West Ham win masks deeper issues
Despite West Ham’s last Premier League outing resulting in a 4-0 win against Wolverhampton Wanderers, manager Nuno Espírito Santo has pointed out that all is not well with performances.
While the Hammers finished the game as comfortable victors, Wolves were on top for most of the first half and, were it not for a couple of important interventions from Kyle Walker-Peters and Konstantinos Mavropanos, Nuno’s side could have gone in at half-time behind.
Mavropanos recued a poor first half against Wolves
First-half concerns continue
The fact that West Ham finished the first 45 minutes 1-0 up was not totally reflective of the balance of play and mirrored the team’s first-half performance in the previous game against Leeds United.
It is clearly a flaw that Espírito Santo is keen to eradicate, and he suggested as much when speaking to reporters at his pre-match press conference ahead of Monday’s game against the Eagles.
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“The big challenge that we have is to sustain our level of performance, which is very hard. This is the big challenge, to see if we can go not just in parts of our games, but for the whole 90 minutes. Against Wolves, the first half was not so good.”
Nuno sends clear message
And it is good to hear him speaking candidly.
West Ham’s win, combined with Tottenham’s loss, has provided the club with an excellent opportunity to finish the season strongly and move away from the relegation battle. But it is clear the team cannot keep starting games slowly and offering the opposition chances and encouragement to get ahead.
From the sounds of it, Nuno knows it.