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Man of the Match Winner Sums Up West Ham Performance

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There’d be no prizes for correctly guessing that goalkeeper Lucasz Fabianski won the Vital Swansea man of the match poll for the shocking defeat at West Ham last weekend – with no outfield player really worthy of much praise in what proved to be one of the worst performances in a long time.

I say a long time, probably since the Southampton away performance earlier this season – not long before Francesco Guidolin was sacked – though you could debate that a number of displays under his successor were just as bad if not even worse.

What was so deflating about the West Ham game was the fact that we’re now being managed or should I say coached by Paul Clement, a coach that’s come in from having worked at some of the biggest clubs in Europe. He got us all excited after just a few games, new signings Tom Carroll and Martin Olsson came in and made an impact instantly, while Narsingh provided a couple of assists early on.

We got some excellent and much needed wins to get us out of trouble, but it looks like we’re right back to where we started under the former Derby manager.

Has the new manager ‘bounce’ ended? The honeymoon period certainly has. That 3-2 win at Anfield seems like ages ago now. Fernando Llorente getting injured has really affected us, and I wonder if it’s had an effect on the mentality of the players as well as the fact that we clearly have no idea of how to attack without him.

It’s almost as if the players are all wondering how are they going to score goals without the big man up front. The stats were awful to read from the game too, just the one shot on target. We played a side that have lost their last 5 consecutive games, and yet they kept a clean sheet against us with relative ease.

Again, that sums up our problems, we’re relying pretty much on one player to save us now – with just 6 games to go. I don’t see the likes of Crystal Palace and Hull City heavily relying on one player to help them stay 17th or higher.

Yet if Llorente doesn’t start all of the next 6 games and is on top form as well as his colleagues, it’s fair to say that we are definitely getting relegated. You’ve got to be realistic.

I debated on twitter ahead of the Middlesbrough game, arguing that it was a must win game, and I still stick by that. Yes, there are other games to play, and more points to play for, but you can’t ignore or under-estimate the value and influence that one win and three points can do ahead of our final run-in.

A victory against one of our nearest relegation rivals – however slim – 1-0 would have done – would have boosted our confidence, and we’d currently be level on points with Hull. Yet, instead, we failed to score against a side that’s worse than us, and we didn’t give us that bit of momentum that we needed going into these last few, crucial games.

Instead, we’ve added even more pressure on to ourselves. You’ve seen what a good run of results can do for teams and the momentum it can build. Yet we’ve got absolutely none, absolutely zero momentum or confidence for that matter. Teams near the bottom who hit form around this time tend to stay up. Without that win though, we’re 5 games without a victory.

I just hope the players can surprise us all on Saturday, get a win out of nowhere and hit some form. Hull go to Stoke on the weekend while we go to Watford. We both face sides in and around mid-table with little to play for, while Crystal Palace move a step closer to safety following a 3-0 win over Arsenal on Monday night.

Therefore, it looks like a two-horse race for the final relegation spot. Ironic in a way after we beat Hull all those years ago to stay in the Football League. This time, both teams go head to head with a lot to play for.

But back to the poll, and Fabianski won it clearly with 68%, followed by Sigurdsson and Ayew with 16% each – surprising really as I thought both had poor games.




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