West Ham 3-0 Crystal PalaceThe days are long gone when you could offer a penny for someone’s thoughts. In modern football you might need thousands, tens of thousands, millions even, of hard currency. Whatever amount, an insight into Dimitri Payet’s mindset as he learned of West Ham United’s efforts without him would be well worth consideration.
After a half of turgid football that summed up all the difficulties you would imagine a team to have, shorn of a creative leader, a most valuable player, West Ham found enough inspirational verve to leave the pitch with deserved applause ringing in their ears.
Nevermind the old cliche about changing games, goals can also change moods, and the three that West Ham constructed to swat aside a lacklustre Crystal Palace felt loaded as morale-boosters. Andy Carroll’s overhead kick was a spectacle in itself, and, with it, West Ham began to feel very differently about themselves and their predicament.
There is a school of thought that, given the situation, they would do better without their bad egg, in that it would create a new spirit. It is early days to say that with any certainty, but Slaven Bilic had abundant reasons to feel his team responded to a hard week superbly.
Reeling from the rift with Payet – with the maverick Frenchman excluded since airing his desire to leave the club – the problem hung heavy in the wintry air. A less than complimentary version of his song did the rounds, suggesting very little sympathy on the part of supporters for his stance, although the general mood inside the stadium revealed more of a weary, resigned disappointment than outright anger. In the match programme, joint chairman David Sullivan pulled no punches: “We do not want to sell Dimitri, we do not need to sell Dimitri for financial or any other reasons, and we will NOT sell Dimitri in the January transfer market.”
West Ham strained to get going. In fairness that has been the case generally in recent matches, with or without Payet. Their pulse quickened for the first time midway through the opening half as they mustered their first opportunity. Mark Noble embarked upon a determined run up the right flank and tucked a teasing ball across to Carroll, who steered goalwards.
His shot drifted over the crossbar. Carroll was beginning to make a nuisance of himself, which was encouraging for a team that started low on inspiration.
Crystal Palace responded by testing West Ham’s resolve, and finding it to be unsurprisingly shaky. Yohan Cabaye struck a volley that was caught by Darren Randolph, but shortly afterwards the goalkeeper was left stranded when Andros Townsend’s free-kick arced over everyone to fall perfectly for James Tomkins. The Palace defender stabbed a foot at the ball, which only needed a nudge to go in, but couldn’t get his angles right.
It was a huge let off for West Ham as the ball drifted past the post. Tomkins who, for many years wore claret and blue, put his head in his hands with feeling.
Palace picked up by sniffing around for opportunities, and Cabaye had a go with a dipping shot. But once West Ham roused themselves there was no looking back. Carroll was in the thick of everything, heading and shooting on sight. Credit to West Ham for their persistence in continuing to claw at the door until they finally scratched their way through.
When the goal came it triggered a special kind of relief – one born of the adversity that everyone in the ground was well aware of. Deliverance came with a well worked move, instigated by Noble’s chipped pass into Michael Antonio’s path. He advanced and shifted play across for the enterprising Sofiane Feghouli to tap in. The Algerian was elated.
Carroll then took all that positive emotion and sent it through the roof with a special strike.
Lanzini added extra sparkle with another sweet strike, gently lifting the ball over Wayne Hennessey with finesse.
Guardian
