Let's face it, very few Hammers fans, or observers, gave the team 'a prayer' ahead of last night's crucial game against Wolves at Molineaux, a match that saw a multitude of West Ham's facets, from the good to the bad and then on to the ugly.
Deprived of one of the best, if not the best, central midfielder in the World, Declan Rice, Hammers went in to the game on the back of the dismal 3-3 'loss' against Arsenal. Either Wolves were complacent or West Ham were magnificent, because after twenty odd minutes the visitors were 2-0 up. This was good, but then the bad occurred, almost inevitably Michail Antonio was forced to withdraw courtesy of his 'selfish' hamstrings, however his replacement Jarrod Bowen took to the pitch and scored his 8th Hammers goal by latching on to a Masuaku pass that was made possible by an 'insane' run through virtually the entire Wolves team by Jesse Lingard.
Of course feelings of DejaVu began to manifest after Wolves managed to pull a goal back just before half time, when they went on to score another early on in the 2nd half it looked as if the 'Hex' had been cast over the Irons. Things looked especially ugly when Tomas Soucek picked up a nasty gash to his ankle that required lengthy treatment on the pitch.
Finally there was a bit of ugliness as the players left the field, with some of the Wolves players who were suffering an acute case of 'bad grapes', trying to 'confront' man of the match Jesse Lingard by questioning "why did you play the way you did?" referencing the amount of time Lingard 'wasted' towards the end of the game. Perhaps they should have asked themselves "why did you play the way you did?"
Finally, we would be remiss not to mention Mark Noble's contribution, selected to virtually universal abhorrence from fans, the club captain ran his heart out playing the full 90 minutes, and while he was culpable for NOT stopping the attack that led to Wolves's first goal due to a mistimed tackle, he put in a first class shift that will probably have his limbs reminding him about it vociferously all of today!
If Hammers are to continue their unlikely 'assault' on Europe, and in order to prevent too many unnecessary visits to A&R for fans given heart murmurs, game management has got to come in to the equation. Racing to a 3-0 lead in concurrent games, only to concede goals and then have to hang on for dear life might be fun for the neutral observer, but for Hammers fans and the club's coaching staff it is an issue that needs to be addressed ahead of the visit by the Foxes, who will be far deadlier than Wolves were. - Ed
Comments
Never had a moments doubt myself
It was exactly the line up i would of chosen lol.....but seriously we looked awesome in the first half but we do have to start getting back to being mean at the back.....on a separate note i see the injuries have started like London buses as they say...Rice/Antonio/Lanzini
Sorry ,im a jar half empty
Sorry ,im a jar half empty man , with out Ant & Dec i think we're dead in the water ,as you say Nev this 2 halfs football has to be sorted ,something thats easyer said than done ,one or two points ,i dont think Souchec is the player he was ,he's seemed to have gone very slow and awkward and get out of puff easily, i think most fans took to Les because of his 2 goals ,2 goals he only borrowed ,if you know what i meam , his skill factor and timing that bothers me , i dont know if this makes much sence but in our case it seems easier to defend 1 goal than 3, i think Massu made a bright come back ,he must have been nervous, i think he had a hand in 2nd & 3rd goals ,last night was Ants best game yet ,hes so strong on the ball and unbelievably skilful,.
Lets keep our chins up ,if we get a result against Leicester we can do Chelsea and the hubcaps too.
Must admit when we went 3 up
Must admit when we went 3 up on what was end to end football I did have the jitters thinking about the Arsenal game. Wolves are not a bad team just had a few injuries to many early on in the season otherwise they would be up there with us battling for a European spot.
Leicester are similar to us and I am expecting another high scoring game with hopefully West Ham scoring more on Saturday.
Win and we get even closer to that European spot.
the first half was
the first half was practically perfect, in the second we dropped, I think the fatigue made itself felt, some were busy with the national teams, Masuaku returned from injury. Now Leicester and Chelsea are waiting for us and we have to be focused for 90 minutes, but even in the other commitments we cannot afford to make mistakes if we want that place in Europe.