West Ham were on the wrong end of VAR this week.
They lost 2-1 to Crystal Palace after Jordan Ayew scored a late winner to give the Eagles all three points.
West Ham came out the traps from the kick-off, knocking the ball around with ease. It looked like they had taken confidence from their equaliser against Bournemouth and wanted to show their dominance early.
Crystal Palace, however, weren’t perturbed by West Ham’s early possession and started to press from the front. Jordan Ayew and Wilfred Zaha, who led their team in a 4-4-2 formation, made life uncomfortable for Angelo Ogbonna and Issa Diop.
West Ham did come back into the contest and, after link-up between Ryan Fredericks and Andriy Yarmolenko down the right-hand side, gave Sebastian Haller a golden chance to make it 1-0. Unfortunately, he squandered the chance as he fired it straight at the goalkeeper.
Crystal Palace would’ve been happy going in 0-0 at the break whilst West Ham would’ve been frustrated that they didn’t create enough chances.
Palace started the second half strong and looked to be in the ascendancy. They began to press West Ham and squeeze their midfield, making it uncomfortable. West Ham looked devoid of ideas and even Manuel Lanzini couldn’t come up with an answer.
Despite this, some short interplay between Felipe Anderson and Declan Rice looked to flick a switch in the West Ham plays. First time passes saw West Ham bypass Crystal Palace’ midfield and move the ball out to Ryan Fredericks. This time, Sebastian Haller was there to slid in and put the ball in the back of the net.
Although going a goal down, Palace responded quickly. They started to flood the West Ham box with crosses, only for a Jeffrey Schlupp shot to strike Declan Rice’s raised arms. The penalty was converted by Patrick Van Aanholt, who dispatched it confidently.
From then, it looked like Palace were more likely to get the winner. West Ham struggled to create clear cut chances as Sebastian Haller look isolated without a strike partner.
Pellegrini tried to change things up by bringing on Pablo Fornals and Jack Wilshere but it was too little, too late.
Not for Palace though. The introduction of Andros Townsend kept their intensity in the press and, after winning a free-kick on the right-hand side, Palace profited from good delivery and an easy finish by Jordan Ayew.
It was ultimately a disappointing result for West Ham, who would’ve moved into third with a win. Credit as to go to Crystal Palace who didn’t outplay West Ham but were effective in their tactics.
Here are my thoughts on how the players performed…
