If it was not quite a case of Match of the Day leaving the best until last, then West Ham United’s goalless draw with Stoke City was nowhere near as bad as a cursory glance at the scoreline must make it look. It would have been in the past – imagine a 0-0 draw between Sam Allardyce and Tony Pulis – but these two improving sides are far less functional these days.
There was an agreeably mellow mood around Upton Park at the end of a compelling contest and Slaven Bilic and Mark Hughes both had reasons to feel pleased; the former because of the way West Ham coped without five key players, the latter with a performance that was a demonstration of Stoke’s brawn and brains combination. This was Stoke’s seventh clean sheet in their past nine matches and West Ham’s second in a week but there was little negativity.
Bilic and Hughes both made daring substitutions in the second half. Bilic weakened his midfield by replacing Alex Song and Michail Antonio with Enner Valencia and Nikica Jelavic while Hughes bolstered his attack by bringing on Mame Biram Diouf and Jonathan Walters. “Bit risky but we wanted to win the game,” Bilic said.
The teams played in bursts. Missing the hamstrung Winston Reid, West Ham’s defence was jittery during the opening 30 minutes and Marco van Ginkel and Marko Arnautovic were guilty of glaring misses. Yet West Ham enjoyed sustained spells of pressure and, while there was relief when Adrián made two late saves to deny Diouf, the hosts tested Jack Butland on several occasions and had two efforts cleared off the line in the fourth minute of stoppage time.
Bilic was asked if he is worried about West Ham’s run of six matches without a win. “It’s not a concern,” he said. “I would be concerned, and it’s the point where a manager should be concerned, if the team is not playing well. In these six games I wasn’t happy with the way of playing against Watford or against Spurs but the last four draws we could have won a few of them.”
There were imperfections, such as the moment when Andy Carroll turned away from Erik Pieters on the right and skewed a cross behind for a goal-kick.
However, there was plenty to enjoy. Stoke were missing Xherdan Shaqiri because of a hamstring injury but Ibrahim Afellay was outstanding on the right of their front three in the first half, while Ryan Shawcross and Philipp Wollscheid were strong in central defence.
“I didn’t particularly like them as a player but I love them as a manager,” Hughes said. “We had opportunities to win today and it’s frustrating we didn’t take them.”
The disappointment for Stoke was that they fell below the heights of last weekend’s victory over Manchester City and Geoff Cameron tweaked a hamstring in the second half. Afellay faded while Bojan Krkic and Arnautovic were quiet.
It was a decent point for West Ham, who were missing Manuel Laznini, Victor Moses, Dimitri Payet and Diafra Sakho. Bilic hopes Lanzini will be back for Sunday’s trip to Swansea City and he hinted that Payet could return from his ankle injury ahead of schedule.
West Ham’s injury problems have been blamed on the hard pitches at their Chadwell Heath training ground and they move to their new site in Rush Green on Monday. Bilic hopes it will be another step in the right direction.
Man of the match Ibrahim Afellay (Stoke City)
