Fan blogger Joe Difford looks at Sunday's draw with Swansea...
Sunday afternoon’s game between Swansea and West Ham was a rather bizarre one. Two sides who have been known to play some wonderful football in recent times, but are both going through a tough spell of form, drew 0-0, despite a total of 32 shots between them.
News of Andy Carroll’s injury and subsequent absence from the game was a bad start, with so many key players already out, Nikica Jelavic was drafted in upfront. He had a couple of chances but it wasn’t his day in front of goal. He was denied near the end and but for some great defending he could have scored the winner.
Swansea dominated the first half, and were unlucky to go in at the break without a goal, as Ki Sung-yueng and Andre Ayew missed good chances.
The home side had lost five of their last six games, but we were slow to start, giving them confidence and a new-found belief, which nearly resulted in a few goals.
They were at it after the break too, with Jack Cork seeing his impressive volley saved well by Adrian before penalty appeals were waved away after the ball hit James Collins’ arm, but the defender was not at fault.
Collins put on his best performance of the season, and was a joy to watch, throwing his body in the way of anything and everything to secure a clean sheet.
The Welshman at times is unfairly criticised but he was faultless on Sunday, and deserves a medal for some of the painful blocks he made, but man of the match will have to do for now.
Despite eleven shots on goal, only two made their way on target, both being long-range efforts from Mauro Zarate and Enner Valencia.
Eighth place isn’t a bad place to be right now, especially when you consider the somewhat ridiculous injury crisis we are suffering right now. With so many key men out, form is always likely to suffer, as the eleven men each week are eleven men who have never played together before, so it will take time to gel.
Form is temporary, class is permanent, as they say, and it won’t be long before we’re back to winning ways, but hopefully the fact that we’re now winless in seven will spur the boys in claret and blue on.
Sunday’s game made it three successive 0-0 draws in a row, something we have never done before in our history, and it is hard to believe when you look at our shot counts for these games. You don’t want to blame bad form on luck, but it certainly is playing a part in recent weeks, and it can’t last forever.
We travel to bottom-of-the-table Aston Villa , who are now ten points from safety on Boxing Day, so Bilic and Co. need to take the opportunity to try and get back to winning ways and get a positive result.
This period of injuries was always going to be a tough one, and three 0-0 draws on the trot isn’t great, but every point counts and in such an unpredictable and tight season, who knows how important Sunday’s point will turn out to be.
For more West Ham fan views or to join the conversation visit www.90min.com
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of West Ham United