The team selection took everyone by surprise: None of the trio of returning International defenders got a start with Espírito Santo preferring those players he’d had two weeks to drill. The key then was how the Hammers started. First fifteen minutes safely negotiated and the first long throw safely negotiated thanks to Soucek’s head meeting the ball. And that was as good as it got.
How to sum up that first half? Poor, poorer and poorest,. The Irons should have been out of the contest by half time but stayed just a goal down thanks to VAR and Brentford’s own poor finishing,
The fact that West Ham brought on three defenders at half time spoke volumes. A never ending series of corners and long throws rained down throughout the first half and West Ham floundered but were undone from simple straight long balls in behind the defence. Why Scarles was started as a right back – only Nuno will know but he disappeared, hooked at half time. Very Lopetegui-like disarray. Which is a pretty damning indictment of Espirito Santo’s first half set up.
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This first half set up and performance was classic Lopetegui chaos: Players out of position, others chasing their tails
Making the changes at half time and moving to a back five at times meant that the ‘midfield’ was solely Tomas Soucek at times: West Ham looked at sixes and sevens. Couldn’t fathom it out, to be honest. Evidently, neither could the players.
Brentford fumbled and failed to score only through their own ineffectiveness. 20 efforts on goal from the visitors said it all.
Callum Marshall thrown on for forty minutes made little impact and another odd change saw Rodriguez appear. Fans poured out from 70 minutes as West Ham failed to make any impression whatsoever. Mavropanos crawled off with a leg injury and Summerville started limping: the Hammers were down to nine and a half with no substitutes left to use. Another chance curled an inch wide of Areola’s goal as somehow the score stayed at 0 – 1. Carnage: The most one sided one – nil you’d ever want to watch.
Jensen finally settled it when he fired into the roof of the next after 94 minutes – which was fully deserved. The visitors were head, shoulders and torso above West Ham, and I’m secretly very glad I didn’t pay good money to have to slog to and fro from Stratford station in the rain to watch that.
Relegation form.