Team Focus: Bilic Finds Solutions Where Allardyce Failed Against Arsenal
After opening his West Ham United regime by claiming a spectacular three points at Arsenal, Slaven Bilic sought to close a special day by making a point of his own.
“Sam Allardyce left me a good team and left me some quality in the side,” the Croatian said to media about his predecessor. “We are still short of a few players but we have a chance to do a good job in the Premier League.”
It was a moment of magnanimity from Bilic, but he was also one of the few connected with West Ham offering good words to Allardyce on the day. The away fans were offering something else. By the time Mauro Zarate had added to Chekhou Kouyate’s opening goal to make it 2-0, they weren’t just mocking Arsenal. They were also mocking their old manager.
“Are you watching Allardyce?”
Well, he actually was, since he was sitting in a TV studio as a pundit for the game. It meant he had to analyse something that he never watched once during his four years as manager at the Boleyn Ground, and that wasn’t the expansive football that was for so long demanded by the fans.
Rather, it was West Ham finally getting a positive result off Arsenal, let alone just beating them.
The East London side’s losing sequence against Arsenal preceded Allardyce, but did become so much more pronounced under him, given he was responsible for six of those nine consecutive league defeats. It also cut against some of the cliches about Arsenal’s supposed susceptibility to that kind of abrasive style, and perhaps said more about the relative predictability of Allardyce’s football.
Arsene Wenger’s teams so easily outmanoeuvred it - and repeatedly.
While it would be wrong to make any deep conclusions from one match - and particularly those against the elite sides, given how they will always dominate the general play in such games, forcing the likes of West Ham to react - this victory did perhaps offer a few pointers as to what the Bilic regime will be like, and why it will be closer to fan expectations than Allardyce’s reductive pragmatism.
At their very best, Bilic teams combine a tight defensive cohesion with quick and intelligent attacking cohesion on the break. There’s a smart creativity about his play. This was the root of two very awkward Champions League qualifying legs for Arsenal against his Besiktas last year, and the base on which he built this win.
Much has been made of how Bilic also used those narrow defeats to work out exactly how to unravel Arsenal, but the wonder there is how Allardyce could not do the same in six.
Of course, it sometimes just takes a different perspective to see what needs to be changed, and there’s little doubt that’s what Bilic did. The stats emphasise this, when compared to the averages from the six games of Allardyce’s time.
Bilic made West Ham sleeker and more efficient, but not without his predecessor’s bite, if applied in other ways.
Let’s start from the back. What’s very conspicuous is the much higher number of tackles that Bilic’s West Ham made compared to the perceived robustness of Allardyce, with 22 compared to a previous average of 15.5. The Croatian’s outfit also offered fewer interceptions (12 against 15.5), as if better prepared to sit back, wait and then challenge. From there, they attacked much more incisively - and much more intelligently.
The biggest break from Allardyce’s games against Arsenal is, well, how they break. The old West Ham used to hit an average of over 22 crosses per game against Arsenal, in fairly futile fashion. On Sunday, that fell to just eight, and led to a much sharper attack. Although Bilic’s side had fewer shots, eight compared to 10.7, a higher proportion of those were on target at four against 3.2.
All those numbers added up to a performance in which West Ham never really looked in trouble of conceding, and opportunistically exposed Arsenal’s old problems.
Obviously, it’s very much open to question whether this can continue, especially since Bilic had the fortune of playing his first league game against a side he knew better than any other in the league and who themselves generally play with such a specific template.
The first signs were encouraging, though, and indicate that West Ham fans may themselves end up rather thankful.
What impressed you most about West Ham's performance against Arsenal? Let us know in the comments below
Ahahaha 2 but hurt fans talking cheap, Westham was outplayed and outfought! Plain and simple! Mr 45million AKA Ozil was in a 16 year old's pocket for much of the game, HOW EMBARRASSING! And if anything this game could've finished 3-0 or 4-0 from those open opportunities that were misplaced on several counters... And Im not even a Westham fan... ;)
@Mr_Knowledge- Oxford played well but that's largely because he was allowed to. That was my point. Considering Cazorla and Oezil have played amazing against fellow world class midfielders on many an occasion in the past, deductive logic tells you, or should, that it was more a case of them playing badly than being outplayed by a boy who has played only a single game in the league. Of course, logic isn't the strong point of many WhoScored users...
@SteveHyland Allowed to?? I think you're taking a lot of credit away from Westham and their performance here. Another thing is Ozil is an average player since arriving in the PL, in my opinion a 45million flop. What has he done in 24 months with/for Arsenal?? Thats why Im not entirely surprised he was beat by a 16yr old kid... Secondly if its one thing I learned about Arsene Wengers squad is that aside for 2-3 players the rest of the squad are mentally weak! Im not here bashing the team but if u think this squad has a chance at any major trophies then you're just as deluded as Wenger :)
@Mr_Knowledge Arsenal was outplayed and outfought*****
It was hardly an amazing performance by West Ham. There wont be many games where all 3 of Cazorla, Oezil & Ramsey are missing in action not to mention making his whole 2015/16 season's errors in a single game. If we played even 75% of our ability, we would've won and West Ham wouldn't have scored.
@SteveHyland Why didn't they play 75%? They just decided so? No West Ham influence. Typicall Arsenal fans mentality. Can't wait for you to get some giants in Europe so they can show you again. Pray to God you don't get Messi.
@blitz- No, the reason we didn't play at 75% was because Wenger has the man-motivation skills the same level as your English skills. If you watched the game, you'd have seen West Ham didn't actually play well and that our 2 world class players on the pitch (Cazorla and Oezil) were non-existent. That wasn't down to West Ham.
@SteveHyland Yes, that's another famous trait of a desperate Arsenal fan. Let's insult once we are cornered. So, your best players were nonexistant, your manager is an idiot and you played badly. West Ham won. And your conclusion is that Arsenal was the better team... Interesting... You are saying West Ham didn't open the way to their goal? How did they score goals? Because of Ozil or Wenger?
@SteveHyland I agree... if Sanchez was 100% fit this game would've been over in the first 30-45 minutes, but I still think it was an excellent performance by West Ham.
@madridistagunner- They played well but we let them. Save for 2 Cech mistakes, the game would've been 0-0 worst case scenario, even with our entire attack playing badly. This wasn't a case of us playing well and West Ham playing that little bit better, we were crap which allowed West Ham to play at all. The players have to take the blame, and we should've won by 3 or 4 without Sanchez playing given the player we had on the pitch, but a lot off the blame has to land on Wenger's doorstep. This has happened too often over the last decade and Wenger is the common denominator. The team was unbalanced too but that is minute in comparison to the attitude of the starting XI.