Picked a good game to miss through visiting my daughter in Paris. Seems like West Ham were pretty merde and Matt's text agrees: "Tres tres merde. Nous sommes pathetique dans le defense, et malade en le attaque. Je suis inconsolable. Le beau Paris plus superiore choix."
There's an element of bad luck for West Ham in injuries to wing-backs Cresswell and Antionio, plus Kouyate, Sakho and early on in the game James Collins. But what's worrying is that Slaven Bilic is saying he feels "humiliated" and that in training and matches the players are not showing the required intensity or desire.
It's not pretty viewing on Match of the Day. Arbeloa is not ready to return for such a big match and looks off the pace. Ogbonna gives away the first with a slack pass and Reid is outwitted by Sanchez. It's a brilliant piece of control and turn by Sanchez for the second but again Masuaku and Ogbonna are bamboozled, while the defence gives Sanchez and Oxlade-Chamberlain far too much space for the last three goals, even if the fifth was offside. Arsenal are a quality side, but the capitulation is very very worrying. Though credit to the Arsenal fans for their chant of, "Is this the Emirates?"
The only slight positive is that Andy Carroll headed in his first goal of the season after Payet's free-kick hit the bar (three different strikers have scored in successive games after none had netted for the whole season) and Fletcher played 90 minutes and had a rasping effort just wide. Payet is only playing at 90 per cent and looks dispirited, but is still our best player. He'll surely be off in January and we can't really blame him. He was promised a tilt at the top six and got a relegation fight.
Assuming we lose at Liverpool, the home games against Hull and Burnley are now must-wins, as is Swansea away on Boxing Day and if not Bilic might be getting Santa's sack for Christmas with Premier League survival at stake and a new stadium to fill. He's got to prove he can motivate this group and the players have to show some spirit. As the Stranglers once sang, something better change.
2 comments:
It's worrying that a team can change so much compared to last season, though I guess Leicester are in a similar position, but at least they won something and are still in Europe. Can't just be down to bad luck, injuries and a new ground. I can't see who could replace Slaven and hope we can turn things around, somehow...
Yes, the squad has got worse but still the same first team mainly. No great candidates for manage out thee and think Slaven deserves longer too, Chrissy.
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