By CandH’s top blogger Allen Cummings
I know it won’t be the same for all of us – the weather is a bit like that – but where I am right now the sun is shining, the temperature is in double figures, the snowdrops are up and the daffodils won’t be far behind.
For those not quite so fortunate there’s always the Premier League table to look at to brighten your day.
West Ham United sit proudly in fifth place. London’s top club ahead of ‘big boys’ like Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal – and with a very real chance of going even higher this weekend.
Could life as a Hammer be any better right now?
Well maybe it could, had we enjoyed some of the good fortune others have done.
Take a look at the league table of Premier League clubs who have been awarded penalties this season. There are 19 of them – the only absentee in the whole of the league is West Ham!
Not one spot kick has come our way so far in 22 games. Why is that I wonder? Is it just bad luck? A curse at Stockley Park? Or maybe on occasions our players have been just too ‘honest’. Tried to stay on their feet when others have gone down at the slightest touch.
Apparently Anthony Martial’s mid-week offering against Southampton was a prime example of that. I didn’t see it myself, but I heard it was a ‘performance’ of epic proportions deserving of theatrical recognition. In other words a blatant dive!
Our lack of penalties could be viewed as having a significant baring on our league position. Put another way, how much have penalty awards – and more importantly the goals resulting from their conversions – helped those clubs above us? Each of the top four teams in the league have benefitted significantly from converted spot kicks.
Leicester City have scored eight goals from 10 kicks awarded – Manchester United six goals from seven spot kicks, Liverpool enjoy a 100% five goals from five kicks ratio and even Manchester City with three goals from five kicks have been helped along the way.
Being awarded a penalty is obviously no guarantee of scoring, but goals influence games and all four of those teams have been boosted by those they have slotted home.
Ironically Fulham, who we face tomorrow at Craven Cottage, may still be smarting from the one they ‘missed’ against us at the London Stadium earlier in the season.
We obviously benefitted on the day from that by eventually claiming all three points instead of just one. But judging by the season so far, if you were a betting man the odds you might get on West Ham being awarded a first penalty tomorrow must be pretty generous.
The situation is so bad that we don’t even know who our penalty taker is……..
I think our players have given up on penalties, they know the refs aren’t going to give them anything.
When Soucek was tripped against Villa he just carried on and got the ball to Antonio for a shot.
If that had been Grealish he would be rolling around on the floor screaming and the ref would be pointing at the spot.