Saturday’s win against Leeds was impressive. Taking three points off a Bielsa side inspired by a quite frankly magical Raphinha would be admirable on it’s own but to do it in the manner that we did made this a special result.
Saturday was a tough game. Not only had we been denied an early lead by some fantastic goalkeeping, we then conceded from an individual mistake and had an equalising goal disallowed… Every other West Ham side I’ve known in my 15 years of supporting this club would have sunk at this moment – “It’s just not our day” – But not this lot.
This team is not to be denied. Not only do we not know when we’re beaten any longer but this is a group of players that seem to genuinely believe they’re going to win every time they step out onto the field. That expectation, the kind of “winning mentality” that seemed to evade Manuel Pellegrini regardless of how many times he mentioned it in interviews, pulled us over the line.
In the first half, following a ten minute period in which we could’ve scored twice thanks to some wonderful combination play between Said Benrahma and Michail Antonio, we really struggled for any kind of control. The midfield was getting ripped apart by the quality of Kalvin Phillips and by us attempting a mid-press that we really didn’t have the resources to impose against a Leeds side that played with their usual incredible energy.
Time and time again our forwards went chasing and when Leeds got through the first layer of the press they were free and clear to run at a defensive unit that looked shakier than usual. Jarrod Bowen and Benrahma struggled to keep pace with Junior Firpo and Jamie Shackleton as Leeds overloaded the flanks to great effect in the first 45.
Of course, Vladimir Coufal dealt with this kind of pressure a lot better than his fellow full-back as Aaron Cresswell twice encouraged the prodigious Raphinha inside onto his left foot. Why?
We were lucky to get in at half-time at just 1-0 in the end after Leeds got their goal from the kind of mistake that a central midfielder makes when they really need a lie down.
Tomas Soucek might be able to run for days but he looked so relieved to be getting a breather in possession here that he exhaled, took his eye off the ball and let Rodrigo nip in and speed away down the left flank. His recovery was woeful and having never gotten tight enough to the Spaniard, Rodrigo was able to play it inside to Klich who found Raphinha; Goal.
Now that I’ve written all that, can I write something a bit different?
“We were lucky to get in at half-time at just 1-0 in the end…”
This was the general view of a first half in which we looked ragged, shapeless and had absolutely no control whatsoever. And it’s not wrong but it could probably do with qualifying a little bit.
West Ham were off the pace, markedly so, but still racked up a number of high quality chances:
6’ Michail Antonio registers a 0.55 xGOT shot from a 0.07 xG chance which is met by an outstanding save from Illan Meslier who tips it round the post.
10’ Said Benrahma registers a 0.5 xGOT shot from a 0.05 xG chance which is again met by an outstanding save from Meslier who dives to his left and gets fingertips to it to push it wide.
45+3’ Pablo Fornals registers a 0.21 xGOT shot from a 0.41 xG chance which Meslier does brilliantly to smother.
xGOT measures the likelihood of an on-target shot being scored factoring in both the quality of the chance and the placement of the shot.
The point of all that? We didn’t play well and yet could quite easily have scored three goals. Meslier’s saves from Antonio and Benrahma were excellent and Fornals completely fluffed a 1v1 in the final seconds of the half.
It was a poor performance but we were still creating chances.
Still, Moyes was probably expected to make a half-time substitution, Pablo Fornals had really struggled and Nikola Vlasic and Manuel Lanzini were on the bench. And although the same eleven appeared for the second half, the set-up wasn’t quite the same.
It was a subtle change but Declan Rice would spend the second half playing a much more withdrawn role while Soucek was allowed to bomb on and get into the box.
And it would nearly bear fruit quickly as Antonio rose to challenge Meslier from a deflected Cresswell cross which the Leeds keeper fumbled for Soucek to latch onto the loose ball and prod home. Except Antonio’s intervention was probably more assault than challenge as his elbow thwacked the Leeds keeper across the jaw and the goal was disallowed. How many disallowed goals is that for Soucek now!?
Following another Leeds break and an inexplicable miss from Mateusz Klich, Soucek would get another chance from a set-piece. Cresswell whipped in a perfect corner and Soucek rose above Liam Cooper to head towards the top corner. The ball was almost past Meslier when Leeds’ young keeper stuck out an arm and flicked it round the post, this was an almost absurdly good performance from him.
After all that, it would be a Leeds error that eventually brought the equaliser. In the 67th minute, symptomatic of a new player getting used to the man-to-man defensive system, Firpo abandoned post at left-back and left Bowen free to run at Cooper. Bowen shifted inside and took a shot which flicked up off the Scotsman and into a helpless Firpo before cannoning into the net.
The game remained open with both sides going in search of a winner and you felt as though it would be virtually impossible for the scoreline to stay at 1-1. Perhaps a little strange from Leeds as Bielsa’s team tired badly towards the end.
After a string of decent chances for Antonio, that winner would eventually come in the final minute of normal time as Leeds committed eight men forward and one of those West Ham counter-attacks knitted itself together with fantastic fluency at the perfect moment.
Antonio won his header, Nikola Vlasic held it up and laid it off to Coufal who flicked the ball up to Rice; he brought it down, turned and sped over the halfway line to whip a ball across to Antonio who controlled, poked it past Shackleton and slotted home. Cue delirium.
It was a wonderful goal with every contributing player acting decisively and providing inch-perfect quality.
And we deserved it.
While no one would have begrudged Leeds the draw, they ran us ragged for 35 minutes of the first half and should’ve scored more, we did well to weather that period, created chances throughout and kept pressing for a winner right to the end. It was a performance and result evocative of those many occasions on which a top-six side swats aside an excellent showing from a less-fancied opponent that are left feeling that they deserved something more.
And that’s a very strange thing to say about West Ham…
Player ratings: Fabianski 7; Coufal 7, Zouma 7, Ogbonna 6, Cresswell 6; Soucek 6, Rice 6; Bowen 7, Fornals 5, Benrahma 7 [MOTM]; Antonio 7 (Vlasic 6, Dawson N/A, Yarmolenko N/A)
All rights reserved. Jack Elderton. 2020. Statistical input taken from Wyscout & Fbref (Statsbomb).
Jack Elderton 