“West Ham win again as Lampard goes.”

Crystal Palace (1) 2 v 3 (2) West Ham United

3 Zaha, assist Benteke                                     9 Soucek, assist Antonio

90+7 Batshuayi, assist J Ayew                        25 Soucek, assist Cresswell

                                                                            65 Dawson, assist Bowen

Played Tuesday 26 January 2021 at an empty Selhurst Park.

The latest Premier London Derby (PLDs) match in the Premier League (PL) produced the result we had forecast with in form West Ham United running out easy and worthy winners against Crystal Palace 2-3. That makes it 6 wins in a row for the Hammers in all competitions but only 1 win in the last 10 for the Eagles. The home team started brightly with Wilfried Zaha’s 3^rd minute goal from Christian Benteke’s assist and made the scoreline look more respectable than it really was with a late goal by Michy Batshuayi assisted by JordanAyew. In between it was all West Ham United and particularly Man of the Match Czech midfielder Tomas Soucek with 2 goals and another first class performance. Their 3^rd goal was by Craig Dawson fresh from his F.A. Cup match winner at Stockport County. That put the Hammers up to 4^th in the PL but the Eagles appear to be starting to fall from the sky.

Prior to this match all our PLDs Clubs had played 5 of their 10 matches in the PLDs mini-league so let’s see where they all were:

Club                                      Win   Draw  Loss     Goal Difference   Points      PL position

Chelsea                                  3         1          1                 +6                    10             9^th (29 pts)

Arsenal                                   3         1`        1                 +4                    10            11^th (27 pts)

Tottenham Hotspur             1         4          0                 +2                     7             6^th (33 pts)

Crystal Palace                        1         3          1                 -3                      6            13^th (23 pts)

West Ham United                1         2          2                 -3                      5             7^th (32 pts)

Fulham                                    0        1          4                  -6                      1            18^th (13 pts)

Once again Chelsea, now without legend Frank Lampard after his dramatic sacking, head the table from as usual Arsenal but only on goal difference. Tottenham Hotspur have not lost a PLDs match yet this season but have only one win. So too do Crystal Palace and West Ham United whose PLDs form does not match their PL form so far. Fulham are in trouble. Next up for the PLDs matches is the return fixture between Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea on Thursday 4 February 2021 which will be the Blues new Head Coach Thomas Tuchel’s first PLDs match. It is hoped his native and football language will provoke better form from their expensive Summer signings. Previous seasons’ results have been: 2-0 in 2016-17; 1-2 in 2017-18; 3-1 in 2018-19; and 0-2 in 2019-20. With Spurs poor home form it could well be a freshly inspired Blues win. 

Until next time, “Keep Safe”, and enjoy your football, Andrew at PLDs.