Just as was expected when West Ham have everything going well and looking to get to the heady heights of 3rd we go and West Ham it up! It’s the West Ham Way!
So much for my confidence in my preview!
But to be fair having supported this club for 34 years I always knew deep down we were never going to take advantage of our chance to go 3rd. As I’m sure most of you would agree.
PRE-GAME
For once I wasn’t trying to do a million things at once just to get sitting down in front of the TV for the game.
I had left work early as I was to take my son to his football training but just as I had pulled into the driveway another parent offered to do the run. Happy days! Although that means I left work early for no reason and now must work the time up.
Anyhow, what it did mean, though, was that I could watch the build-up to the game from 7:00pm.
It’s been a long time since I’ve managed to watch the build-up to the game. But I might as well have put the TV on at 7:45pm since the first 45 minutes of the show was dedicated to Man City and their game against Norwich on Saturday!
This brought back memories of the last time I sat down to watch the build-up to a West Ham match where they spend most of the show talking about the Man Ure v Liverpoo game which was taking place the following weekend!
In future I will be avoiding any such ‘pre-match’ build-up until 15 minutes before kick-off.
Just out of interest, when did this start to happen? I remember my pre-children days when I would be in the pub watching Monday night games and the programme was all dedicated to the teams that were actually playing.
THE GAME
The game started fairly slowly. It wasn’t until the 13th minute that the first real chance was created when Grealish bombed down the right and whipped a cross in that was headed narrowly wide by the Marlon Harewoodesque, Wesley.
It wasn’t long before Mike Dean started to dish out the cards like it was Christmas, Masuaku, Grealish and Noble all picking up a yellow card each and half an hour hadn’t even gone in the match!
Nobles was the most laughable, as it was for a slight grapple for positioning with Grealish.
And yet Dean didn’t deem it necessary to hand out a card when teammates El Ghazi & Mings came head to head in a heated exchange following an attack by West Ham which resulted in a corner. If it hadn’t of been teammates would a red have been given out?
In the 38th minute, Masuaku lofted in a cross which was met by the on rushing head of Anderson but his header was blocked by a Villa defender. The ball fell to Haller who laid it off to Noble who went down in the area. No penalty!
I don’t even think I would have given it even with my claret and blue specs on!
Thankfully Mr Card Happy Dean didn’t give him a booking as it would have meant a sending off for Noble. We all know how much Dean loves a red card, he’s given out 102 red cards, 35 more than any other referee!
Aston Villa then had two chances to go in ahead just before half time.
The first was a dangerous ball in over our defence to El Ghazi but good bravery and commitment by Fabianski to push the ball clear and take out the Villa player in the process.
The second was a ball crossed in from the right which McGinn caught sweetly but his shot was stopped expertly by Fabianski at full stretch down to his right. He couldn’t have seen that until late.
About 10 minutes into the second half Aston Villa had another good chance from McGinn but the midfielders shot went narrowly wide.
In the 67th minute Clinton Cards enthusiast Dean gets his chance to show off his favourite colour by brandishing a red card. Masuaku the recipient for a nothing challenge. Despite watching it back numerous times I still find it very hard to see any contact.
For anyone who is wondering, I checked out why VAR wasn’t used in this instance and found that it doesn’t cover yellow cards. So, despite the ‘tackle’ resulting in a red via a second yellow, it is still deemed to be a yellow card offence.
It wasn’t until the last few minutes of the game that the second half livened itself up.
First, was a ball whipped in by Luiz was half missed by the unmarked Grealish, who looked offside to me. I think he thought he was offside himself as he seemed to lose concentration prior to connecting with the ball.
Then Wesley embarrassingly throws himself on the ground trying to win a penalty. How did that not get a card?
And finally, another penalty appeal, this time from Fredericks who nips in front of Mings but it’s still hard to see how much contact Mings actually had. I’ve seen them given but unfortunately not on this occasion.
0-0 Full time.
OVERVIEW
In a game where a player with the name Marvellous (Nakamba) was on the field, this game was far from it. It was best described by the commentator. ‘West Ham have been the better team; Aston Villa have had the better chances’. It’s hard to argue with that.
Our attacking was hardly (Danny) Invincible, we seemed to slow or stop when we were attacking. I’m not sure if Villa managed to protect their defence really well or we were content to not penetrate them or put them on the back foot.
I was surprised that Anderson was the scapegoat when Masuaku got sent off, he was more involved in the game than Lanzini. Yarmolenko didn’t have a great game and was duly substituted for Fornals. Personally, I’d have preferred to see Snodgrass on instead.
In my opinion what could have been a very open and attacking game was ruined by Dean and his stop / start and issuing of cards. I wonder if he gave one to Pellegrini who was celebrating his 66th birthday?
I couldn’t have agreed more with Rice in his interview at the end. We were down to 10 men, away from home and managed to come away with a point. In our past, we would have crumbled and lost a game like that.
This is the new West Ham, we may not have taken advantage and pushed ourselves into a clear 3rd place but we are in joint 3rd place none the less. Onwards and upwards.
COYI!
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