Will more of the summer signings make the starting eleven when West Ham travel to Selhurst Park this weekend?

Collins English Dictionary – “Inevitable” (adjective) – unavoidable, sure to happen, so regular as to be predictable, inescapable, certain, sure, fated, destined.

Take your pick. There were three things that many thought were inevitable in our first game of the season at home to Aston Villa last Saturday. Firstly, we would lose. I was optimistic prior to the game and hoped for a win as always, but past performances of the first game of a Premier League season already had us well clear at the top of the table for having zero points from the opener. It has happened so regularly as to be predictable.

Secondly, Duran might score the winning goal. As I wrote last week prior to the Villa game – “We’ve already had one Duran score against us this season (for Celta Vigo), let’s hope that Villa’s Colombian Duran doesn’t do the same on Saturday after all the early transfer window shenanigans”. When he came on (like many others) I just had the feeling … His cameo certainly showed the type of player we missed out on by not meeting Villa’s demands early in the transfer window.

Thirdly, that Paqueta would be booked. You could have bet on it – I wonder how many did? He was on the very edge of receiving a second yellow card too.

I was disappointed (I suspect not the only one) when the starting line-up was revealed. I hoped for Wan-Bissaka, Todibo, Fullkrug and Summerville to be in the starting eleven in place of Coufal, Mavropanos, Antonio and Soucek but the manager thought otherwise (that’s his prerogative – he knows how ready the players are; he stands or falls by his decisions). To be fair I thought Mavropanos had a decent game but I wasn’t impressed with the other three that I had hoped would be on the bench.

So be it. Whilst not a massive fan of figures, the statistics of the game showed that we were virtually on a par with our (Champions League qualified) visitors in shots (14-15), shots on target (3-3), possession (51%-49%), passes (400-395), and pass accuracy (84%-84%). Considering Villa’s dominance in the first 25 minutes where they could have scored more than one it does show how we did improve as the game went on. I could certainly see why the manager wanted to buy Kilman who I thought was very impressive. Of West Ham players he had the most touches (82), passes completed (58), carries (55), clearances (7), interceptions (2), and blocks (2) whilst also being second with progressive passes (5), ball recoveries (5) and tackles won (2).

Despite the statistics Villa deserved to win, possibly because of superior tactics. They recognised that Coufal was perhaps the weak link, pushed their midfield attackers forward centrally to force our full backs narrow, and then used Digne and latterly Maatsen to exploit the width on their left (our right). Their winning goal was an excellent team move that Duran finished with a low shot straight through Areola. Their first goal was partly Antonio losing his man and Areola not commanding the goal area as perhaps he should.

Kudus stood out as our best player but to me he is not ideally suited to playing on the left. He’s so talented he could play in any forward position I reckon but I’d like to see him in the middle of the 3 behind the main striker (number 10 role). Summerville is perfect for the left side role to complement Bowen on the right. 

Onwards and upwards (hopefully) we visit Palace this weekend who share an equal position in the inaugural league table with us, having lost their opener 2-1 at Brentford. I watched that game and thought that they were unlucky to lose. Eze’s superb free kick was disallowed (wrongly the referee bravely admitted afterwards) and Brentford went down the other end almost immediately went ahead with a free flowing move which was finished well by Mbuemo.

Palace equalised early in the second half and began to dominate coming close to going ahead. Wharton was impressive, (surprisingly to me he was an unused member of the England squad in the Euros) and was running the game but (surprisingly to me again) was withdrawn with 15 minutes to go. Co-incidentally (or not?) Brentford notched the winner a couple of minutes later. Palace should have capitalised when they were dominating and came close to an equaliser but Brentford held on for what I thought was an unexpected and unlikely victory.

Guehi, widely regarded as one of the best centre backs around, played well at the heart of the Palace defence throughout but is the subject of transfer speculation. I wonder if he will still be there by the time of our visit. They do have some outstanding players. In addition to Guehi, Eze always looks impressive to me, Wharton likes to control the midfield and I think will develop into an excellent player, and Mateta is a dangerous striker. Olise left for Bayern Munich in the summer so he won’t trouble us any more.

Palace are one of those teams against whom we have a superior record in head-to- head encounters in history but in recent times we have not been dominant – in fact we have only beaten them twice in the last eleven meetings. Our last four visits to Selhurst Park have been goal feasts with 24 goals scored in those games. In January 2021 we beat them 3-2, repeating the score the following January. Then in April 2023 we lost the game 4-3 and then just a few months ago last April (2024) we were comprehensively beaten (slaughtered really!) 5-2.

One of my favourite memories of visiting Selhurst Park was a 3-0 victory there in October 1971 when Ade Coker, making his debut scored one of the goals with Clyde Best and Billy Bonds netting the others. Conversely, one of my least favourite memories of playing Palace was the trip to Cardiff for the Play-Off final in 2004 when a goal from Neil Shipperley beat us. The journey back was slow and painful.

Two great goals to remember in games against Palace – Payet’s magnificent free kick in our final season at Upton Park in a game that ended 2-2. Definitely one of the great free kicks. Also Andy Carroll’s stunning overhead kick the following season (our first at the London Stadium) in a 3-0 victory.

Like ourselves Palace will want to bounce back quickly from the opening day defeat. They ended last season winning five of their last six games including victories over Newcastle, Manchester United and Aston Villa scoring 20 goals in that run-in. They will be disappointed that they didn’t hit the ground running this time. 

My hope is that with another week for the new players to become accustomed to their new surroundings and their new colleagues more of them will be in the starting eleven this weekend, especially Wan-Bissaka, Todibo, Summerville and Fullkrug.