West Ham United slumped to a dismal derby defeat at the hands of Crystal Palace on Saturday.
All East End euphoria surrounding Tuesday’s evening’s 3-2 home win over Fulham, evaporated as Jean-Philippe Mateta swooped to give the Eagles a 2-0 victory with a second-half double at London Stadium.
In the reverse fixture at Selhurst Park in August, the Hammers had won by a similar two-goal margin to give Julen Lopetegui his first Premier League win.
But back on home turf, the Spaniard’s successor Graham Potter suffered his first league loss on an awful, agonising afternoon that saw the hosts fail to register a single shot on target.
Konstantinos Mavropanos was also dismissed for committing two bookable offences on Palace’s match-winner.
“New managers only tend to arrive at a club in January because there are things to fix,” observed Graham Potter, who has inherited a squad bereft of both striking options and defensive mettle.
“Our supporters didn’t like what they saw today and neither did I. The reality is that we need to attack better and we need to defend better, too.
“We looked passive, leggy and were unable to play with any intensity and, even at 0-0, Crystal Palace were the better side. They played well and deserved to win but they’re in a different moment to us because we’re still trying to implement new things.”
Following a goalless first-half, Mateta enjoyed a busy start to the second period – first Mavropanos hauled him down at the expense of a first yellow card and then he climaxed a crisp counter-attack with a low 18-yarder that gave the visitors a 48th-minute lead.
Recognising a starting XI stuck in a cul-de-sac, poor Potter had made four substitutions before the hour mark with the introductions of Carlos Soler, Danny Ings, 19-year-old Ollie Scarles and debutant Lewis Orford, aged 18.
“There haven’t been too many positives today but Lewis has done well to step up to the Premier League and show us that he’s an option after impressing in training, while Ollie looked solid, too,” continued the Hammers head coach.
“We needed to improve our physical output and those substitutions gave us some energy to try and get on the front foot but the sending-off then cost us.”
Indeed, on 80 minutes, a head-high boot on the stooping Mateta earned Mavropanos the second caution of an awful afternoon for the 33-cap Greek defender, who is consequently suspended for Sunday’s trip to Aston Villa (4.30pm).
Then, with a minute remaining, Łukasz Fabiański brought down substitute Eddie Nketiah and Mateta fired home the subsequent spot-kick to claim his 11th goal of the campaign and cement a win that enabled Palace to leapfrog woeful West Ham into 12th place.
“I’m going to be trying to improve every area of the team and as I get more time with them, I’ll gather more information about the group,” concluded Potter.
“It’s a good pressure to play in front of our supporters at London Stadium and we’ve got to find an identity that the fans can engage with and understand what we’re trying to achieve.”
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