West Ham’ inconsistent run continued as they slumped to a 1-0 defeat at home to Burnley. Chris Wood, the Hammers’ chief tormentor in recent years, wasn’t even required as a goal off the shoulder of Jay Rodriguez gave the Clarets all three points at the London Stadium.
Here are our talking points from the fixture.
Burnley do a rare league double over West Ham: This was Burnley’s first league double over the Hammers in 73 years. They had beaten West Ham 3-0 at Turf Moor earlier this season, and this 1-0 win saw them complete a rare league double over their rivals.
The Clarets have now won four of their last five games against the Hammers, and seem to have become a bit of a hoodoo side for them.
Yarmolenko’s first start of the year: Andriy Yarmolenko’s performances against Chelsea and Newcastle, coupled with poor form from the likes of Manuel Lanzini and Felipe Anderson saw David Moyes give the Ukrainian his first start of the calendar year alongside Pablo Fornals and Jarrod Bowen in a 4-2-3-1. We thought it would be with Fornals in the centre- the Spaniard has appeared isolated on the wing at times, but it was originally with Bowen in the centre, Fornals on the left and Yarmolenko on the right.
They did swap positions though- Fornals came into a central position later in the first half, and after the interval Yarmolenko and Bowen swapped wings.
Hammers squander a host of chances: This was a game that West Ham should’ve won. They had two glorious individual chances, with Michail Antonio and Sebastian Haller both missing their 1 on 1’s. There were several other smaller chances as well, but Nick Pope was in inspired form in the Burnley goal, and kept the Hammers scoreless.
Fourth kit on show for Burnley: For reasons best known to league officials, Burnley’s green third kit didn’t receive the nod for this clash, and we saw a rare fourth kit- a one-off white strip by Umbro for the clarets.
Haller not quite upto the mark: His returns haven’t quite been what you’d expect from a club record signing, and Sebastian Haller was again disappointing. He squandered a golden chance just after coming on, and there were moments where he seemed to be lethargic, ambling into the box, instead of bursting into it with energy and a point to prove. Yes, he doesn’t quite receive the service he had at Eintracht with Jovic and Rebic, but it wouldn’t be unfair for West Ham fans to expect more from their star forward.
Moyes even sent Alban Ajeti in a last ditch attempt to score an equaliser, but it wasn’t to be, and the Hammers slumped to another disappointing defeat.
West Ham 0-1 Burnley (Rodriguez 38′)
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