Another trip to the south coast, another draw. That makes it 4 draws from our 7 trips to Bournemouth and still only the one victory. On the plus side though we are now 6 games unbeaten in the Premier League.
I know I’m extremely late in pulling together a review of last weekends game but for anyone who read the preview will know I was away playing in a tournament on Saturday.
Playing in tournaments guarantee two things at my age. One, sore body for days on end and two, copious amounts of pints will be consumed.
I’m still trying to figure out if the copious amount of pints also contributed to the sore body, no doubt it did.
But anyhow, Bournemouth v West Ham.
THE GAME
As I said, I was away pretending I’m still young so I didn’t get the chance to see the game. I was however following it via Sky Sports News in the football club who was hosting the tournament’s, bar.
The game hadn’t long started when it flashed up on the vidiprinter (is it still even called that?) that Yarmolenko had the ball in the net. YESSS! 1-0 to the mighty hammers.
Not long later, they went back to Dean Court to advise King had scored but the linesman had ruled it offside yet following a VAR check he was overruled. 1-1
We left the tournament / bar during half time, so I had to rely on my trusty phone to keep me updated on the way home. A car full of men half cut and still drinking a carry-out, is destined for a messy night. But plenty of laughs and slagging / banter.
It obviously wasn’t long until my phone vibrated, and I checked it to see Wilson had scored yet again against us. I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised but it still didn’t make the scoreline any easier to look at.
We were pulling back into our hometown and making way for the local bar when I found out Cresswell had got the equaliser! I let out a semi drunken roar much to strange looks from everyday shoppers. Time to get inside and get another pint.
The rest of the night did indeed get messy.
MY THOUGHTS
So, having reviewed the game via the extended highlights on the club website (I refuse to watch Match of the Day anymore as they are so anti-West Ham it is unbelievable), here are a few thoughts.
For the first goal, credit must be given to Haller for the control and tee up for Yarmolenko. The more and more I watch Haller the more impressed by him I am. He is crucial to our attacking style of play. I know his goals have dried up slightly but he’s not all about scoring goals. His overall contribution to our play is second to none, I’m slowly starting to get a man crush on him!
Yarmolenko did look quality with his goal. Is it just me or do all his goals seem to be cutting in on his left and curling his shot (finesse for the FIFA generation) into the far post? He also had a similar chance that just went wide.
For King’s goal, I wasn’t so much disappointed at the VAR decision but more at how Cresswell had just left him free in the box. Have a look at it again, he seems to move out to the edge of the area for no real apparent reason.
Despite that, I still think he has completely upped his game again recently. Two goals in two games is hard to argue with. He is linking up well with Anderson, which I think also makes Anderson play better. They seem to have a very good understanding of where each other needs or wants to be. Long may it continue (sorry Masuaku).
The highlights show a chance by Anderson just on the stroke of halftime. It would have been a great goal. Yarmolenko feeding Fredericks down the right, who crosses for Fornals, who’s shot was blocked allowing Anderson to try the acrobatic which was somehow flicked over the crossbar by the keeper.
I felt the Wilson goal was a bit of comical defending. It was nearly like Adrian’s goal in Mark Nobles testimonial where our players seemed to be surrounding Solanke letting him run rather than putting in a tackle.
We cannot afford to defend like that now that Fabianski is ruled out! We must massively reduce the amount of shots by the opposition with Roberto in nets. And that means stopping the opposition out the field.
The highlights did show a save by Roberto from Wilson, but he did seem to go in slow motion and Wilson kicked the ball off him rather than him make the save. I wouldn’t have had confidence in Roberto getting down if Wilson had of tried to take it round him.
It may sound like I’m being hard on Roberto, and he will be getting my full support, but as I’ve said on a few of my blogs, he scares the bejesus out of me!
Overall, I would take a point in this fixture, obviously I would prefer all 3pts, but maintaining our unbeaten run and picking up as many points as possible is crucial. Especially with our Hammer of the Year out for the next few months.
Get well soon Łukasz, we need you!!
COYI!
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