Sometimes success can have a perverse impact. Slaven Bilic certainly had a point after West Ham scraped a late draw against Norwich City to escape a third home defeat from four when he said their stunning away form has led to too much being read into the home record.
Four points from two games is perhaps their level, the manager suggested, and expecting them to win easily at home is unfair. But there was also a sense at the conclusion of a wonderfully frenetic game that could have gone either way that they need to step it up a level on their own turf.
“At the end of the season I think, maybe, I think,” Bilic said, his tongue placed firmly in cheek, “we will have more home wins than away wins. Don’t get me wrong, if you asked me before the game if I would have taken a point I would have said ‘No’, but in the last two games we have four points.
“If we had got four points from the away games you would be saying: ‘OK, West Ham are not flying but they are doing OK, it’s West Ham.’ It wouldn’t be such an issue but with the three away wins you expect us to beat everybody 6-0 at home. That just doesn’t happen.”
From whatever angle their results are viewed they are difficult to analyse. Bilic followed up by saying a reason for their inconsistency is because the league’s middle order, his own team included, have strengthened so much. “Before, all the teams had energy and all that. Now the teams have quality,” he added. That brings Dimitri Payet to mind. The France midfielder had a role in both West Ham goals and, having cost £10.7m, is the current poster boy for mid-level transfer dealings.
Andy Carroll, no stranger to big money moves himself, presents Bilic with another issue altogether. The striker was stood on seconds after being introduced for Manuel Lanzini but shook the injury off and provided the assist for Cheikhou Kouyaté’s equaliser. His manager admits keeping him healthy is a constant concern after spending seven months out with his latest knee problem.
“I don’t want to tame him because then he wouldn’t be Andy Carroll,” Bilic said. “We try to protect him in other ways – we didn’t try to force him back after 10 days or one week because he was out for seven months. I told him he has to go slowly because he is the type of player to go in and fight but I don’t want him to change his style of play because that is his biggest quality.”
Alex Neil has suffered defeat only once away from home since taking over as Norwich manager, a statistic which might lead the uninformed to suppose they are defensively minded. But they dominated for long spells and even Bilic admitted the visitors would have deserved three points. Neil wants his team to entertain first and foremost – something they did with ease. “Football is an entertainment sport,” he said, placing an emphasis on is. “I go to watch football to be entertained and see good players doing good things. I have that in my team and I want to see them entertain. As a fan you don’t go to see teams grinding it out.”
Key to their performance were the Republic of Ireland pair Wes Hoolahan, providing a league-leading fifth assist of the campaign, for Nathan Redmond, and Robbie Brady, moved forward from left-back due to the absence of Matt Jarvis because of his loan agreement. Neil remains unsure which position Brady is best suited to. “It varies from match to match,” the manager added. “It depends on what we’re coming up against. He has a fantastic delivery but he’s equally good at defending as he is in attack. He’s more than capable of doing both.”
Man of the match Dimitri Payet (West Ham United)
