When the team was announced you could have been mistaken in thinking that it wasn’t the new season but end of the last – in fact many looked at the bench expecting to see Zola sitting there instead of Grant.From the very start West Ham were out paced, out played and out of the game. Ok the first goal was off-side, but it was no more than a Managerless Villa deserved and we were lucky to be just 2-0 and not 5-0 down at half time – saved on more than one occasion by the great skills of Robert Green. Who, for the record, was by a mile our best player on the day.
The one positive is that Grant is brave enough to make changes when they are needed, unlike Zola who would wait until the 85th minute, and we did look a little better when Stoke bound Kovac was replaced Piquionne and Boa Morte made way for Barrera.
Still it wasn’t enough to turn the tide and the fantastic Milner made it 3-0 before the end to mark a miserable day for us Hammers. Milner should be off to Man City any time now and Villa are really going to miss him.
There was so much bad about this West Ham performance that you could spend all day going through the negative points – so I am just going to say that Grant needs to ring the changes, forget the likes of Kovac, Tompkins (who had another nightmare game) and Boa Morte, and give us a team to be proud of come Saturday at home to Bolton.
It’s only the first game – but much more of this and it’s going to be a very long season!
West Ham: Green, Reid, Tomkins (Diamanti 72), Upson, Faubert, Ilunga, Parker, Boa Morte (Barrera 46), Kovac (Piquionne 46), Noble, Carlton Cole
Subs (unused): Stech, Gabbidon, Spector, Sears
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