West Ham United may have triumphed against Burnley by a solitary goal, but that fact did not tell the full story of the contest.
Sam Allardyce’s men unleashed an impressive 29 shots on goal during the 90 minutes – with an astonishing 22 of those coming after the break, the most registered by a Barclays Premier League team this term.
The Hammers’ dominance in the second 45 minutes was evidenced by any statistic you look at. West Ham enjoyed 60.1 per cent of possession during that period and played 39.2% of the game in the attacking third.
It should come as no surprise then that they produced so many attempts at goal, with a number of players getting in on the act.
Cheikhou Kouyate had four shots in that second period, the same number as Stewart Downing. Enner Valencia tried three shots, Kevin Nolan, Nene, Carlton Cole, Reece Burke and James Collins two each, with Morgan Amalfitano’s curler wide of the mark completing the set.
It was a real peppering of the Burnley goal, as our graphic shows, with exactly half of the shots – eleven – coming from inside the penalty area.
It is remarkable, therefore, that the home side could not add to Mark Noble’s successful penalty conversion in the opening period, with a mixture of defensive blocks and Tom Heaton in goal keeping them at bay.
Indeed, Downing, whose four second half efforts were all blocked, told whufc.com after that his team need to be more clinical over the final three games of the season.
He said: “We created a lot of chances, I can’t remember how many it was. Their ‘keeper has pulled off some unbelievable saves and with better a little bit better finishing we could have put it out of sight.”
Watch extended highlights from the game here.