga to open a BBQ place, for the life of me I’ve NEVER understood why it mattered. Meaning, the issue of third party ownership. To my way of thinking, a league should have zero input on the contracts between a player and the club. I remember trying to explain it to my friends over here who only followed North American sports, and they looked utterly dumbfounded how this was a problem. So Saints fans, if for some reason you’re reading this, if you even dream of arguing this point with me I suggest you wake up.
A few weeks ago, after the Palace annoyance, I was chatting via text with my friend Rob. He is part of GraftWine, my customer in the UK. More importantly, he is a Sheffield United supporter. He said the stats at that time said we were not a top half club. In fact, certain numbers had us in the bottom half by some margin. I argued our merits, claiming the draw at Bournemouth for example would have been a loss other years.
“So I had sorted the table by xPTS. A measure of how many points you should expect to get in a game giving the xG. Your boys were 5th bottom, but that looks even worse now, following a poor performance today. It’s your expected goals against which is so poor. Only Norwich with a worse figure and that includes Watford’s 8-0 loss to Man City. I thought your boys were solid, but these stats say otherwise”
Based on today’s 90 minutes, I would tend to agree with Rob’s stats.
If Manuel Pellegrini wanted to tell his squad he was more than a little angry over recent performances, the starting eleven was a good start. No Lanzini, no Fredericks, no Ogbonna. And in the opening moments, Snodgrass looked a decent choice when he won a couple of corners and sent a decent ball in for Yarmolenko. But Noble gave the ball away, as did Anderson, so maybe three changes wasn’t enough.
West Ham looked decent in the opening ten minutes, but for all of their possession the home side created no chances. More worrying was the lack of space in the midfield and our inability to move the ball through it effectively. Both sides gave the impression they wanted a flowing game of football, but in the driving rain the game was yet to begin, so to speak.
West Ham won a fortuitous corner in the 21st minute after another Noble giveaway, but he won the ball back with a tough tackle. Anderson and Yarmolenko got in each other’s way, but somehow got the set piece. Sheffield United cleared, but The Hammers came back down and won another corner when Yarmolenko challenged the visitors back four. Moments later Anderson tried a strike from twenty yards out, and if it had gone in it would have been a wonder strike. Instead it sailed over the bar. A few minutes later Yarmolenko won yet another corner, but the 22 year old Henderson commanded his area well with a punch worthy of Ernie Shavers.
Sheffield won their first corner in the 28th minute after Noble was careless with the ball, and it required a very fine save from Roberto. The delivery went to Basham, who headed it to McGoldrick right in front of goal. He should have buried it, but Roberto got down with his right hand and made the save. Anderson eventually got the ball out of danger, but the visitors may look back at that chance with regret.
With ten minutes left in the half, the stats said we had 71% of the ball.
OK. If they said so.
In the 41st minute, Sheffield had another decent chance after Balbuena apparently thought Wilder had resigned his position as Blades manager and joined West Ham. After the resulting throw, the ball was rolled to Lundstram breaking in the box but his low shot went wide. Seconds later Lundstram swung a pass into the box towards Robinson. Roberto literally got the tip of one finger on the ball, which changed the trajectory just enough to send Robinson’s header wide.
Despite the possession advantage, one would have to say it was Sheffield United that deserved to go into the break with the lead. But when a long ball went off the head of Basham to Yarmolenko, the cagey Ukrainian (dangerous words over here at the moment I must add) one timed it to Snodgrass in the middle. The veteran Scot took full advantage of the opportunity and slid the shot past Henderson.
Halftime
West Ham 1
Sheffield United 0
In the opening minutes of the second half, Sheffield continued to get behind the West Ham fullbacks but good defending by Zabaleta came to the rescue. Then Roberto became the helper when he got hold of a cross from McGoldrick before it could reach its target. But it was the visitors that looked for the equalizer more than West Ham looked for a second.
West Ham broke well on the counter in the 52nd minute when Anderson got on the end of a long pass and broke in on the Sheffield United penalty area. But he waited a bit too long to pass to Haller, and by the time the ball found the West Ham striker the defense had re-organized. Haller passed to Yarmolenko in the box, but Egan put his body on the line and made the block. Down at the other end, Fleck had an open look at the West Ham goal but his shot was partially blocked by Roberto and Cresswell’s…..uhhhh…..yeah.
West Ham should have scored a second in the 57th minute when Anderson was sent in behind the Sheffield defense by Yarmolenko and had nobody to beat but Henderson. Yet Anderson could not break his goal drought and sent his shot right into the visiting keeper.
Sheffield United wasted another chance in the 62nd minute when McGoldrick slid a pass to Baldock on the right side of the West Ham eighteen yard box. He had space. He had time. But he hadn’t scored a goal in over a year, and he gave a hint as to why that might be when he sliced his shot wide.
The equalizer that Sheffield deserved finally came in the 69th minute. The play started on the right as it had all day, with a cross from Baldock. Stevens got on the end of it, and headed it to Mousset on the left. Roberto did not position himself well, was very slow to react, and he paid the price when the bouncing shot bounced by him and into the net.
West Ham 1
Sheffield United 1
West Ham came back down and came close to regaining the lead in the 73rd when Yarmolenko sent a beautifully weighted cross to Cresswell in the box. But when a one timer would have been the correct decision, Cresswell took a second touch and Henderson had the time needed to get in front of the shot. In the 80th minute West Ham had another chance when Fornals sent a low cross from the right. Yarmolenko couldn’t quite reach it, but the ball rolled through the goalmouth where Snodgrass raced to meet it but couldn’t quite reach the finish line.
Snodgrass made his final contribution to the match in the 86th minute when he won a corner, but was replaced by Ajeti before the set piece was taken. Sheffield took care of business, and the final minutes rolled on.
In the final minute of added time, the Blades won a couple of corners. On the second, they made a strange decision when they kept the ball and tried to run time off the clock. With their good attacking play on the day, one had to wonder why they didn’t go for goal.
In the final moments, Haller won a free kick from Steven 35 yards out. The delivery ended up with Fornals, who took a bit too much time and then looked for a handball gift that wasn’t to be.
Final Score
West Ham 1
Sheffield United 1
I don’t want to sound too many alarm bells….OK, maybe I do….but a point at home against a newly promoted team that had more significant chances than us is a problem. Our seemingly good start was clearly not that good. And to think there will be January help is pure folly. The truth is that despite the money spent, we are in all likelihood looking at a typical season with more disappointments than joy.