Journo stunned at what he saw West Ham United do at London Stadium – ‘Absolutely Awful’
Jon Mackenzie was left dumbfounded by West Ham United in the 3-0 loss to Chelsea at the London Stadium earlier this season.
Nicholas Jackson scored twice on the day, including one inside the first five minutes with Cole Palmer adding insult to injury early into the second half, in what is arguably the lowest point of Julen Lopetegui’s Hammers tenure thus far.
Mackenzie joined Tim Spears and host Adam Leventhal on The Athletic FC podcast [11 October, 54:52] to discuss the Premier League season so far and held nothing back when reviewing West Ham against Chelsea.
He said: “The game against Chelsea, was, I think, possibly the worst out of possession performance I’ve seen from a Premier League side in five years. It was absolutely awful, culminating with Guido Rodriguez getting hooked.”
However, The Athletic journalist is holding out hope the 4-1 win against Ipswich Town will be turning point for the Hammers.
“It’s still a work in progress. We can’t say off the back of a result against a promoted side of their back, but they do have, probably the best attacking lineups out of anyone outside the big six, quite comfortably.
“So for them to be in 12th place, I think, is still massive underperformance from where they should be. But yeah, maybe, maybe this is the turning point, as we always, always look for in the media, isn’t it?
“It’s just the moment that changes their season. Winning, winning, for one, shows that you can do it with the players you have, even if maybe it wasn’t the most convincing performance. So, yeah, I guess it’s the step in the right direction.”
West Ham United need to build on Ipswich Town result
Lopetegui is reaching the point of no return for West Ham, where the excuses and poor performances must stop and the results have to start coming.
The win against Ipswich was a monumental victory for the Spaniard and has secured his future with the Hammers for the time being, because there was the growing sense that Lopetegui would not have survived had his side failed to win another match at the London Stadium.
Jarrod Bowen, Mohammed Kudus, and Lucas Paqueta back among the goals is a sight for sore eyes in East London, the attackers have looked nowhere near the level the Premier League is used to seeing from the trio.
West Ham have put distance between themselves and the relegation zone and sit five points clear and, despite a difficult run of fixtures on paper starting with a trip to Tottenham, Lopetegui can draw hope from Spurs’ shocking 3-2 loss to Brighton last time out.
With the momentum shifting between the two London-based sides, there is no better opportunity for the £150m worth of talent acquired throughout the summer to start justifying their price tags.
Hopefully, all players representing their country over the international break return to West Ham unscathed, and then the real work can begin on mounting a resurgence towards the upper echelons of the Premier League.
In other West Ham news, Hammers ace Konstantinos Mavropanos was lauded for his ‘world beater’ performance v England.
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