This was not a good afternoon for Graham Potter. West Ham ended it with 10 men thanks to Konstantinos Mavropanos’s latest piece of clumsiness, failed to register a single shot on target and lost to a team with that most elusive of creatures: a striker with the awareness to link up with teammates, the physicality to rough up his markers and the ability to put the ball in the back of the net.
What West Ham would give for their search for a new forward to end with them signing one as smart and clinical as Jean-Philippe Mateta. Potter’s calm after this listless defeat to a crisp and clinical Crystal Palace could not hide the obvious truth about how badly reinforcements are required. West Ham were as blunt as it gets and although the situation will improve when Jarrod Bowen and Crysencio Summerville regain fitness this woeful performance will surely intensify efforts to bring in at least one more attacker this month.
