Fan blogger Joe Difford returns with his latest look at the Hammers...
After a frustrating result away to Everton last week, Slaven Bilic and his men were looking to make it four consecutive home games unbeaten, although a win would have been preferred to the point we were forced to settle for.
With Andre Ayew back in the starting line-up, fans were optimistic as the attack-minded line up, although perhaps we had one more centre half than we ended up needing.
Ayew was closed down so quickly by the Stoke back line and he had barely any room to manoeuvre, especially when crosses came in. In our half however, we had set up expecting a strong attacking performance from the visitors, but they failed to test Adrian at all in the first half.
Our goal came right when we needed it, and Michail Antonio will be gutted it hasn’t gone down as his and added to his impressive tally of five goals this season. Dimitri Payet whipped in a cross and the winger glanced his header towards goal, but it was later declared to have brushed the shoulder of the Stoke man Glenn Whelan and it went down as an own goal.
Stoke’s equaliser was more than frustrating for the packed London Stadium, and a goal we could have avoided on another day.
As a long ball was played forward, Adrian come out of his goal to make the challenge, but Jon Walters managed to get the cross in anyway, and Bojan volleyed home from close range.
After scoring and looking to get a second, it was devastating to see us concede such an uncharacteristic goal.
Despite the result, we must be proud of a run of four home games unbeaten, as we look to make our new home a fortress, just like the Boleyn Ground was last season.
After the international break, we have a tough run of fixtures, but we will hopefully have Andy Carroll and Diafra Sakho back in contention, giving us an almost fully fit squad for the first time this season.
We may not have taken all three points and our league position may not be ideal, but another game unbeaten will help with confidence and players returning will allow Bilic to make changes for our difficult games against Spurs, Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool.
Unfortunately, three of the four teams below us won this weekend, but we are still just three points from ninth place, so the season is far from over.
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The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of West Ham United