Crystal Palace FC v West Ham United Team Sheets

A few matches ago it was unclear which was the anomaly -- the home losses to Leicester and Bournemouth or the away victories over Arse, Poo and Citeh. A lot is clearer now. It's a tough league, Leicester and Crystal Palace are good teams, and guess what, so is West Ham. We continue to score goals, we continue to CREATE, we have depth up front and in the midfield, and we have a manager who seems to prepare the team well. It's becoming a pleasure to back WHUFC again, and I relish the expectation of the next match. A very well deserved 4th position right now, and here's to a good match against Chelsea next week!!!! COYI

Just watched the highlights on MOTD and was astonished to hear Jonathan Pearce say that, before our second goal, we hadn't pressured Palace enough. How much more did he want ???

Just look at the stats. Something like 24 shots, 9 corners (that approximate from memory). A few shots just wide, a few good blocks put in by the Eagles. Why couldn't he say that Palace were difficult to break down, but in the end we did it. I'm sure if it were City, Chelsea, Arsenal or United that would have been the story.

Watched the spuds v Liverpool game and well no goals. Then the West Ham v Palace game and lo and behold the Hammers have scored like they do in every single game so far this season. Also, what an exciting style of play from the Hammers. No doubt West Ham were a treat to watch in the first half of last season when the duo of Valencia and Sakho destroyed al, sorts of opposition, that is until BFS decided to fix what was not broken, except breaking the whole fluidity and performance thereafter. BFS still did not get it. However, back to this game, and the Hammers were on the backfoot in the first quarter but looked far more dangerous on the break. The only negative was Payet's performance was not upto his high standards in the first half, as he kept on either giving the ball away or losing possession. Still he got better as the game wore on and was involved in the Jenkinson goal. Moses and Lanzini were impressive especially in the second half. I thought that Payet was a different player in the second half as he started to dominate the midfield along with my MOM Lanzini. These two and Moses' brief spell in the second half were fantastic, especially with Moses switching to the left. Surprised that he was substituted. Noble was sacrificed, however he had a one of his best performances so far this season. All three of Hammers goals scored were a pleasure to watch. The first was the result of some great passes with Moses toeing in that neat pass for a emphatic finish by Jenkinson who in my opinion was unfortunate to give away a dubious penalty. To me Gayle stuck himself between Jenkinson and the loose ball, so no way that should have been a penalty. The second goal was a great assist by Carroll, with that picture perfect header to Jelavic who missed any contact with the ball, however thankfully Lanzini was at hand to smash it pass the keeper. The third goal was pure class by Payet, probably the best goal of the week. Here the commentators were talking about the international break and showed a chart of the teams and their corresponding players that were involved. Altogether, a total of 95 players participated from the Premier League, out of which Arsenal had the most with ten players, while you guessed it, that the Hammers had the least, yes with just one player. Is there a conspiracy against West Ham? To add insult to injury, coaches like Hodgson selects benched players while overlooking the likes of Cresswell, Noble and even Tomkins. Has Voi ever showed up for a West Ham match? He often does so for the Spuds, Liverpool, Man Utd, Man City, Chelsea, Arsenal, Leicester, Southampton and even Aston Villa. Did he have a confrontation with Sir Trevor Brooking? England were lucky to have the easiest group, but come the actual European Cup, and it will be a different story.

2 Palace guys said that WH were the best team they had played this year COYI

That first goal was the result of about 15 passes, that started in the defence, just like an Argentinian goal in the world cup match.

Let us compare this match to the one at home against Hull two seasons ago. The opposition was reduced to ten players in both instances. The good, was that West Ham won both the games. The bad was that Hull levelled the score with ten men on the pitch, whereas Palace held out with ten men until the last few minutes. The ugly was the style of play against Hull, where it seemed like West Ham were playing with ten men as they defended throughout the game after taking the 2-1 lead. At Crystal Palace, there was nothing ugly about the manner in which West Ham played and eventually beat Palace in a very entertaining style. West Ham fans cheered passionately, whereas versus Hull,all we could hear were boos. If Sam is still confused about West Ham's style of play, he should have watched this game and he will get a better feel of West Ham's culture.