West Ham United 3 - West Bromwich Albion 3

Date:	Saturday 28th December 2013
Competition:	Barclays Premier League
West Ham: 5.5	(4-2-3-1) Jaaskelainen, J O'Brien, Tomkins (Demel, 11), McCartney, Rat, Noble, Diame, Cole (Collison, 83), Nolan, Jarvis, Cole (Maiga, 46) Unused subs: Adrian, Chambers, Diarra, Taylor
WBA: 6.5	(3-5-2) Foster 6.1, McAuley 6.6, Olsson 6.5, Lugano 4.7 (Amalfitano, 68 5.8), Jones 6.5, Morrison 6.6 (Yacob, 77 6.3), Mulumbu 6.5, Brunt 6.7, Ridgewell 5.5, Berahino 7.7 (Sessegnon, 85 5.2), Anelka 7.5 Unused subs: Myhill, Sinclair, Vydra, Dawson Manager: Keith Downing (c) 6.8
Scorers:	Cole (4), Maiga (65), Nolan (67); Anelka (40, 45), Berahino (69)
Referee:	Mike Dean (Wirral) 6.1
Attendance:	34,946 Home Fans 5.0 Away Fans 7.1

Summary:

Albion's fixtures at Upton Park often produce plenty of goals and this one continued the tradition as they earned their third draw out of three games since the dismissal of Steve Clarke.

Keith Downing made six changes, with the almost-forgotten Nicolas Anelka returning to partner Saido Berahino up front and Gareth McAuley, Billy Jones, Chris Brunt and Youssouf Mulumbu returning to defence and midfield in a 3-5-2 formation while Sam Allardyce, who described the game as a "must win", had to field something of a makeshift defence with George McCartney switching from full back to centre half because of injuries to other players while Andy Carroll's seemingly endless injury layoff continued.

The game got off to the worst possible start for Albion when Joe Cole fired home between Ben Foster and the near post in just the fourth minute following a failure to clear a simple forward ball, perhaps not helped by the change in formation. But the home side's defensive difficulties piled higher shortly afterwards when James Tomkins had to be replaced in the eleventh minute by Guy Demel to leave a back line consisting of four full-backs and Albion made the most of it when Chris Brunt played a neat ball down the middle for Anelka to go one-on-one with Jussi Jaaskelainen and level the scores. A minute before half time, Albion were perhaps lucky to win a corner, with Joe Cole and Jame Morrison appearing to kick the ball out at the same time, but Chris Brunt's kick was headed into Carlton Cole's chest by Jonas Olsson and Anelka was quickest to react to give Albion the half-time lead.

In between the goals, Carlton Cole had perhaps been lucky to stay on the pitch after his high tackle on Olsson, and was replaced at half time by Modibo Maiga, who levelled the scores with a curling shot from outside the area that Foster should really have stopped. Two minutes later, Maiga's header towards the far post was volleyed home by Kevin Nolan to put Albion behind. Downing immediately replaced Diego Lugano with Morgan Amalfitano and within a minute Albion had responded when Brunt fed Berahino on the left hand side and the young striker turned his marker to fire in off the far post.

Claudio Yacob replaced James Morrison with a quarter of an hour left to play and Stephane Sessegnon replaced Berahino ten minutes later as Downing tried to make the most of his squad but that was it for the action. The point leaves Albion still in fifteenth place with West Ham in the middle of the bottom three.

Update

Nicolas Anelka, never one for outlandish gestures, celebrated his goals by holding his left arm across his chest and stretching his right arm straight downwards, something that few even realised was of any significance. However, this gesture has apparently been linked to anti-Semitism and was described as "disgusting" by the French Sports minister, something Anelka refuted on Twitter saying

"This gesture was just a special dedication to my comedian friend Dieudonne."

The FA are investigating in conjunction with Kick It Out.

oshawabaggie:

Under normal circumstances another away draw would be the cause for mild celebration, but it is so tight at the bottom that draws are not going to move us out of trouble. The gloom when I saw Anelka's name on the team sheet turned to grudging admiration (for him and Downing) for his 5 minutes of inspiration. But by the end I was scatching my head as he remained on the pitch when the energetic and dangerous Berahino was subbed.

I'm not sure about the three centre-halves. Seems like they get in each others way. The most disappointing aspect of our play today was the way we came out in the second half. After controlling the play for most of the first half by pressing hard and crisp passing we just sat back and let them take the initiative. You just felt their equalizer was inevitable.

But some credit must be given to the players for coming back twice after trailing and, by the end, we had done enough to deserve all three points. For me Berahino has to be our starting centre forward. He just has a natural goal scorers instinct and is strong with both feet - brilliantly taken goal with his left and stunning free kick against the post with his right.

Team spirit seems OK despite our position. The dilemma facing Garlick and Peace is finding a manager to work with the eclectic bunch of players we have - Some past their best and others here on loan and/or with one foot out the door. Malky Mackay might find West Brom are too much like Cardiff to be interested. As others have mentioned, Garlick has a lot to answer for. If his choice of a new manager doesn't turn out well, he should pay the price too.

Footnote: Anelka accused of anti-semitic sign after scoring. What's that about?

Paul Gainham:

What will be really interesting to see from the various comments is any difference between those who saw it live and those who watched on Sky. I was there and my take is this was a really poor performance overall against an incredibly poor West Ham team. Make no mistake, this is 2 points lost we can ill afford ? we had them reeling for a time after scoring our first goal but then unfathomably, we sat back and allowed then to not only level but take the lead. Only then did Downing decide to act.

The disease he caught from Clarke? Failing to act pro-actively in a game and reacting to events instead of determining them. That was the root of the poor showing today on top of a number of poor individual performances, most notably from Foster who was at fault for at least 2, arguably all 3 of their goals. The first 20 mins of the 2nd half were like a no-mans land ? it was crying out for us to heap more pressure on them and yet we did not ? THIS is when Downing should have made a change but he didn?t and quickly we were 3-2 down and chasing the game.

Unfortunately, league tables don?t lie, we are 2 points off relegation, 3 points out of 9 over the xmas period and even Downing can't shape a decent follow up performance on the back of our really good showing against Tottenham.

Where we looked solid defensively at Tottenham, we looked shaky today, where we moved the ball around quickly, we were slow and ponderous and where we pressed, we sat back way too often.

Words fail me as to how awful a team West Ham are ? they WILL be relegated they were that pitiful and yet we could not muster enough organisation, spirit and fight to overcome them.

I hate to say this but when we look back as we slip out of the Premier League this season, the finger of blame will definitely and rightly point to Clarke but also games like this against p*** poor opposition that we simply did not have the gumption to win. We have now drawn 9 games this season, the highest in the PL and the more we do that, the more we will slip into the relegation mire and those who are saying ?don?t be negative it?s a point? will see the fallacy and stupidity of their argument.

Re the game today it is not a co-incidence that taking Gera out and bringing Brunt in made our midfield slow and ponderous. Chris, you have been a great servant but you are now a liability and it?s time to move on. Yes Anelka scored twice (finally) but again his overall game was poor and slow ? time for him to don a beret and string of onions and retire to life in the French countryside.

There IS a squad of players here capable of surviving in the PL but under Clarke and now Downing they show no sign of doing that ? they are clearly both very poor coaches who have no game / plan or strategy that?s CONSISTENT and THAT?S the most bloody infuriating thing about all of this is that is ALL they have to do, coach the side from 9am on Monday to 5pm on Friday and then prepare them for the game.

Not much to ask really.

Player Marks

Foster 3 Very poor game, at fault for at least 2 if not all 3 goals. Let?s put it down to a bit of ring rustiness.
Jones 7 Mostly did OK, Jarvis did cause him 1 or 2 problems though
Ridgewell 5 Unfortunately back to his clown like performance level. Another one to join Brunt in the departure lounge
Olsson 6 Not as commanding as usual, struggled against Cole
Lugano 3 Poor, really poor and wont get any better ? another one for the departure lounge
McCauley 7 Steady
Brunt 5 Nice ball through for Anelka?s first but did little else, sidewards and backwards yet again
Mulumbu 6 Has had better games
Morrison 7 Our moist effective midfielder. Not as good as against Tottenham but tried to move things along
Anelka 6 Yes got 2 goals but his all round play was slow, ponderous and he got caught in possession way too many times.
Berahino 7 Great goal, hit the post with a sweet free kick but needs to do more for the team.

Subs

Yacob 5 Steady, unspectacular
Sessegnon 5 no major contribution
Amalfitano 6 Busy and involved but end product poor

Coach 3 A case of after the Lord Mayors show. How can you look in the mirror knowing you were out thought by Allardyce??