The Knee Jerk- Sunday

West Ham defy all expectations to emerge from the Lane with all three points, with a defensive rock and cut-price midfielder key to the visitors’ win. For the hosts, Andre Villas-Boas’ decision to drop a big-money Spaniard is set to spark a scramble for the exits over the international break:

The Game Changer

The Hammers recovered from last week’s loss at Hull to register a highly-unexpected win at the Lane. Today’s stunning 3-0 triumph helped Sam Allardyce’s side to their fourth clean sheet in seven and turned the form book on its head as the visitors picked up the points for the first time since the season opener against Cardiff.

Fundamental to the Hammers’ performance was Winston Reid. With James Tomkins once again preferred alongside him in the heart of the back-four, the Kiwi centre-half opened the scoring midway through the second period and helped keep a host of big-money signings at bay in a superb rearguard showing.

With Joey O’Brien making way for Guy Demel in Allardyce’s XI, Reid is now the only defender to have started all seven of the Hammers opening league fixtures. Granted, Razvan Rat seems to have recently established himself as first-choice left-back but Reid – at 5.0 in Fantasy Premier League – offers a guaranteed security of starts into one of the most resilient backlines around. Up to 38 FPL points after picking up maximum bonus, Reid has mainly been under the radar and is owned by less than 3% of FPL managers – he may have City and Swansea up next but today’s display highlights the Hammers are more than capable of picking up the points regardless of the fixture.

The Underused

Today’s outstanding solo effort at the Lane highlighted the raw talent of Ravel Morrison. For so long, it seemed the former United man was destined for the footballing scrapheap after a series of off-field misdemeanours threatened to end his promising career but, under the guidance of Allardyce, it seems the penny has finally dropped.

We’d high expectations at the start of the campaign after the midfielder excelled over the summer but the bandwagon stalled as Allardyce put the brakes on his early-season game time. Having now started each of the last four, though, today’s strike means Morrison has now scored twice in the previous three Gameweeks and with his form flourishing, investors are likely to come running for the 4.4 priced FPL prospect, with an ownership of less than 2% summing up his differential appeal.

With United’s Adnan Januzaj also arriving on our radars this week, it seems Morrison could be set to offer us another cut-price prospect for our five-man midfields, in a season that has already seen Aaron Ramsey, Robbie Brady and Ross Barkley excel in the budget bracket. Indeed, it was telling to see that Stewart Downing’s return to the first XI forced Matt Jarvis on to the bench – a sign of Morrison’s growing importance to the Hammers cause.

The Selection Poser

Without a goal in open play in the league this season, it was still, nonetheless, somewhat surprising to see Roberto Soldado make way for Jermain Defoe in this afternoon’s starting line-up. The latter’s scoring exploits in both domestic and European cup competitions had clearly staked a claim for inclusion but we’d expected Andre Villas-Boas to keep faith with his big-money signing from Valencia as Spurs welcomed West Ham to the Lane.

Instead, Soldado was afforded no more than a 15-minute second-half cameo appearance as Defoe toiled up top in the shock 3-0 loss. It leaves Spurs with a record of just four goals scored in the last five league matches and, in spite of a schedule that sees them square up to Villa, Hull and Newcastle in the next four, today’s team sheet is set to spark significant sales of Soldado right across the Fantasy games.

Still sitting on 14% ownership, an exodus looks on the cards for the 9.5 priced new boy over the international fortnight now, as Fantasy managers look to load up on similarly priced options such as Daniel Sturridge and Olivier Giroud, whilst Romelu Lukaku’s stunning form for Everton should also convince plenty to take the plunge. Defoe’s poor showing may, ironically, have merely strengthened Soldado’s position to start Gameweek 8 but few will be prepared to wait two weeks to test such a theory.