Michail Antonio was the latest West Ham player to fail to score from the spot following his miss against Newcastle United on Sunday afternoon.
Fortunately for the striker, Tomas Soucek was on hand to smash home the rebound and save the 31-year-old's blushes.
Antonio's miss was the Hammers third unsuccessful penalty out of their past four efforts with Declan Rice and Jesse Lingard the other culprits from 12 yards.
In recent years West Ham have been blessed with one of the most reliable spot-kick takers in world football Mark Noble. The club captain has a phenomenal record of 38 successful penalties out of 42 attempts with his last miss coming in 2016.
Since the turn of the century, Noble is second to only Robert Lewandowski in terms of successful attempts from the spot with a 90.5% success rate compared to the Pole's 91% (minimum number of penalties taken 30).
However, the skipper is no longer a guaranteed starter for West Ham and David Moyes needs to look for reliable alternatives in his squad.
The Hammers have been awarded five spot-kicks in 2021 with Jesse Lingard and Declan Rice each scoring one and missing one along with Antonio's saved effort on Sunday. Fortunately for the Hammers each of the three misses came in matches West Ham went onto win but Moyes will be sure to demand an improvement from the spot.
A penalty kick has an expected goals rate of 76%. With West Ham boasting five players with a career success rate above that the Hammers simply must improve on their 2021 record of just 20%
football.london has been through the Hammers squad and looked at what options Moyes has at his disposal from players who have stepped up in a competitive match throughout their career.
| Player | Penalties taken | Penalties scored | Success rate |
| Craig Dawson | 2 | 2 | 100% |
| Said Benrahma | 6 | 6 | 100% |
| Mark Noble | 42 | 38 | 90.5% |
| Andriy Yarmolenko | 28 | 23 | 82% |
| Tomas Soucek | 13 | 10 | 77% |
| Manuel Lanzini | 4 | 3 | 75% |
| Jarrod Bowen | 6 | 4 | 66% |
| Michail Antonio | 2 | 1 | 50% |
| Declan Rice | 2 | 1 | 50% |
| Aaron Cresswell | 1 | 0 | 0% |
(Statistics from transfermarkt)
As you can see two Hammers have 100% records from the penalty spot with Said Benrahma and perhaps surprisingly Craig Dawson both never failing to hit the back of the net.
Dawson's two penalties came in the 2012-13 season when he was representing England at U21 level and were in regulation time, not penalty shootouts. The defender also netted for Great Britain during the 2012 Olympic Games but having not taken a penalty in eight years Dawson would be a surprise candidate to take on the role but the defender could be a useful weapon if the Hammers find themselves in a penalty shootout this season.
Benrahma's record is more impressive than Dawson's purely because he has taken 66% more penalties than the centre-back.
The Algerian took over penalty duty at Brentford following Ollie Watkins' two successive failures and Benrahma dealt with the pressure with ease.
Benrahma has previously taken spot-kicks for LB Châteauroux in France and continued his successful run in the Championship, six from six surely makes Benrahma a top candidate for West Ham's next penalty.
If Noble is on the pitch the captain takes the penalties it is as simple as that, with a career success rate of over 90% he is a tried and tested cool head from 12-yards.
Not far behind Noble is Andriy Yarmolenko with the Ukraine captain an experienced goalscorer from the spot, banging home 23 of 28 attempts.
Soucek and Manuel Lanzini are next on the list with similar records, however, Soucek's record is from considerably more attempts than Lanzini's and as a regular starter, the Czech captain is a strong contender to take over from Noble.
Jarrod Bowen was successful with his last penalty for West Ham, against Dundee in pre-season, but his career success rate of 66% in competitive matches is below average.
Current incumbent Antonio and last season's number two behind Noble Rice are both very inexperienced from the spot so their 50% success rate is most likely from too small a sample size to draw any long-term conclusions from.
Rice's miss last season saw him hand over the duties to Antonio but the vice-captain is keen to take back the responsibility. Rice even said during the summer he was prepared to step up for England during Euro 2020 if required in a penalty shootout.
One man unlikely to be considered is Aaron Cresswell who has a 100% record from the spot, unfortunately, it is 100% in terms of misses. In fairness to Cresswell, he has only ever taken one competitive penalty so it might not be a true reflection of his ability from the spot.
As one of the best penalty takers in the world if Noble is on the pitch he takes the penalties but something the 34-year-old said in pre-season perhaps suggests who he believes is the next best bet.
Speaking after his penalty against Celtic Noble said: "I was going to let Said [Benrahma] take the penalty as I’m not too worried about pre-season games, but then I thought ‘No, actually, at Celtic Park I want to take it myself!’."
Antonio was on the pitch at the time and had two goals to his name but it was Benrahma that Noble was considering handing over the duties to not the striker even though he was on a hat-trick.
After crunching the numbers football.london would like to see Benrahma step up the next time Noble is unavailable for a penalty, or failing that, the Hammers can do far worse than Dawson rolling back the years.
