And so we’ve begun again. Another season. Another slightly new look team. Another last minute defeat at home to Spurs, as has been the case far too many times than is necessary over recent years. Another seemingly long and frustrating year ahead of us watching boring football once more. And the reason for much of this is, unfortunately, not another new manager.
Like most fans en route to the ground on Saturday, I had a severe sinking feeling over what I was about to watch. Especially when I saw Allardyce’s team selection making as much sense as ever, starting with Carlton Cole and Vaz Te, leaving the exciting looking Zarate, and just as exciting if not slightly off match fit Enner Valencia both on the bench. To be totally honest, I was expecting Tottenham to destroy us before the game. With Cole, Vaz Te and Nolan contributing to one of the most underwhelming looking attacking threats we may have seen at Upton Park in years, I wasn’t expecting anything special and certainly no real positives. And straight after the final whistle, there didn’t seem any, because let’s face it, there are no real positives in getting beat by Spurs. But after a few days reflection, despite the hurt and general negativity lurking, there are some positives from Saturday, mostly the performances of some of the new recruits.
The first of these new recruits I speak of is Aaron Cresswell. Summer signing from Ipswich, I thought Cresswell had a brilliant game on Saturday, and looks like a very promising signing. I had a return of that sinking feeling when he went down injured around the hour mark and the physio urged straight on, fully expecting a classic West Ham story of a new, seemingly good signing that gets injured in his first game and is never to be seen again in claret and blue. Up until that point however, I thought he had been the best player on the pitch, and thankfully he got back up and completed the game, and he is certainly a player who has made a good first impression. Though very left footed, he seemed solid and confident on the ball, solid at the defensive side of his role, but almost just as importantly, one of the most attacking full backs we’ve seen in a long time, constantly bombing down his left side and whipping a few crosses in. Though fading slightly after taking that knock, Cresswell’s performance is certainly one positive we can take from the game.
And another positive can be taken from the performance of another summer signing, and contender for man of the match on Saturday, Cheikhou Kouyate. The strong and dominating midfielder, who seemed to fill in at centre back a bit after Collins’ red card, put in a tremendous performance against Spurs. Though looking a bit leggy, and at times I thought his footballing brain wasn’t quite there yet, Kouyate was an absolute powerhouse. An absolute unit. He was strong, a ball winner, seemingly could run all day long (as his run from centre back up the pitch, before closing down Lloris and then returning to the back line proved, right up near the end of the game), and also solid once on the ball and spraying it around. Kouyate’s performance has already led some fans to claim he has all the attributes to end up at a top four team, and to be honest, I find it difficult to disagree with them. He seems to have all the traits, and if he carries on the way he began against Spurs, he could be a huge asset for us over the coming year.
Though not a new signing like the other two, the performance of Stewart Downing on Saturday was also good to see. Despite missing a decent chance at the end before the sting from Eric Dier in the 3rd added minute, he had created many problems for the back line of Spurs, whipping in plenty of crosses, despite Cole’s inability to do anything with them, made a few jinking runs, and generally looking dangerous. Though, and this applies to Cresswell and Kouyate too, this was only a good performance in one game, it is certainly positive to see these good performances, and gives some confidence they can continue these as the season goes on.
And the other positive is hopefully, from now on, we actually have attacking options outside of Cole and Vaz Te. As much as I love Cole, and am thankful for Vaz Te more than anything, they are not going to strike fear into any of the other nineteen teams in the league, and it would be a daunting prospect if we had to put up with them two for the season. Enner Valencia is returning to match fitness, and his 15-minute cameo on Saturday was a good start, looking like he was relatively quick, dangerous in the air, and wouldn’t give up any ball, as proved with the couple of corners he won us which in reality, he had no right to win. Zarate was left on the bench on Saturday, and you’d have to hope he isn’t left there after his promising performances in pre-season, so you’d think he could come into the fold too, and new signing last week Diafra Sakho will be illegible to play at Palace this weekend after being signing too late to make the team against Spurs, and hopefully after being the top scorer in Ligue 2 for FC Metz last season, he hopefully has goals in him. Add that to Valencia’s three world cup goals, and Zarate being able to fit the bill of a goalscorer in the past too, you’d have to hope these three between them, as well as Jarvis hopefully retuning soon too, can replace Cole and Vaz Te in attack pretty soon.
Oh and the final positive. You’d think there can’t be a feeling much lower than getting beat in the last minute by Spurs, so at least we’ve got that out of the way early. Then again, Sam is still in charge, and we are still insisting on playing hoofball, so despite these positives, I’m not exactly feeling confident yet. And to add to all of this, Mark Noble missed a penalty for the first time in god knows how long. If that’s not a modern day sign for us that things could be going downhill I don’t know what is. We’ll just have to pray for a better result at Palace this weekend, who look like they’ve brought in Malky Mackay today, so it won’t be easy, but we can always pray.
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