da imperador bet： Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City had scored 44 goals in 14 games before they welcomed West Ham United to the Etihad Stadium. And having conceded 30 goals in the same time period, no one gave West Ham United a prayer.
da betsul： That they kept the scoreline to only 2-1 is probably not the celebration point it seems, but to have defended better than they have all season certainly is. It was an encouraging defensive display against the best attack in the country, and one which should get even better when players return from injury.
One player who was missing through neither injury nor suspension, however, was Joe Hart, ineligible against his parent club. And this season, there’s been plenty of talk about whether the England number one should still have that title. His performances show he may not deserve it, and some may even wonder if he should even best West Ham’s number one.
In fact, after his performance on Sunday afternoon, perhaps the Hammers’ number two should be the one to take over at the London Stadium.
Adrian impressed between the sticks with six saves and two claimed crosses in a game in which City were dominant, but where the Hammers held their own. It was a mature performance from the Spanish goalkeeper, who spent most of the game winding up the home crowd with his time-wasting tactics. Whatever you think of his role as the pantomime villain, you can’t fault him for trying.
And yet, it was also his all-round performance which stood out, especially in comparison with Hart’s stats so far this season.
Granted Adrian was playing behind a much better organised defence at the Etihad Stadium, and he was also playing against a side who create lots of chances, but his tally of six saves is well above Joe Hart’s average for the season, which stands at just 2.6 per game. His two claimed crosses is also a much higher average than Hart’s, which stands at just 0.2 per game.
Indeed, even on a day when West Ham were sitting incredibly deep and for most of the second half were happy just to clear the ball when they could, Adrian’s pass accuracy reached 45%, which is the same as Hart’s average for the season, even though the England keeper has played against teams who haven’t pressed the Hammers as viciously or penned them into their own half to quite the same extent.
It might be unlikely that Adrian gets the nod over Hart in future games, but he’s certainly done himself no harm at all with his performance at the weekend. Indeed, the same might be said of the other players who missed the game through injury. And in that respect, David Moyes may well have been given food for thought.