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Let’s get Leicester defeat in perspective

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ObiangToday’s performance and result needs to be put into its proper perspective.

Yes we all know Leicester City made a storming end to last season but when you look at the stats they carried into this season they really are truly stunning.

They won seven games – starting with us, drew one and lost one (against Chelsea) – and have now won the first two games of the new season.

The confidence factor is huge in football – 80 per cent of the game is often played between the ears and some of their football in the first half was outstanding.

Too often we judge matches on reputations of teams – thus Arsenal would beat us and we’d beat the Foxes particularly as our home record against them is pretty amazing.

Leicester have  scored 25 goals over these last 11 games and are on the highest of highs. We meanwhile won three games from 21 and despite the much needed and celebrated victory over the Gunners there is work to be done.

Slaven Bilic made the point that  we were far too slow in the first half as the Foxes took control and punished us with their quick passing and pacey forward movement game.

But we showed in the second that we can be pretty potent – especially down the left side. When Jenks is up to speed we’ll be looking fine down the right too.

Pedro Obiang (above) looked an operator with bite and promise. We are a decent team who were beaten by another in outstanding form.

It’s been an odd start to the season and with Bournemouth up next we are again thinking three points – I think we’ll get them but we need to up the tempo.

An interesting season ahead.

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Hugh Southon is a lifelong Iron and the founding editor of ClaretandHugh. He is a national newspaper journalist of many years experience and was Bobby Moore's 'ghost' writer during the great man's lifetime. He describes ClaretandHugh as "the Hammers daily newspaper!"

Follow on Twitter @hughsouthon

19 comments

  • Paddy C. says:

    Back to Earth with a bang today. No need to panic but Adrian will be a big miss while he serves his suspension.
    Reckon they’ll appeal his red card?

  • slaven a laugh says:

    No point in trying to make excuses. Forget last season. It’s gone. This is now and today was a game of two halves. First half we were terrible. Second half we improved but by then it was too late. Simple as that.

  • whambam says:

    It’s going to take a few weeks games and training sessions to
    A/ get the new players used to the Premiership
    B/ get the players used to each other’s strengths and weaknesses
    C/ get the players to play Slav’s systems
    D/ get the players to play as a unit
    It’s not so simple as it sounds to get done but once it’s done things will be simple, so yeah, let’s get things as you say ‘into perspective’

  • TysonM says:

    Oh my god i need a beer.Sorry did i miss something,have we just been relegated into the conference or did we just lose one football match today.Ffs you wouldnt believe we won at rhe Arse last week,you would think we are on a 20 game winless streak!! 😉

  • canchaz says:

    I said before the match this was our moment of truth. It would answer whether we are the real deal or flash in the pan and the result says we are certainly not the real deal yet by any means but I think they may be more than a flash in the pan.
    They should have been able to find a way to pull this one out. They did, after all dominate possession but failed to capitalize on it.
    I did feel that putting Oxford back in based on one excellent performance was risky, both for him and us. I also think we should have left Tomkins in, with Jenkinson on the bench to bring on later to allow him to get back into the swing more slowly.
    Having said all that, the fact remains, we just didn’t get the job done today. Now the pressure is on Slav. and the team to get back on track next week. A loss to Bournemouth would be very hard to explain away and would start a very negative trend

    • GW says:

      Canchez you truly are a miserable git we’ve played 2 teams who at the back end of last season were in the top 3 form guide based over 10 games. One we’ve beaten one we’ve lost to, 1st half not great yesterday but better in 2nd simply put we lost but to say it could be a negative trend is ridiculous. A new breed of Irons fans seem to exist now where the have the ability of forseeing the future and constantly ****ing moaning about what could happen, after 35 years of supporting the club I’ll just stick to having a few beers after the game a moan about the ref and a few choruses of bubbles with my fellow irons and leave all the negative **** to the so called OPTA gurus .

  • DGHammer34 says:

    Spot on Quick

  • Lt. Quickdrawovic 1st Slavalry C&H Regt says:

    Kevin I cant keep up with your opinions they’re manic in their scale of positivity and negativity. But just so you know we started last season well because of injuries and tailed off once the one trick pony reverted to type. If you want to make a good comparison as you seem to think we lost to some minnow team today then have a look at the league table at Xmas and then the end of last season and while you’re at it take a look at the form table for the end of the season.
    We’re still on a learning curve the perfect example was Winston Reid I lost count how many times he received the short goal kick looked unsure then played it sideways or back that’s because it’s been instilled in him to pump it towards the opposition box,but he’ll learn as will others about speeding up.
    No need to panic Kevin we’ll get there,just think you could be a Sunderland fan.

    • sleepswithdafishes says:

      Crikey creeps, I was just going to remind us all, that last season we lost our first home game ( now who was it against ? mmmm ), The heavens never fell into my back garden and we went on to get into 4th place for 4 months, so it’s retrievable…

    • JimmyF says:

      Kevin is doing my head in,im in my mid 60s & i feel like getting my bleedin bovver boots back on & kicking off.Christ all mighty 😀

  • Vintage Claret says:

    We started too slowly and didn’t try to get the ball forward quick enough playing into Leicesters counter attacking game. When obiang came on his forward movement and accurate passing a got us going.-if the second half team had started the game I don’t think we would have lost. I think
    Know in the second half we saw our strongest starting 11 and fully expect those to start next week. Would be nice to sign a striker this week to have an option on the bench other than maiga !

  • kevin says:

    What perspective are you talking about ??
    Leicester finished below us in the League last season .
    We had a fabulous start to last season , but as you know , and many fans tend to ignore is that due to a very bad run of injuries we ended up as nearly relegation fodder .
    Leicester managed to survive despite thier very bad form .
    I think it was reasonable to expect a Home Win Today .. So no perspective needed .

    • West Ham Fan No 32 says:

      You obviously didn’t watch Leicester play much last season or you would have realised that they actually played well the whole season and had many poor decisions that cost them results, you also seem to think that miracles can be performed overnight, we have a lot of new players that we are trying to bed in and we are playing a completely different style of football, it remains to be seen if the inherited players are capable of passing and moving because some of them have spent the last 4 seasons locked rigidly in their positions. We were atrocious pretty much from the moment Allardyce let Chelsea have an easy win at Christmas the injuries can’t be blamed for that and we then began to look to qualify for Europe via the fair play. Yes we should have expected to win and probably did but we were outplayed and outscored so now it is up to the chairmen to get us better scoring options and for team to respond next week which I am hopeful will be the case.

  • Matt says:

    It was a poor match and I think Slav got it horribly wrong today. Ox had a job to do last week but today did we need 5 defenders against Leicester ? But how refreshing to hear Slav talk so honestly after the match. It’s early days there will be hiccups but there’s so many positives. I like the way the boys are trying to play and when we gel I can honestly see good days ahead. Unlike most on here I’m not convinced with sakho. Yes his work rate is fantastic and he had that golden spell last season but I still think he needs too many chances to score. Onwards and upwards.

  • DGHammer34 says:

    Yes we cant blame Oxford but we were much better once Obiang was on. He looks good.
    Noble works so hard and covers every inch of the ground but he looks so slow on the ball compared to the new players.

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