West Ham keep the getaway car running as they steal a point at Fulham
I’m going to guess that many of you had the same feeling about today as me.
It was a big game.
The fixture list to start the season left some worrying that we could be on zero points and in the bottom three after six weeks. But we have shown early glimpses of what could be a good campaign, even in the matches we lost. With Chelsea next and Spurs in a few weeks time, today felt like three points that were there for the taking, despite Fulham doing the double over us last season. Yet the starting eleven looked more defensive than we might have hoped for, notably with J-Lo’s possible shot across the bow of The SS Paqueta. With Antonio back in the UK only a couple of days prior, I prepared for Summerville on the left with Bowen up top. The man must have had his reasons, particularly when he isn’t afraid to use his substitutions. Had it not been for those substitutions, we would have come away with nothing.
The Hammers had a nice spell of possession in the opening five minutes, moving the ball quickly with forward passes as opposed to side to side, then back to the keeper. Soucek got on the end of a ball from Bowen but couldn’t get the ball out of his feet near the top of the Fulham penalty area. The hosts came back down moments later with a close range shot from Jimenez and a deflected effort by Pereira. Both sides seemed to be aiming for a quick start.
It doesn’t matter who he plays for, or what kind of form he is in. Adama Traore scares the death out of me. I was at The London Stadium in 2018 when he scored in added time for Wolves to beat us. He is almost unstoppable physically. When he rampaged into the West Ham eighteen yard box in the 15th minute, I assumed he would score. When he went down with Kilman in pursuit, I assumed it was a penalty. Both assumptions were wrong, despite my heart temporarily going into A-Fib. Minutes later, Robinson found Traore with a cross into the box but the header went wide. A minute later, however, West Ham were punished for several defensive errors. First, Mavropanos was caught in a very poor attempt to play Smith-Rowe offside. Then, Kilman lost the run of Jimenez into the box and Smith-Rowe had all sorts of time to find him. Find him he did. Lopetegui apparently looked livid on the sideline.
Fulham 1
West Ham 0
The Hammers looked out of sorts with no one in the midfield willing or able to make the kind of passes to break through the Fulham defense. Without Paqueta in the center of the pitch, there was a Moyes quality to the play. The only man in Claret & Blue who showed even a modicum of effectiveness was Kudus, who was able to carry the ball out of danger from time to time. But such runs are doomed to end when there is no movement in front of him, which there wasn’t. When that happened, Kudus looked dejected. With Soler and Paqueta on the bench, one had to assume there would be changes.
Halftime
Fulham 1
West Ham 0
As the second half begun, our collective hope and assumptions were correct. With no attempts on target, attacking changes were needed. On came Paqueta and Summerville. Off went Soucek and Antonio. The Bowen in the middle idea with Summerville and Kudus wide was ready for it’s debut. Yet the first attempt belonged to Fulham and Pereira, and he came close. A minute later Summerville made his first impact on the proceedings, winning a free kick. The set piece ended with a header, on target even, from Mavropanos.
West Ham’s already difficult day got worse in the 49th minute when Emerson went down after a clash of knees. He also had an issue with his hip in the first half. For all of the depth we added in the window, left back remained the same as last season with Emerson and Cresswell. He tried to continue, but simply couldn’t. That meant Coufal came on and Wan Bissaka moved to the left.
West Ham had a superb chance to draw level in the 60th minute when Kudus found Bowen with a low pass into the center of the Fulham penalty area. Bowen’s first touch was excellent, and it took a fine save from Leno to keep Fulham in the lead. A few minutes later Paqueta tried a shot from close to the Fulham Road, and it didn’t miss by all that much. The Hammers looked far better than they had in the first half, which of course will lead to questions as to why the original selections were made.
Fulham had a chance to make it two nil in the 71st minute when Smith-Rowe got on the end of a bouncing ball in the West Ham box and fired a shot that was blocked, but ended up in the path of Jiminez who tried to find the far corner but put it wide. All of this happened right after Soler came on for Rodriguez, adding more creative play to the West Ham locker. Or at least that was the plan.
Fulham had another solid chance to put proceedings to bed when Cairney put a cross into the box that Traore rose high to meet. He probably should have scored, but his header went over the bar. Seconds later West Ham had their first corner of the game. In the 81st minute. That in and of itself is a pretty damning statistic. It went nowhere. With time running out, Lopetegui made his final change with Ings replacing Alvarez.
West Ham tried to find the equalizer, but there was no end product on any of the balls headed into the box. That pretty much summed up the afternoon until the very last second. With literally only seconds left, Coufal made up for what had been an awful week for him with The Czech Republic. West Ham won a throw and he took it quickly, getting the ball to Bowen at the end line. Our Captain chased it down just before it went out for a goal kick and threaded a pass in between two Fulham defenders to Ings in the box. He did what poachers do. He found a way to get the ball into the back of the net.
Fulham won a free kick for what was the last kick of the game, and in all honesty Bassey should have done better. He probably should have scored with a header. He didn’t, and West Ham escaped with a point.
Final Score
Fulham 1
West Ham 1
When Ings came on, my best mate Jon posted in our WhatsApp “When you bring on Ings to search for a goal…” in what was obviously a sarcastic swipe at the move. Hard to blame him. I answered “…you look like a genius?”. Timing is everything in comedy.
In the end, this was a game of very fine margins. One mistake was all it took to put us in chasing mode until the very end, and while I don’t want to blame one player for what probably should have been a loss, the one member of our squad that made more errors and poor decisions was Mavropanos. He allowed Smith-Rowe to stay onside on the play that led to Fulham’s goal, and even late in the second half he put a ball out of play when a pass back to Areola would have maintained possession. That’s not to say giving away the opening forty five minutes with a very defensive lineup helped. It put us behind the eight ball from the get go. Today, Ings decision to refuse a move away looks quite fortuitous.
Next week’s report will either be late, or maybe not at all, because I head over Thursday night and will be at The London Stadium for the match against Chelsea. My focus will be on friends and fun, both of which of far more important than anything I could ever write.
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