Dimitri Payet

Dimitri Payet Spares West Ham's Blushes In EFL Trophy

Published Jun. 30, 2017 6:28 p.m. ET

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West Ham were almost embarrassed at their home ground last night by League Two side Accrington Stanley. It took another trademark freekick from maestro Dimitri Payet to save the East London side, who’s season is yet to kick off. What Can Bilic do?

Bilic’s Lineup

Bilic was obviously going for the match, with only one youngster making the line-up. It was a strange move, with so many calling for youth to get a chance, but it was clear Bilic saw this as an opportunity for those struggling for form in the first team to get started.

Zaza and Calleri both started, as they aimed to break their Hammers duck. Arbeloa got his first game for the hammers as Byram was rested for the night. Obiang made an appearance in midfield, whilst Nordtveit was pushed into defence.

The team had a lot of experience about it, and really shouldn’t have struggled against Accrington. However the lower league side were tough and made West Ham work for every little piece of ground.

The Game Itself

Despite the manager’s insistence they did not want to be seen as ‘plucky’, that’s the best way to describe Accrington’s performance. The Hammers dominated position and saw more of the scoring chances, but they could not put the game to bed. The frustration even saw Bilic make changes at half time in search of an answer.

With Payet and Lanzini on in place of Tore and Feghouli we did manage some influence on the game, but it wasn’t nearly as much as we would have hoped haven drawn opponents a lot lower down the EFL ladder than ourselves.

As the game drew on, you worried that it was going to go to extra time. That fear only increased after Masuaku was taken off injured after all of our subs had been used, leaving us to fight with 10 men as the game went on. But then we won a free-kick was won on the edge of the box. And the whole of London Stadium knew what could happen next.

True to form, Payet picked the ball up and buried the freekick as though there was no pressure at all. It was his first goal of the season, but a very important one. Is there a better Freekick taker in Europe at the moment? I don’t think so.