Mauro Zarate has nailed the problem we gave ourselves against West Bromwich.
Not long had elapsed after the final whistle than the Argentinian was out on Twitter giving his take on what had gone wrong.
And it’s difficult to disagree given the amount of possession we had during the first 45 minutes along with the chances we created.
He and Manu Lanzini were at the heart of every good thing produced by the Hammers and this may even go down as his best performance in a Hammers shirt.
The free kick was absolutely sublime and he slammed another into goalkeeper Myhill’s arms in the second half. In between times he and midfield partner produced some scintillating moments to keep us all on the edge of our chairs.
But for all the great first half football, we only had the one set piece goal to show for our efforts and there was always the feeling we might live to regret that.
A valuable point but as Mauro says we probably contributed to our own downfall.
We should be thanking our lucky stars that Lanzini and Zarate seem to have gelled so well because the was little indication today that Carroll is going to fill the gap, yet, really he’s the best Slav’s got.
I doubt there were many who didn’t think we needed a second goal before the break
The first half gave a glimpse of how fluid we can be when we are not hamstrung by Noble and Caroll. l think that is the key issue. l’d be devastated if either of them starts the next game. They have stood our way far too long.