THE MIKE DEAN SHOW
Fulham 0 West Ham 0
The Cottagers face The Irons in an almost bottom plays virtually top fixture.
Bowen returns for Fredericks, a promising change for the potential attacking format from Moyes. The first thing to notice is Jesse Lingard in a home West Ham shirt. That’s about all to notice in the first ten minutes though, as Fulham start off firmly on the front foot. Their season only seems to have started in November with wins over West Brom and Leicester. Since then nothing more that’s got three points behind it.
Finally, on twelve minutes, Cresswell hits in a spinning low left foot cross which first Antonio and second Bowen miss as it shoots across the turf in the teeming rain. Loftus-Cheek, on loan from Chelsea, may sound like an unwelcome bout of facial acne, but is the difference between the two sides in the first fifteen minutes with some neat touches and bursts of acceleration. West Ham just need to ride out this opening burst of adrenalin.
Benrahma has already recorded a brace, an assist and given away a penalty for Brentford and West Ham against Fulham. It wouldn’t be inappropriate for this opposition to provide him with his first West Ham goal as he appears against them for the third time in 2020-21. Soucek gets an early far post header in from Lingard’s cross as the rain continues to hammer down. Stam are settling now and looking to establish control of the game. I still find these commanding performances somewhat alien on the eye even after over half a season of them. Hammers will ease above Liverpool into fourth place in the Premier League, at least for 24 hours, should they fashion a goal tonight. I somehow cannot see Fulham scoring.
The Cottagers begin the second half well, but despite creating three clear goal chances in the first ten minutes, they waste them all. Noble and Yarmolenko are stripping off on the bench, suggesting some enigmatic tactic at the design stage. Benrahma and Bowen are removed to accommodate their arrival on the hour. A great cross from Rice finds Coufal at the far post and, though he beats Areola with his header, the ball clips the bar and spins over. A little closer to the goal West Ham need. Antonio slips off for Fredericks, feeling at his hamstring. Not many attacking options for Moyes on the bench, so Yarmolenko becomes the lone striker, and the midfield array widens.
Now Fulham have a free kick on the edge of the area with fifteen minutes remaining. Lookman takes it and beats the wall, but also the far post. That would have been a poignant response to having missed the injury time penalty against West Ham that gave them all three points at London Stadium back in November. Josh Maja, Fulham’s January loan signing from Bordeaux, gets a debut substitute appearance for the last ten minutes. Liverpool couldn’t win here in December, so a point would still be a reasonable result. With two minutes left, Soucek rises but can only steer Cresswell’s free kick over the bar.
In injury time West Ham get a free kick, but as Lingard shapes to take it, Mitrovic and Soucek tangle on the edge of the area, and after three minutes of VAR nonsense, Mike Dean gives Soucek a red card for a disputed deliberate elbow on Mitrovic. This of course might mean the Potato Salad One will be missing the FA Cup fifth round fixture against Manchester United on Tuesday, and subsequent fixtures against Sheffield United and Tottenham.
‘The Mike Dean Show’, once again, has spoiled an otherwise reasonable game of football. Even so, if the red card is rescinded, it might mean this is the last season we have to watch the idiot referee, or his VAR sidekick Lee Mason, in action in a West Ham fixture.
1 Lucasz Fabianski, 21 Angelo Ogbonna, 15 Craig Dawson, 3 Aaron Cresswell, 5 Vladimir Coufal, 41 Declan Rice (c), 28 Tomas Souček, 9 Saïd Benrahma, 11 Jesse Lingard, 20 Jarrod Bowen, 30 Michael Antonio
Substitutes: 7 Andriy Yarmolenko, 16 Mark Noble, 24 Ryan Fredericks
