I never cease to be surprised by the vast array of statistics available in football these days. When I was young all that I can remember are league tables and goalscorers. Now absolutely everything is analysed in microscopic detail. Assists is an interesting one and can vary from playing a major part in a goal being scored, to being almost incidental. I suppose they add another element to fantasy football leagues, but really what is the point? Why not give credit to everyone involved in the build up to a goal? A player could go on a mazy dribble beating seven or eight players and then pass to a team mate who mishits a shot badly into the path of another team mate who scores a goal. The one who badly mishits his shot is credited with an assist.
I’ve been looking at a number of statistics in preparation for this game, and there are all sorts of reasons why West Ham should be collecting three points tonight. Firstly, a look at the current form, which is something I wrote about frequently last season when analysing the last five games played by each team. If you think our position in the table (6th) is very good, then you’d be even more impressed if you looked at the form table for the last five games. This puts us second on 12 points, a point behind Manchester United on 13. Even the top three teams can’t match us; Tottenham have 11, Liverpool and Leicester 9 apiece.
We have a positive record against Palace in history and despite losing to them in our last two meetings we are unbeaten against them in the eight before that. We currently have 20 points from 12 games, so a win would take us to 23 from 13. That would be our highest ever total at this stage in the top flight for 37 years, even surpassing the record breaking 1985-86 season.
Apart from our opening day defeat against Newcastle, we have scored in every league game this season. It’s not very often to find West Ham scoring in 11 consecutive matches. David Moyes has never lost a game when facing a team managed by Roy Hodgson and has won 8 of the ten games when managing a team against Crystal Palace.
Palace on the other hand would also have their best start in a top flight season if they beat us, and we have to remember they scored five goals in their last away game (admittedly only against West Brom, but then again Albion drew at Manchester City last night). Jordan Ayew has an interesting record against us. I remember him being sent off for quite unnecessarily elbowing Aaron Cresswell when playing for Aston Villa a few years back, but I see that he has scored more goals against us than against any other team, including the winner in both fixtures last season. But he wasn’t in the starting eleven against Tottenham last weekend with Benteke preferred up front. I would also add that Lanzini has scored four goals in games against Palace; does that mean he should be selected for this match? Are we also the unluckiest team in the Premier League this season? We’ve hit the woodwork on no fewer than nine occasions – more than any other side.
Another statistic from our last game against Leeds was that Haller lost possession of the ball 12 times in the first half. He is infuriating to watch at times, but still retains the potential to score goals. I saw a piece written by our old favourite David Cross praising Haller’s willingness to keep finding positions from which he could score and suggesting that when one or two go in his confidence might improve. Perhaps if that overhead kick had gone in? I don’t know, the jury is still out, but I hope he comes good, as I hope for all our players. He’s not small but doesn’t possess the strength that Antonio does to hold opposition players off and bring others into the game. But that is not his forte.
I was very impressed by the skills displayed by Said Benrahma in his first start for us and believe he can be a major asset to the team. Jarrod Bowen continues to impress as does Soucek, and Declan Rice is playing better than ever. What a change in atmosphere in the (almost) one year since David Moyes came back to the club!
I’ve no idea about team selection although David Moyes is not one to make changes unless forced to do so. But with our recent form why would he? There is a suggestion that a couple of our players are carrying knocks, so we’ll have to wait and see. One of the features of this season for me has been the inability of referees to spot “simulation”. As long as we can keep Zaha quiet and the referee doesn’t fall for any diving antics then I’m confident that we can continue our great run and pick up three points once more. I keep seeing penalties being awarded week after week when watching the Premier League games on TV. It’s about time we were awarded one or two.
I’m going for 2-0 with goals from Benrahma and Haller. What are the chances?
Under The Hammers 