OPINION
West Ham United put in a dire performance as they fell to a 2-0 loss to Burnley at Turf Moor on Sunday, and there were plenty of talking points to take away from the clash.
Chris Wood opened the scoring for the Clarets before 19-year-old Dwight McNeil netted his first career goal to condemn the Hammers to a painful and thoroughly deserved defeat.
This is Futbol have picked out three things we learned about West Ham v Burnley below.
Diop shows weaknesses…finally
Issa Diop has been a revelation for West Ham so far this season, with the £22million summer signing taking to the Premier League like a fish to water. The 21-year-old enforcer has been quite brilliant all term for the Hammers, but that all came crashing down on Sunday with a really poor display. Diop was constantly caught out by the Burnley attack, who ran rings around him at times. Chris Wood in particular had a field day against him, with Diop struggling to match the New Zealand international’s physicality. Hopefully this is just an off day and Diop is back to his best soon enough, but it was a really worrying performance nonetheless.
Noble is almost finished
While some of the criticism of West Ham skipper Mark Noble seems unfair, he was quite simply atrocious against Burnley on Sunday. The game seemed to bypass the veteran midfielder, who failed to make any kind of impact on proceedings at Turf Moor. Manuel Pellegrini’s decision to drop Pedro Obiang after a promising display last time out did seem strange, and it was a switch which came back to bite the Hammers. For every good game that Noble has it seems he has at least three bad games for the Irons, and that is not good enough at this level. The club are progressing and moving forward, and unfortunately that means the hopeless 5’11” midfielder [Transfermarkt] will soon be left behind.
Anderson still not quite there
The form of record signing Felipe Anderson has been a saving grace for the Hammers in recent weeks, with the Brazil international having scored eight goals already this season. It was his double which secured their win last time out against Southampton, with Anderson also putting in match-winning displays on several other occasions. Sunday however was a different story, with the 25-year-old given a working over by Burnley defender Phil Bardsley. It looked as though Anderson really struggled with Burnley’s physicality, and could not quite handle things in the face of some robust defending from Bardsley and co. He’s going to need to get used to it, with such play a regular occurrence in the Premier League.