Today I took my friend Jenny to her first ever football match. She loved every minute. The pre-match food at Formans, the walk to the stadium, soaking up the atmosphere. The singing. West Ham’s first half performance. She was hooked. All she hankered for was to celebrate a goal. As we walked out of the stadium and headed through the Olympic Park she asked me…
Iain, have you ever left early and then West Ham have scored?
And with that, a huge cheer emanated from the Stadium, a mere twenty yards behind us! Come on You Irons!!! Jenny decided she wanted to come again…
So here are the talking points…
1. We battered them in the first half. I haven’t seen the possession statistics, but three corners in the first five minutes tells its own story. We were fluent, we were great at speedy passing, but we just couldn’t get the ball in the net. The second half was less convincing, but we kept trying to walk the ball in the net rather than shoot.
2. Sunderland weren’t at the races for most of the game. They had one solid chance, but Adrian was equal to the task. Defoe threatened once or twice, but each time he flattered to deceive.
3. I do like this three at the back formation. We rarely looked troubled. Kouyate was again superb, and Reid and Ogbonna were at their most confident. Late in the second half they got caught, but Sunderland failed to ram their advantage home.
4. Michael Antonio put in a strange performance. There was a delicious moment when he kicked the ball twenty yards beyond a Sunderland defender, then proceeded to run past him, but the resulting cross was disappointing. He saw a lot of the ball, but each time he failed to deliver a dangerous ball. I wasn’t surprised when he was replaced, although I suspect he will have been none too impressed.
5. Zaza put in another good shift. His superb overhead shot at the end of the first half was unlucky not to hit the target. Although he had a couple of chances which he should have done better with, he is showing some much more positive signs.
6. Quite why he was subbed for Calleri in the 68th minute only Slaven Bilic can answer. Why on earth isn’t Fletcher put on first. He always plays better than Calleri and if he was given more game time would undoubtedly score more goals than Calleri ever would.
7. I thought Mark Noble had his best game of the season. He covered every blade of the pitch. He had several driving runs forward but I do wish he’d give up with the Ray Wilkins impression. Far too often he passes backwards or sideways.
8. Edimilson Fernandes looks to be a real find. He did really well in a position which is not natural for him. He’s a tough tackler and also showed great promise in attack. He combined well with Payet, and was my man of the match.
9. Payet could have had a hatful, but too often his crosses or passes around the box didn’t come off. In some ways Lanzini eclipsed him. Again, Lanzini was playing in a different position, but he did very well, especially in the first half.
10. Why were there so many empty seats? A friend of mine rang the club at lunchtime and was able to buy two tickets on the spur of the moment. I thought we were told every match had sold out.
We needed to win this match. Bizarrely we remain in 15th place, which shows how much needed those three points were.
I take a lot of encouragement from this performance. We played as a team. Edimilson fitted in like a hand in a glove and he can provide excellent cover for Kouyate, Noble and Obiang. Many more performances like this and he will be pushing to be a regular.
SCORES ON THE DOORS
Adrian 8, Kouyate 8, Reid 7, Ogbonna 7, Edimilson 8, Payet 7, Lanzini 7, Obiang 7, Noble 8, Antonio 6, Zaza 7, Feghouli 6, Fletcher 6, Calleri 5,
MATCH STATS courtesy of the BBC
- West Ham are now unbeaten in their last seven Premier League fixtures against Sunderland.
- The Hammers won back-to-back league games for the first time since April.
- Only Mesut Ozil (19) has provided more Premier League assists than Dimitri Payet (16) since the start of last season.
- West Ham have kept more home clean sheets against Sunderland (10) than any other opponent in Premier League history.
SLAVEN BILIC SAYS…
“It was a dramatic end. The first 25 minutes it was by far our best 25 minutes, including last season… We were good, sharp, created chances and we deserved to be two up. Then they came back. And in the second half they had great chances and were dangerous on the counter attack but in the last 15 minutes we pushed more and we were looking to score. I cannot say it was a goal from the training ground. You expect Winston Reid to score a header but it was a great decision to come in on the edge of the box.”
PS: Listening to the report of the match on 5 Live on the way home, the reporter must have been watching a very different game. He seemed to think Sunderland deserved a point.