West Ham Utd 0-0 Chelsea (23/09/18)

[Burnley Hammer]

A very solid, hard working performance. Rice and obiang have made a huge difference to the midfield. Balbuena and diop are looking more impressive by the game.

[mrbluesky]

Reassuring to see MP sticking with what looks like a more solid team, only one enforced tinker this week.

Was depressing me his constant changing of the starting XI.

Also very happy to see Nobes back and having two good games as well as Rice getting back into the team where he belongs.

Onwards and upwards gents!

[Crouchend_Hammer]

Really enjoyed that.
The stats don't really tell the truth story as we had the clearest opportunities.
I thought all the starting X1 were excellent particularly Rice, Obiang and Balbuena.
We may not have had lots of shots but we played some fantastic close control football and always looked to get forward when we could.

Special mention to Snodgrass who was very lively when he came on and stuck an absolute peach on yarmolenko''s head.

Lots of empty seats near me and elsewhere which is disappointing to see

[prophet:marginal]

Shorn of the input of Arnautovic, Lanzini, Hernandez, Carroll and Reid, our team has just clipped the wings of the team that started the weekend top of the table.

The encouraging things about that result is that is what we can achieve defensively, at a time when the new guys are clearly integrating better, match by match.

Sure, we didn't hit the heights of Goodison, but all of them put in a real shift.

[MrHammer73]

Good committed performance by the whole team. Feel Anderson needs a goal to get his season going.

Really impressed by our centre back pair despite them never playing in the premiership before.

[WorcesterWHU]

Shorn of the input of Arnautovic, Lanzini, Hernandez, Carroll and Reid, our team has just clipped the wings of the team that started the weekend top of the table.

The encouraging things about that result is that is what we can achieve defensively, at a time when the new guys are clearly integrating better, match by match.

Sure, we didn't hit the heights of Goodison, but all of them put in a real shift.

Might put to bed that we can't be more resolute with a back 4. And not only were they top of the table, this is the first time they've failed to win - so a great effort; I'd like to think that confidence is coming week by week.

[Burnley Hammer]

Stats wise, noble and obiang led the way with tackles with 5 each, rice led the way with interceptions with 4. I know stats don't mean everything but I always check after the match and I don't think I've ever seen poor midfield score those kind of stats between them before.

[Hammer in Hornchurch]

Balbeuna and Diop were solid in defence, as was Zaballeta. Masuaku worries me.
Midfield centre 3 nice and compact. Anderson good first half, picked up yellow card in second half and seem to be a bit reluctant then.
Fanianski MOTM fur me, quality keeper
Yarnalencko good but squandered our best chance.
We missed Arnie and I think he would of taken the chances Antonio had.
Still, a good unexpected point.

[Yea Why Not]

Stats wise, noble and obiang led the way with tackles with 5 each, rice led the way with interceptions with 4. I know stats don't mean everything but I always check after the match and I don't think I've ever seen poor midfield score those kind of stats between them before.

My worry about this midfield is id like to see us dominate the ball against lesser teams. Id doubt their ability to do that but we'll see. Anyway thats one for another day, they all did their job well today

[Cuenca 'ammer]

bet the heat map shows them attacking down our left side continually....

passing stats must be dreadful.........wish we could have just done the tiniest bit more about keeping the ball..

either that or set up to be a complete counter team..we seemed to be somewhere between the two...


I'll take the clean sheet and the point though..

[Crouchend_Hammer]

Get the home games against Man U and Spurs out of the way and then we can see what this team can do. I fancy us to dominate quite a few home games from then on

[OohAahButler]

I’m thinking our midfield three is making a real difference. Rice continues to grow in stature for me every game.

A few empty seats around me too, but I think that’s due to the filthy weather before kick-off + televised game. What I found more bewildering was the people who upped and left with 5 mins to go. Why??? The game was poised on a knife-edge at that point.

[New Jersey]

Dare I say it, but our set up and shape was very "Moyes" like to me. Our chances mainly came on the counter attack, and every player worked hard to keep the ball in front of them. Funny that our first clean sheet of the season comes against Chelsea. Maybe they weren't on their game, but we certainly made it difficult and for all their possession, we created the best goal scoring chance.

Once we get past these next few tough fixtures, we should start moving up the table. Playing Liverpool and Arsenal away and Chelsea, Man Utd and Spurs at home in the first nine games was always going to be tough. Very happy to see a big improvement on our Wolves performance where we strolled around thinking we would win.

Hope Arnie is back next week and we smash the special one!

[continental skills]

Balbuena my man of the match today, superb performance.
Fabianski made a couple of excellent stops and looked commanding, and Rice had another great game.
Surprised at the general Yarmolenko love-in, I think he's a constant defensive liability - there were three occasions in the first 11 minutes alone where he was defensively poor, and he was always too far away from Alonso. Overall though a very good team performance, looks as if they are slowly growing together and beginning to implement Pelegrini's approach.

[Tristan Shout]

How white are Antonio's teeth!!
Been to firmino's dentist

[Crouchend_Hammer]

I would say it was extremely different to under Moyes. Yes Antonio was isolated at times but we tried to get forward as much as possible and were always looking to play it out on the deck where possible. Sometimes we were guilty of over playing.
Obiang was popping up in forward areas and even Balbuena had one tremendous surge forward in the first half when he was in the opposition box.

The one thing I would like to see Is anderson get in the box more when the ball is on the other flank. Same with Arthur. They seem to hang back rather than get back right in there buy maybe that was instructions today to keep it a little tight

[Stepney]

Very spirited performance. Thought we played very positively and could've nicked it with that header that went wide. On the other side of the coin if Hazard put his foot through that chance rather than backheeling it then they could've easily nicked it. Thank God that little **** chose the showboating option.

Anderson looks so composed on the ball and seems to have more time than everybody else. Rice is growing into the role and we finally have a good keeper (who even takes one for the team directly in the face!)

Well done West Ham. Very proud tonight.

[New Jersey]

We were always looking to play the ball out? I thought Fab kicked it long to a lone striker several times. My Moyes comment was more about the shape and counter attacking. The set up was what we and the other 14 teams have to do when playing the top six. The game was like an attack v defence training session for much of the game. When we got the ball, it usually came straight back, but because we kept our shape we limited their real goal scoring chances.

[WeallwantMoore]

Will take that...possibly the worst miss I have ever seen though....grrrrrr

Balbuena was my man of the match.....

[Exiledin cardiff]

Some people are easily satisfied.