Halftime Report: West Ham United 0 - 0 West Bromwich Albion

Lineups going into the match...

The first half kicked off with the same lineup Slaven Bilic put out for his first victory of the 2017-18 campaign. Andy Carroll would show up for his 100th appearance for the club, while Pedro Obiang makes his 50th.

The first real chance for West Ham came in the 4th minute when Krychowiak caught Chicharito on the heels. Aaron Cresswell lingered over the ball, then sailed it deep into the night and failed to hit the target or any player in claret. Collectively, all fans in attendance wondered where Arthur Masuaku was these days...

Following a corner in the 10th minute Pablo Zabaleta dove in to halt a Baggie counter, only to clip a shin, earning himself the first yellow card of the match. Zabs brought up an interesting point, unintentionally, when shouting “it was the first one!”, emphatically reminding everyone of Zab’s age.

20th minute random thought! Which is worse; the red Tyre badge on the left arm of our kits, or Aaron Cresswell’s free kicks? It’s a tough call to be fair.

In the 25th minute I can’t help but think mostly everyone in the stands is either hung over or dead. The atmosphere is atrocious and it’s no wonder I’ve never met an American West Brom fan.

Ben Foster was floating in front of his lines, when Pedro Obiang tried his luck from 40+ meters away. Foster back peddled feverishly trying not to get caught out, when Obiang’s ball dipped right onto the crossbar. Luckily, West Brom come out unscathed.

I woke up around the 37th minute to find the ever-present Matt Philips steaming down the line passed a tired Jose Fonte. A wonderful cross finds Morrison unmarked in front of the net but he can’t connect squarely and the ball sails way wide of it’s intended target.

James Collins goes down from an earlier nick he picked up around the end of the half. The big defender is fighting hard to get through, but he could be subbed out at any point for Angelo Ogbonna.

Each team seems content on sitting back and waiting for the other to make a mistake. This tactic seems to play into the favor of Tony Pulis, as he lives for this style of play. The game has been slowed down to a crawl and is ripe for a 1-0 upset in anyone’s favor. However if history has taught us anything, from both West Ham and West Brom, it could very well be the Baggies we see with arms raised at the end of this one.

When is Manuel Lanzini coming back?