18 January 2025
West Ham 0 Crystal Palace 2
West Ham welcomed Crystal Palace to the London Stadium for a derby fresh off the back of their first win under new manager Graham Potter. They needed to put a run together to move them away from the relegation mix, although they were now ten points away from being drawn into that battle. This was currently a more pressing concern for the visitors.
Victory would mean that The Hammers had managed back-to-back wins for the first time this season. Such is their striker crisis at the moment, Paqueta stepped up to fill the breach. Even from midfield the Brazilian has not looked a huge goal threat, giving the home fans some idea of how desperate things are for them right now.
That said, you have to wonder how the mindset of Ings was at kick-off. The only recognised striker fit at the football club, left on the bench while the manager asks people to play out of position instead. Maybe Potter is doing this on purpose to try and get the owners to loosen the purse strings in the current transfer window.
It was a scrappy start to the game but the first chance fell to the visitors. That said, at best, it was a half-chance. As The Eagles won the ball deep in West Ham territory, Mateta tried a speculative effort from the edge of the box. He struck it superbly but Fabianski made a good save to palm it around the post for a corner.
It was a drab affair in the first-half and that effort was about the only highlight. Considering the London Stadium was still being paid for by the UK taxpayer, the home fans must have been considering writing to their local MP to complain about the quality on display. They had been expecting to see a transformation under their new manager.
Palace have not been the greatest on the road this season but the longer the game stayed goalless, the more their confidence grew. This would have seemed a tough game, with The Hammers having beaten Fulham in midweek, but the hosts were just not able to get into their groove at all. Henderson could have been watching Soccer Saturday on his phone up until the interval.
After the break Mavropanos was shown a yellow card for a clumsy foul on Mateta. As an attack broke down for Potter’s side, some slick one-touch passing from The Eagles saw them down the other end of the pitch in no time. As the Palace striker ran towards goal, Kilman just kept on backing off him. Eventually forcing the forward to get a shot off at goal which arrowed into the bottom corner.
It was terrible defending from the former Wolves’ man. The Hammers had forked out £40m to bring him to the capital from Molineux and based on this goal, it was not money well spent. The London Stadium fell silent, with fans wondering how they would get back into this game. Henderson had just been a bystander up until this point.
Potter made a host of changes to try and spark his side into life with only twenty minutes remaining. To their credit, Glasner’s team were doing well to get bodies between The Hammers’ attackers and their own goal. Alvarez tried a pot shot from distance but it was always curling away from goal and Henderson seemed to have it covered.
Mateta then slotted Nketiah through on goal. He tried to take it around Fabianski but as the striker pulled the trigger, The Hammers’ keeper did well to smother it. Palace recycled the ball well and Wharton tried his luck from outside the box. His effort was going into the bottom corner but did not have enough pace on it to cause any problems as it was saved.
Things went from bad to worse as Mateta got away from Mavropanos. As The Eagles’ striker headed it forward, The Hammers’ defender seemed to catch him in the chest with a stray boot. The referee had no option but to show him a second yellow card and give him his marching orders. Suddenly an uphill struggle turned into an unscalable mountain.
Glasner will be pleased with the performance of Mateta, he was proving to be a constant thorn in the side of the hosts. He threaded a pass in behind the defence for Nketiah to run onto. The former Arsenal man got there just before Fabianski, before being hauled to the ground. The referee did not hesitate and immediately pointed to the spot.
Mateta stepped up to take it and his penalty squirmed under the body of Fabianski to put the game to bed. It was a man of the match performance from the Frenchman, with his brace being the difference between the two sides. It moved The Eagles above West Ham in the table and gave them some real breathing space on the bottom three.
As is the case in the modern game, often owners think that just replacing the manager is the answer to their problems. At West Ham, it seems to be a lot more than that. This looks a disjointed side that would give Man Utd a run for their money in the art of ‘how not to defend’. It will no doubt take time for Potter to settle in at the club but you can see that he has his work cut out, they failed to register a single shot on target in the entirety of this match.
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