Through necessity, West Ham had an ‘interesting’ starting eleven – it was a challenge to see where the goals were going to come from. Soucek, Paqueta, Kudus and on occasion Edson Alvarez moved forward in the early minutes looking to attack Palace’s box. The clear problem from very early on was how West Ham were going to get up the pitch, being almost entirely reliant on Mohammed Kudus to be the outlet to move the side forwards.
Palace and West Ham both looked pretty ordinary up to the first half hour mark, the visitors having the better of the chances such that they were Apart from Wan-Bissaka’s wide effort, it looked for all the world like a David Moyes ‘park the bus’ escapade. A line of five at the back and three in midfield made for dour watching. Eze’s Rabona cross was about the only noteworthy point of the first half.
Sixty thousand plus people froze and dozed their way through that 45 minutes.
One Hammers’ chance in the half – Wan Bissaka not even close
Deep joy to see Carlos Soler come on for Rodriguez at half time: Any crumb of comfort.
Ironically the midfielder-shaped gap that was left by Rodriguez’ exit and Soler playing further forward, allowed Mateta unchallenged to take the ball and run on Kilman who just backed off.. and backed off. Not good enough.
One – nil. Ollie Scarles, Lewis Orford and Danny Ings readied. Paqueta, Cresswell and Emerson made way.
Kudus finally won a corner and a flurry of activity ended with – nothing. Very poor fare being served up for West Ham’s paying customers. How one dimensional the Hammers looked, without an Antonio-style target man to move them up the pitch. Safe to say that Kudus is not suited to the role and there seemed no outlet, not one goal chance in the whole of the second half.
Eddie Nketiah entered, ominously ‘looking for his first league goal’ as announced by the commentator. What odds in the next ten minutes? Prophetic words as Nketiah got through against Fabianski, who saved on a one-on one from the substitute immediately.
Straight after-Mavropanos got himself sent off- for a second yellow – for a high footed clumsy challenge 40 yards from goal: Pathetic.The Greek will miss a game now and that leaves the sum total of one fit central defender. West Ham down to ten men in a perilous position for the last ten minutes.
A one-nil loss would seem like a relief, to be honest. Eight more minutes of this masochistic ritual to endure. Guilherme thrown on by Potter – too little too late. Risks were now being taken in an effort to get something out of the game -which meant players popping up all over the place. wait a minute- Alvarez at number 10? This’ll end in tears. And it did.
From that risky pushing forward, leaving gaps, a breakaway from NKetiah and a one-on-one with the ‘keeper meant Fabianski took him down for a penalty. The Palace attacker was going wide of the post, why Fabianski took him down – who knows.
You’ll see later on MOTD and judge for yourself. Fabianski should have done better: 2-0 Crystal Palace and boos at London Stadium. The ground ’emptied like there was a fire drill’.
The honeymoon is over. West Ham have been exposed for what they really are: Toothless in attack. Devoid of midfield creativity. And Mavropanos – a mistake per game as always. Championship quality at best.
David Sullivan needs to face some truths. With these players on the pitch, it could have been Moyes, Lopetegui, Guardiola or Klopp, the result would have been the same.
