Nine goals in a week for West Ham’s attacking Fantasy assets

Top of our Season Ticker for the rest of 2018 and on a run of three straight Premier League victories, West Ham United are currently one of the most in-demand teams from a Fantasy perspective.

Felipe Anderson and Javier Hernandez are the second-most-bought FPL midfielder and forward respectively ahead of Gameweek 17 following their hauls against Crystal Palace at the weekend and we’ll discuss the merits of the Hammers attack in this latest Scout Notes piece.

Not so convincing is the West Ham defence, which has kept only two clean sheets in 16 Premier League matches this season.

We round up the goals, assists, injury news, Fantasy talking points and manager quotes from the five-goal spectacle at the London Stadium on Saturday.

West Ham United 3-2 Crystal Palace

• Goals: Robert Snodgrass (£5.3m), Javier Hernandez (£6.3m), Felipe Anderson (£7.3m) | James McArthur (£4.7m), Jeffrey Schlupp (£4.4m)
• Assists: Felipe Anderson, Javier Hernandez | James Tomkins (£4.3m), Max Meyer (£5.6m)

Marko who?

In the first of what could be six league fixtures without their injured Austrian talisman, West Ham United scored another three goals in a Premier League match – the third time they have managed this feat in as many Gameweeks.

Over the past four Gameweeks, the Hammers rank joint-second for shots in the box and big chances created – underscoring their new-found attacking mentality under Manuel Pellegrini after the tedium of previous regimes.

The Hammers boss said after full-time:

Yes, really a very good week. It is not easy to score three goals in each game but I think that reflects the style that we want to play here, that the players are convinced in what we are doing.

With five successive matches against sides currently sitting in the bottom half of the Premier League table before FA Cup third round weekend, the Irons also have the fixtures to go with their form.

Three goals in 17 second-half minutes did for Crystal Palace on Saturday after a fairly frustrating opening period for the hosts.

Javier Hernandez (£6.3m) was joined up front by Lucas Perez (£6.2m) in Pellegrini’s now-familiar 4-4-2, though the former Arsenal striker was forced off at the break with a foot injury and replaced by Andy Carroll (£5.4m).

Hernandez had wasted a decent chance in the opening five minutes before Palace took an early lead and the Mexican’s irksome tendency to be caught offside reared its head in a first half devoid of many opportunities.

James McArthur (£4.7m) beat the offside trap to prod Palace in front and the Eagles could have gone into the break two goals up when Luka Milivojevic (£6.0m) crashed a free-kick against the bar on the stroke of half-time.

Robert Snodgrass (£5.3m) struck West Ham level just as the natives were getting restless, before Hernandez tapped in Felipe Anderson‘s (£7.3m) parried free-kick and then registered an assist when the in-form Brazilian curled in a superb effort to put the Hammers 3-1 up.

All four of West Ham’s attack-minded starting XI (Snodgrass, Anderson, Hernandez and Perez) have delivered at least one double-digit haul in the last three Gameweeks and are currently offering excellent value in the budget-to-mid-price FPL bracket.

Snodgrass scored his first ever league goal for the Hammers on Saturday but it is the Scottish winger’s creativity that particularly marks him out as a cut-price midfield option worthy of consideration.

No player on show at the London Stadium created more chances or fired in more crosses, with Snodgrass taking all five of West Ham’s corner-kicks to emphasise his dominance at set-piece situations.

Pellegrini said of the former Leeds United and Hull City midfielder:

Yes, I am very pleased for Robert. He deserved it because he works so hard for all the game, he is absolutely committed to this project and this club and I am very happy for him.

Another two million pounds buys you one of the form players in FPL, however.

Anderson has five goals and one assist in the last six Gameweeks and no Premier League player has been on the scoresheet on more occasions than the summer signing from Lazio during this period.

No player on show at West Ham on Saturday registered more penalty box touches or shots on goal than Anderson, who caused the usually commanding Aaron Wan-Bissaka (£4.3m) plenty of problems down the left flank.

Anderson’s unconvincing start to the season is now a dim memory, with Pellegrini explaining that the Hammers simply needed time to adjust to his new ideas:

Well, it’s always difficult when you have to make so many changes in the way you play when you bring in new players to start playing the way we wanted them to. And to do that, you need good players. I think Felipe is, as I said last week, still needs time to get used to the Premier League but in every game, he has demonstrated he is a top player.

The Brazilian and Hernandez were both preserved by being substituted in the closing stages, a sign perhaps that these two attacking assets will be paramount to the Hammers’ efforts over the coming month in the absence of Arnautovic.

Less convincing are West Ham’s defensive Fantasy assets, who once again looked the part for long periods of the game but proved to be a liability at set-piece situations by conceding two goals from dead-ball deliveries – the second of which was a consolation header scored by substitute Jeffrey Schlupp (£4.4m).

While the Hammers enjoy some enticing fixtures over the next five Gameweeks, only Fulham have recorded fewer clean sheets than West Ham (two) this season and patience grows thin with their leaky backline.

Pellegrini backed up his defenders after the game – though his words also served to highlight West Ham’s Achilles heel at set plays:

We didn’t make not one mistake really. Crystal Palace scored two goals from set pieces and the other option was a free kick that hit the bar in the first half. This was a team who never score from set plays unless it’s penalties.

After a dismal streak in front of goal in which they scored on just eight occasions in their first 13 matches of the season, Palace have at least shaken from their slumber in an attacking sense.

No other Premier League club has registered more shots on goal over the last four Gameweeks, though 29 of those 68 opportunities came in the win over Burnley and only five have been considered “big chances” – underscoring their lack of cutting edge up front with ostensibly two midfielders leading the line.

Andros Townsend (£5.7m) and Wilfried Zaha (£6.7m) were lively in attack and caused the West Ham defence a few problems but could only manage only one shot on goal between them, illustrating just how much the Eagles could do with a fit and firing centre-forward stationed in between them.

Roy Hodgson’s problems deepened during the game as Zaha and James Tomkins (£4.3m) picked up their fifth yellow cards of the season and will now miss the trip to Leicester.

Patrick van Aanholt (£5.4m), meanwhile, limped off on 55 minutes and news is awaited on the severity of the Dutch left-back’s injury.

Hodgson said of his side’s efforts:

At half time, I thought we were quite fortunate to be in the lead, I don’t think we played anywhere near as good a football as we’re capable of playing. We scored a goal from a wide free kick and something to hold onto.

I don’t think we’d been under the cosh as such, I didn’t think we had done anywhere near good enough to merit that. Funnily enough in the second half we played better if the truth is known but unfortunately we conceded three goals and as a result we’re chasing.

I don’t know that perhaps we did collapse second half.

We did concede three goals and each you concede is a story by itself. Certainly one of the goals can be contested for the free kick and Tomkins is still so upset by it that after the game he couldn’t resist the temptation to tell the referee again that he had made the wrong decision, he got himself booked and is out of the next game so that was a double whammy, a real double whammy.

West Ham United XI (4-4-2): Fabianski; Masuaku, Diop, Balbuena, Zabaleta; Felipe Anderson (Obiang 84′), Rice, Noble, Snodgrass; Perez (Carroll 45′), Hernandez (Diangana 75′).

Crystal Palace XI (4-4-2): Hennessey; van Aanholt (Schlupp 55′), Sakho, Tomkins, Wan-Bissaka; Meyer (Puncheon 84′), Kouyate, Milivojevic, McArthur (Ayew 66′); Zaha, Townsend.