OPINION
West Ham United were ahead for a large portion of the game on Saturday, but ultimately had to settle for a 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park.
The Hammers played pretty well for the majority of the match but couldn’t hold on. Wilfried Zaha’s second half strike cancelled out Mark Noble’s penalty and robbed Manuel Pellegrini’s side of three important points.
The West Ham boss will reflect on a game filled with both positives and negatives, as his team continued their mini-recovery after a woeful January.
As usual there is plenty to be gleaned from the game, and Forever West Ham has rounded up three things that can be learned from the Hammers’ draw with Palace.
Fabianski a god-send in goal
It’s been said many times already this season, but it bears repeating: Lukasz Fabianski has been an absolutely phenomenal signing for West Ham. He produced another tremendous performance on Saturday.
His save from James McArthur at close range in the first half was remarkable, but he managed to top it when he denied Eagles frontman Christian Benteke in fine fashion. He continued after the break with a number of important stops.
The Poland international has saved West Ham so many points already this season, and that continued here. It’s time he got his due. He is undoubtedly one of the finest goalkeepers in the Premier League.
Pellegrini gets it wrong with Obiang sub
A common theme this campaign has been Pellegrini bringing on Pedro Obiang to shore up the midfield in the closing stages of games. Sometimes it works, but on other occasions it fails spectacularly.
It was very much a case of the latter on Saturday. The Spaniard added nothing to the game besides a fresh pair of legs, and they didn’t really enable him to do much with the ball.
Pellegrini needs to accept responsibility here because he was too passive with his substitutions. Yes, you want to ensure you come away with all three points, but if you invite pressure at this level then teams will punish you. That was proved emphatically by Palace.
Snodgrass needs to be dropped
On the whole Robert Snodgrass has had a decent season for the Hammers, but this was a horror show of a performance from the Scotland international. He was absolutely awful and needs to take a long, hard look at himself.
The attacker just didn’t offer much in any aspect of the game. He failed to contribute in any meaningful way going forward and didn’t do enough defensively to warrant his continued presence on the pitch.
Pellegrini has some good options in his squad, even if injuries continue to plague the Chilean. He needs to axe Snodgrass for Friday’s game with Fulham.
