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West Ham came unstuck at Goodison Park yesterday as they were brushed aside by the Toffees in a 2-0 defeat. The Hammers were on a decent run of form with three consecutive wins and looked to make it four on Sunday afternoon but goals from Romelu Lukaku and Ross Barkley made sure the points stayed in Merseyside.
This defeat means West Ham remain 16th in the Premier League after an abysmal start to their league campaign.
One man that didn’t show up at Goodison Park, well performance wise anyway, was their midfield gem Dimitri Payet who has been instrumental for the Hammers since last summer, but has failed to impress as much thus far this season.
We look at the numbers behind the Frenchman’s poor performance. Firstly, Payet wasn’t the Hammers only poor performer but setting himself such a high bar previously, the West Ham faithful expect much more than what they witnessed this weekend. The 29-year-old managed a total of four shots in the 90 minutes with three of the shots being blocked and the other saved, he also completed 78% of his passes which is considerably low for his standards. His work rate looked non-existent too, for a player the team all look too, he didn’t look too bothered about being there, this shows with making zero tackles, zero interceptions, winning zero aerial duels, which is of course not his all round game but when the team must dig deep he would have been expected to challenge his duels. The French maestro also attempted 3 take ons completing just 1 which is way below his normal standard, especially after showing what he can do when he scored that wonder goal earlier in the season.
As you can see the Frenchman had an afternoon to forget and wasn’t the usual game changer he has been before, for West Ham to get back on track they will be heavy reliant on Payet getting back to full speed and changing games which he has done more often or not for them.
We look at how Twitter reacted to Payet’s all-round performance. After starting the game for the Hammers, he was certainly invisible to some.
West Ham should've brought Payet on
— JustSomeLad. (@SomeEvertonFan) October 30, 2016
Barkley scores the goal that secures the win for Everton meanwhile Payet has an absolute shocker of a game. Levels.
— SA (@VintageCoutinho) October 30, 2016
Payet taking Halloween a bit too seriously and turning up at today's game as a ghost
— Billy Jones (@BillyJones93) October 30, 2016
We've lost Payet
Dimitri Payet
And no one really understands
Last year he was class
But now he can't be arsed
We've lost Dimitri Payet— ⚒chickenrun@westham⚒ (@chickenrunwhufc) October 30, 2016
Payet put 3 corners out of play today and 2 free kicks into the wall. Had a shocker
— Alex D (@BossBarkley) October 30, 2016
Taking too much time trying to be like French compatriot Paul Pogba…
Payet dabbed in the week yet people wonder why he played bad today…
— West Ham Central (@WestHam_Central) October 30, 2016
He's changed his name to Dimitri Quiet this season instead of Payet… pic.twitter.com/AjDiLWHNDk
— Spion Klopp (@TheKopHQ) October 30, 2016
If Payet was at a big club like Arsenal he'd look average
— Ben (@Vardesque) October 30, 2016
As you can see Payet’s poor performance didn’t go unnoticed and the Hammers will be relying heavily on their creative star in the coming months, so will be hoping this performance was just a one off and he hits the ground running sooner rather than later.
