Graham Potter might insist that West Ham United are moving heaven and earth on the training pitch to solve their set-piece issues but – as Crystal Palace and Jean-Philippe Mateta demonstrated on Saturday – a solution is proving hard to come by.
With seven, West Ham United have conceded more than twice as many set-piece goals than any of their top-flight rivals.
Furthermore, they are just one away from matching their tally from the whole of 2024/25. And, to think, the Halloween masks have barely even begun to hit the shelves.
Manchester United legend Wayne Rooney watched Max Kilman be out-jumped by Marc Guehi against Crystal Palace, while Konstantinos Mavropanos, Jean-Clair Todibo and Mads Hermansen – the goalkeeper was replaced by Alphonse Areola on Saturday but that made little difference – have hardly covered themselves in glory either.
So the irony will not be lost on Hammers fans that, on the day that Burnley boss Scott Parker was linked with Graham Potter’s job, his Clarets side exited the Carabao Cup at home to third-tier Cardiff City while making a mess of a first-half corner.
Scott Parker suffers bad Burnley loss on the day of West Ham United links
According to Give Me Sport, the West Ham hierarchy have discussed making a move for Scott Parker.
A three-time Hammer of the Year in his playing days at Upton Park, the former captain has bounced back from disappointing Premier League spells with Fulham and Bournemouth. After guiding Burnley to promotion with a century of points, the well-drilled, disciplined Clarets have settled impressively back into the top flight.
They have one more point to their name than West Ham, thanks to that draw against Nottingham Forest last time out. If it hadn’t been for last-minute penalties against both Manchester United and Liverpool, meanwhile, Burnley would already be halfway to matching Southampton’s tally for the whole of 2024/25.
Yet, it seems that West Ham’s set-piece curse touches all those who dare even come into contact.
Only hours after Parker was linked with an East London return, Burnley switched off from a Cardiff set-piece, were beaten in the second-phase, and conceded the most calamitous of openers.
A second from Callum Robinson just five minutes later ensured that League One Cardiff did what their third-tier rivals Lincoln City could not, by knocking out a Premier League side.
“Fundamentally, it was a disappointing night really,” Parker sighed at full-time, via the official Burnley website. “Firstly, a disappointing result, because we came here wanting to win the game.
“I think it’s fair to say performance-wise, we were way short. Certainly the first-half. Really, really short. And in terms of where we want to be, in terms of what we were, and what we are, we just felt a little bit short of our standards tonight.
“Second-half, there was an improvement. But, you know, you give a team a two nil head start in the first half, we give ourselves a big climb.”
Nathan Trott helps send Cardiff City through despite EFL Cup howler
Burnley were handed the rarest of gifts from the usually Grinch-like Nathan Trott in the Cardiff City goal and still could not turn that deficit around.
One-time West Ham goalkeeper Trott has been ‘sensational’ since joining Cardiff on loan from Danish giants Copenhagen over the summer. But as EFL expert Ali Maxwell explained on the Not the Top 20 podcast a few weeks ago, there was always going to be a moment when Trott would ‘fly too close to the sun’.
His high-risk, playing-out-from-the-back strategy has worked impressively in League One. But give the ball away against Premier League opposition, and they will punish you. Zian Flemming certainly did just that, halving Cardiff’s lead with a glorious curling strike.
That, however, was as close as Parker’s Clarets came to a comeback.
And Trott certainly redeemed himself later on with a fine one-v-one stop to keep out a late, penalty-forcing equaliser from Mike Tresor.
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