Hammers v Man City – let’s get the D word in perspective

CandH blogger Allen Cummings

Saturday wasn’t exactly the start to the season we’d been hoping for or perhaps even expecting.

I’ve seen our performance being described as “dire”, diabolical” and even disgraceful”.

These may be understandable gut reactions but the ‘D’ word I’d argue as being a more measured reflection on the game would be “Disappointing”.

After the first 45 minutes we were down by just a single goal – and during that time had given City more than a run for their money.

We’d created several decent half chances ourselves, which on another day might have borne fruit. Our new record signing Sebastien Haller had been impressive with his touch and link-up play.

Michail Antonio had produced several typically powerful runs, while Manuel Lanzini was looking alert and hungry. If there were any home fans amongst the 60,000 crowd at the London Stadium not quietly encouraged by what they had seen, then all I can say is they are extremely hard to please.

The second half was what did for us of course. Antonio had departed and Pablo Fornals had joined the action but whether  that had any direct impact on the second 45 minutes I’m not sure. But what’s obvious is that City turned up the heat, and we couldn’t cope.

Could it have been different if Ederson hadn’t made that amazing double-save to stop us pulling it back to 2-1? Pep Guardiola certainly thought so in his post match interview. Alan Shearer later described hat-trick man Raheem Sterling as “unplayable” on Match of the Day.

With the likes of Gundogan, Aguero and Bernardo Silva having to be satisfied with a place on the bench, what does that say about City’s starting line-up? They proved to be the best team in the country last season – nothing has changed in that respect.

But it’s not City we’re interested in – it’s West Ham. Has all the promise and expectation we envisaged after the arrival of our summer signings suddenly evaporated? Of course not!

Anderson, Haller, Fornals, Lanzini, Ajeti and Rice still represent the most exciting line-up we’ve had in years. That’s why I’m ‘disappointed’ by the way our first game went  but I’m not ‘discouraged’ or ‘downhearted’.

Now I’m looking forward to next Saturday and our meeting with Brighton, a team that might have scored three themselves on Saturday – but are nowhere near the class of Manchester City.

How we fare against them will be a more realistic test of our new-found ambition in my opinion.