Last week the 2-1 victory over Jose Mourinho’s faltering Chelsea team left many fans in a state of delirious celebration. This was not only due to Carroll’s late winner but was also down to the 7 games unbeaten and the fact we were being diagnosed with altitude sickness due to our brief stint at second in the league table.
However this week the West Ham of old came crawling back with a team of Hammers who look to have been copy and pasted from April last year. This was the first we’ve seen a performance of that ilk from Slaven Bilic’s squad but I think the performance at Vicarage Road was a timely and necessary reality check.
Since the Chelsea victory we have been talked up by every Tom, Dick and Harry but this result proves that we are not the finished article just yet. There were however multiple encouraging things to come out of this result, for example, Slaven Bilic came out and did not hide from how poor we were. This is a change from our previous manager who probably would have given blame to another third party such as the referees for no apparent reason!
Another positive thing was we once again showed our great depth upfront (despite being very ineffective) by being able to bring on the likes of Enner Valencia and Nikica Jelavic & Mauro Zarate. This is a major step in the right direction and is a vast improvement on Carlton Cole or Kevin Nolan.
Back to Bilic I have faith that this kind of capitulation will not be a regular occurrence due to the tinkering he successfully completed after our last league defeat. Furthermore, there was a sense of sincerity in his comments after the game: “it is unacceptable but we have to make sure it is a one off.”
Finally, another positive thing is that despite losing to a newly promoted team, we still sit 5th and are the third top goal scorers in the league having only once failed to score in a league game this season. So, despite the defeat, it is far from doom and gloom at Upton Park and we have, in my eyes, had the best kind of defeat. The players should now be motivated to go again against Everton and respond in the manner that saw them go seven games unbeaten.
