sábado, 11 de janeiro de 2020

Sheffield United 1-0 West Ham: Defensive mistake leaves Hammers grasping for points again

The Hammers are back in a relegation battle after VAR controversy.


After beating Gillingham in the FA CupWest Ham United travelled up north to face Sheffield United who struggled against non-league side AFC Fylde in their respective FA Cup tie.

Oliver McBurnie scored the only goal of the game to secure all three points for the Blades.
  • Story of the game

The first chance of the game came to Sheffield's Jack O'Connell who headed wide Oliver Norwood's corner.

A few minutes later the Hammers had a chance of their own but Sebastien Haller couldn't manage to get his shot on target after breaking away from the Blades' defence.

Then, an injury horror struck the visitors as Łukasz Fabiański came off with a muscle injury similar to the one suffered against AFC Bournemouth, in September.

After West Ham made a mess in their box following a cross from a free-kick, John Lundstram was presented with an opportunity but Fabian Balbuena's block was enough, and the Hammers cleared.

On the half-hour mark, Felipe Anderson had a great chance to open the scoring but dragged his shot wide.

The second half started very intensely as John Fleck nearly put his side in front with a long-range strike. His first attempt was blocked by Pablo Zabaleta, and the second one just missed the goal.

And three minutes later Sheffield finally got what they wanted through McBurnie, thanks to a horrific error from David Martin and Balbuena.

The Hammers nearly equalised but Haller's goal have been ruled out for offside.

And with 15 minutes to go Lys Mousset had a great chance to kill the game but only a save from Martin kept West Ham in the game.

Straight after Dean Henderson produced a brilliant save to match Manuel Lanzini's free-kick.

The Hammers thought that they have equalised in the 93rd minute through Robert Snodgrass, but the VAR review showed that the ball hit Declan Rice's arm in the buildup.
  • Takeaways

Goalkeeper struggles are back to haunt West Ham

After an injury to Fabiański in September, the Hammers' form capitulated as the man to replace him, Roberto, proved to be a horrendous signing.

And now, unless they sign someone who can instantly come into the starting XI, it looks like the Hammers will need to rely on him again as David Martin's mistake proved to be very much costly.
New handball rule is awfully bad and needs to be changed
That's it. That's all there's needed to be said.

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