OPINION
The excitement surrounding West Ham United and their summer signings during pre-season was short-lived, especially after their opening day thrashing against Manchester City.
Yes, City went into the games after winning back-to-back Premier League titles, but the truth is that the Hammers never got going on Saturday, and were the masters of their own downfall for the majority of the game.
Manuel Pellegrini’s men were lucky to concede only five on a dark afternoon at the London Stadium, as VAR disallowed a sixth goal for City.
New signing Sebastien Haller led the line by himself and despite working tirelessly all afternoon, he failed to make much of an impact meaning the Hammers rarely threatened Ederson in the opposing goal.
Radio station talkSPORT revealed an alternative table for the Premier League on Monday based on expected goals, and it was West Ham who were bottom – a stat which proves they need to improve drastically in terms of creating chances.
Their expected point tally was only 0.25, the lowest in the league, and the alternative table makes for serious bad reading for all Hammers’ fans, who will be expecting a serious improvement.
According to Understat, West Ham scored 4.04 goals more than what was expected of them last season which highlighted how they showed good composure in front of goal when chances arrived.
West Ham clearly need to improve on their opening day disaster against City, after they only had five shots in the game, with their chances being limited from their 43.7% possession [WhoScored].
Their failure to create chances against Man City could be put down to the fact that two of their attacking midfielders endured a poor afternoon on the ball. Michail Antonio had a pass success rate of 60%, whereas Felipe Anderson only completed 75% [WhoScored].
The poor afternoon was topped off by the fact the entire squad only completed two key passes compared to City, who managed to complete 13 according to WhoScored.
TalkSPORT’s alternative table makes for bad reading for West Ham, who must improve in front of goal if they are to push for European football come the end of this season.
