Premier League Week 4-Write up Norwich v West Ham

Norwich 0-0 West Ham

Norwich's start to the season had seen them claiming just 2 points from their first 3 matches and going into their match with West Ham they'd have fancied themselves to have a decent chance at claiming all 3 points. Likewise West Ham, who had claimed 6 points from their first 3 games will have also seen this as a winnable game.

Early on it seemed as if the fans were in for a treat with both teams looking really threatening. The best early chance fell to West Ham after some excellent work by Ricardo Vaz Te and later in the half the West Ham penalty area became a pinball table. Sadly however the key talking point of the first half was a hugely controversial decision by Chris Foy who rules that a foul by James Collins was committed just outside the penalty area.

Despite the first half being thoroughly watchable the game failed to continue in the same vein in the second half and sort of petered out after the 60 minute mark with both teams looking increasingly happy to have a point. Despite this Norwich did have a few good chances late after youngster Harry Kane came on to the pitch but sadly he failed to really find his shooting boots and hit several very tame efforts.

Whilst the second half was disappointing the worst part about it was the fact that neither of West Ham's wide men could find a good ball with Vaz Te repeatedly messing up and either miss hitting crosses or just shooting mindlessly. A real disappointing display by the Portuguese attacker.

With 3 draws from their first 4 games Norwich are becoming difficult to defeat but they really seem to lack any type of attacking threat. Harry Kane looked like the most promising threat for the home team but his shots had no power or sting on them and they otherwise looked terrible up front. Defensively Norwich are tough, much more so than they showed on the opening day of the season, but they need to add goals sooner rather than later.

West Ham showed plenty of promise through parts of the game but with no Andy Carroll they lacked a focal point of their attacks.

Premier League Week 2-Write up Swansea v West Ham

Swansea 3-0 West Ham
Things went from good to better for new Swansea manager Michael Laudrup who's team will sit atop the Premier League for at least a couple of hours having won the early kick off of the day. The Swans have not only collected a maximum 6 points from their opening 2 games but also netted an impressive 8 goals which conceding 0 and looked very impressive so far.

Early in the match it was West Ham who looked impressive starting fast with new signing Matt Jarvis almost setting up Kevin Nolan inside 90 seconds or so. Quickly however West Ham's impetus faded and Swansea grew into the game before grabbing the lead thanks to a huge blunder by Finnish keeper Jussi Jääskeläinen who effectively tipped a Angel Rangel shot into his own net. It took little time for West Ham to shoot themselves in the foot for a second time as James Collins (who was awful throughout the game) allowed Michu an easy opportunity to double the lead and he duly took it netting his 3rd Premier League goal in just 2 games.

West Ham finished the first half they way they started it, looking very dangerous. They had 3 corners one after the other as the Swansea defense struggled to cope with the threat in the air. They came close during this spell of pressure with Carlton Cole having a shot cleared off the line by Neil Taylor though couldn't breach the defense as Swansea held on for dear life hoping to go into the half time without conceding.

Thankfully for Swansea the half time effectively killed West Ham's threat and the visitors rarely looked like scoring in the second half with the nearest they came being a chance that Carlton Cole tried to bicycle kick but missed completely. Whilst West Ham looked like an ever more toothless team Swansea looked to increase their lead and came close a number of times before Danny Graham sealed the game with the 3rd goal of the match. After this the game was all but over and West Ham were greeted to some rather unflattering chants by the Swansea fans who were willing to describe the West Ham players in a way they saw fitting.

For Swansea this is a perfect start to their season and one that no one could have expected. 6 points and 8 goals is just something no Swansea fan would have dreamed of though it's something that will see them marking their cards. It's amazing to think that the story of Scott Sinclair not even being on the bench will be completely forgotten following this result and the Swans won't care if he stays or not.

Although Michael Laudrup will be understandably chuffed to pieces it's fair to say that Sam Allardyce won't be anywhere near as happy. Last week his team didn't look anything special but still easily beat Aston Villa, this weekend however his team looked genuinely awful. Matt Jarvis aside there was little positive to take from this game for West Ham who perhaps feel lucky it was only 3-0 following a nightmare for their defense. It's fair to say the Hammers will just want to put this behind them and look towards their next match.

Notes-
Michu becomes the Premier Leagues Highest Scorer so far with 3 goals
This match featured 6 yellow cards, tied most for a fixture this season.
Although the opening goal was originally put down as an own goal, it appears the "dubious goals panel" has awarded it to Rangel.