Manuel Pellegrini hailed a complete performance from the Hammers despite a first ten minutes which left him and the fans utterly stunned.
In reality this is a problem that goes right back to the Bilic days and whilst many different players have arrived there seems something buried deeply in the squad’s psyche when they first take to field.
It begins to feel as though we have to go a goal down in order to show ourselves that can fight back and the truth surely is that this has to stop as soon as possible.
The problems started with the least likely candidate – Pablo Zabaleta – who first produced an awful back pass before being too slow to cover when the ball was crossed for Babel to score Fulham’s opener.
It would be unfair to pin the entire blame on him but he gets mentioned because it was entirely uncharacteristic of the man who has been a star all season.
Fredericks replaced him in the second half and did very well indeed, looking a real athlete with pace going forward and the ability to defend well.
However, Pelle, made it clear that he was shocked by that start saying at his post match presser: “We started the game sleeping.
“The first ten minutes were unbelievable. They created clear chances, scored a goal and had another shot which was wide, but very dangerous.
“After those ten minutes, which were difficult to understand, I think we played a very good game. We scored three goals, we had three or four more chances, Fulham didn’t have any more clear chances in our box so it was a complete game without those first ten minutes.
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“I don’t know the reason, maybe we were a little distracted at that moment. The important thing was that we changed the game after that.”
“From my position on the bench I couldn’t see [how Chicharito’s equaliser went in]. I’ve seen it since and it was handball, but it was one that nobody saw very clearly at the time. I don’t think it decided the game, we scored two more and created three or four other chances which the goalkeeper saved well.”
Pellegrini was also thrilled to see Manuel Lanzini back on the pitch following a long-term knee injury as his squad returns closer to full strength.
He added: “Of course, not only Manuel Lanzini but Marko Arnautovic is getting fit again and Samir Nasri will be very important. Next week Fabian Balbuena could be back again, so of course I never complained when we didn’t have the results but it’s very difficult to play with eight or nine injured players.
“Marko tried tonight to do his best. Unfortunately for him their goalkeeper made a very good save, he also assisted the goal for Antonio so I think he will return week-by-week to his normal performance.”