Palermo 3 West Ham 0

Palermo won this game at a canter with a goal in the first half and two in the second. Fabio Simplicio scored two of Palermo's goals, his first a low shot that skidded past Roy Carroll, his second a cool lob over the keeper from David Di Michele's pass. Di Michele completed the scoring with a powerful shot from close-range.

So no suprises in a another lacklustre display from West Ham. We look a team lacking ideas up front at the moment. Whilst comfortable passing the ball around at the back we lack the vision to create goal scoring chances. Again West Ham went a whole second half without hitting the target, whilst at the back defensive errors allowed the opposition to score twice. To make things worse Cole was stretchered from the ground after injuring himself heading wide from five yards.

The most interesting statistics were that Palermo committed twice as many fouls as West Ham and had four men booked to West Ham's one. Now you could see Palermo in one of two ways; as a team of dirty Italians or a team showing more commitment and desire to win. It certainly looked the second to me.

Pardew again put out a different team for this game and I think he now needs to decide on his starting eleven and stick to it as far as possible. He now has the advantage of being able to concentrate on winning the league - or is that avoiding relegation.