Haller of a goal saves Hammers

West Ham 1 Crystal Palace 1

It's Amazon Prime for this one, in what seems to be a game too far for the Irons. Palace are much the better team in the first half and bar a Fornals header wide from a Coufal cross and a late Bowen shot saved by Guaita the Hammers create little. Benrahma clearly has skill but too often runs into trouble or picks the wrong pass, while the whole side seems lacking in energy. Despite some promising crosses from Coufal, Haller isn't getting on the end of them.

Old boy Cheikhou Kouyate is having a good game as a centre back for Palace, while Eze, a Hammers target in the summer, plays with a sense of enjoyment and fires a dangerous cross across the box. After an early Benteke header wide, the Belgian striker beats the rusty Diop to head home a cross and put Palace ahead. At least Cresswell hasn't done his hamstring as most of us feared when he went down.

Benteke almost scores again after an intricate Palace move ends with a backheel straight to Fabianski. Matt says on WhatsApp that, "It's a good game for the government to ban me from." 

HALLER OF FAME

Moyes acts at half time by replacing the misfiring Fornals with Lanzini. The Hammers equaliser arrives when the excellent Coufal makes a storming run from his own half. He finds Soucek, who passes on to Lanzini who plays in the overlapping right-back. Coufal's cross arrives behind Haller but the striker performs a stunning overhead kick to score the best bicycle kick since Andy Carroll's effort, also against Palace. 

Haller is a strange player, capable of a brilliant goal yet at other times unable to hold the ball up. He looks angry when he scores but is too laid back the rest of the time, as he has the physique to terrify defences. As Moyes said, we need him to get both overhead stunners and tap-ins.

One plus for the Hammers is that Diop has a more secure game in the second half. When Benteke is rather harshly dismissed on 70 minutes for a second yellow (Andy Carroll would never have completed a game with this ref) the odds look to be in West Ham's favour. Moyes throws on Yarmolenko, but apart from a Bowen shot over the bar the Hammers create little as Palace show Roy Hodgson's trademark organisation at the back. 

Still, we'd have taken a point at half-time and this keeps the total ticking over. Not a good performance, but again the Irons have shown resilience, and it's now two games in a row that we've come from behind.

PLAYER RATINGS: Fabianski 6; Coufal 8, Ogbonna 6, Diop 5, Cresswell 5; Benrahma 5 (Snodgrass n/a), Soucek 6, Rice 6, Fornals 5 (Lanzini 6); Bowen 7 (Yarmolenko 5), Haller 7.