Swansea City 3 West Ham United 0 (Premier League)

Posted by Billy Blagg

Well I hope it isn't going to turn into one of those type of seasons but, so far, pretty much everything I have tipped to look out for and suggested might happen with West Ham this campaign, has turned around and bitten me back.

This was the side I said would be difficult to beat, well-organised and battling all game, subsequently gifting goals, dropping heads and ultimately losing their way. The shaking of the head of Sam Allardyce on the bench suggests this performance may transpose itself into a shaking of the fist on the training ground this week

This was a pretty dispiriting display from West Ham, nervous and inept at the back, toothless and clueless up front, eventually given the run-around by a compact Swansea side who played their football comfortably on the floor with neat, intricate passing that showed why many Hammers' fans are still uncomfortable with the route currently being taken by the club under Sam Allardyce. I have been largely supportive of Sam, but the trouble is that on days like this it is very hard to defend those views.

Nathan Dyer was named Man of the Match, while dull and dire was the epithet that will probably be labelled to West Ham unless they can put this behind them and sort out exactly what it is they are trying to do.

In the early stages, it wasn't all bad for the visitors, new signing Matt Jarvis got in a superb cross as early as the third minute which only just eluded Kevin Nolan and it looked as if the addition of a wide man would supply more firepower for Carlton Cole. Jarvis was heavily involved and Swansea had to defend stoutly at times as West Ham pressed. Sadly, as the game wore on it became apparent - as sometimes occured last season - that the option to find Cole in acres of space with no support was the only plan available.

Even so, it was a fairly balanced start and there wasn't too much to worry West Ham until Jaaskelainen decided to emulate ex-Hammers stopper Rob Green's performance against the same opposition last week by gifting Swansea a goal after twenty minutes. The wonderfully named Angel Rangel found wide space with a mix-up between Jarvis and McCartney and got in a cross-cum-shot that didn't really look as if it would cause problems until Jaaskelainen got down and diverted the ball under his body for a soft goal.

Swansea found confidence from that while the Hammers looked shell-shocked and they hardly had time to re-group and catch their breath before last week's Man of the Match, James Collins - a player given stick all afternoon for his previous Cardiff connections - played a weak back-pass under no pressure for Michu to run onto and score. In just a shade under half-an-hour West Ham found themselves two down with all their plans in tatters.

It was then they made matters worse by reorting to playing long balls to Cole, the centre-forward proving once again he doesn't have the touch or presence of a Drogba, enabling Swansea to grow in confidence as they picked up the loose balls, turning defence quickly into attack and playing superbly through the midfield.

As it turned out, West Ham's last throw of the dice was made just before half-time when continued pressure pinned Swansea back resulting in a series of corners from which West Ham nearly scored, one being cleared off the line by Dyer. There was still a feeling that a goal at that stage would give the Hammer's some hope and the Manager reacted swiftly at half-time to replace James Tomkins, who had been playing in a defensive midfielder role - being as we supposedly signed two defensive midfielders in Diarra and Diame, I'm not sure why - with the more attacking option of Vaz Te.

Sadly, it was to little effect and Swansea simply grew in confidence, content to knock the ball around in a manner that would have brought a smile to Ron Greenwood or John Lyall, while West Ham chased shadows or pumped the ball long down the channels or up-front. It began to look as if this was a game the men in blue would need to write off anyway, even before Swansea's third goal after 64 minutes.

Neat passing movement found Wayne Routledge given a blind-side run around a James Collins now resembling a cat on wet lino as he spun this way and that, and as an excellent cut-back found its way to the feet of Danny Graham, the Swansea striker saw his shot take a richochet off Demel to beat Jaaskelainen.

Graham had spurned an earlier one-on-one and would have been happy to take this goal although, if you were being kind you could say that all three goals were helped on by West Ham defenders. Personally, I'm not in a charitable mood and, much as I think this early season form of Swansea won't last, it is difficult not to appreciate how much space they found against West Ham and how inept the team looked against quick movement.

The performance of Matt Jarvis was probably the only plus for West Ham on a bad afternoon, the winger getting in more crosses in this match than many others find in a month. The Hammers' lack of movement and inability to stop basic mistakes will obviously be of concern though and I suspect residents who live near to the traing ground at Chadwell Heath may well need to keep their windows closed during the week as Sam Allardyce attempts to sort this out.

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