Winston Reid – West Ham United (English Premier League)

West Ham won a game. Away from home. Scoring 3 goals. One from Stewart Downing. Another from Carlton Cole. Stop me when you reach the tipping point of your imagination, but it’s all true.

Crystal Palace are in turmoil, that’s got to be said. They’re without a manager after Tony Pulis walked out following a dispute with the board and they’ve lost their planned replacement and another member of their staff due to some stupid text message scandal. But then West Ham’s manager is on the verge of trouble himself and they were missing captain Kevin Nolan and star striker Andy Carroll – arguably their two most influential players. To add to that, the Hammers only scored 15 league goals all last season away from Upton Park.

Their opening game ended in late disappointment as Spurs scored a stoppage time winner. This week was much better. Winston Reid lined up alongside James Tomkins (his partner last week James Collins was suspended after his pair of bookings vs Tottenham) and he played the full 90. Palace didn’t threaten all that often, partly down to Reid and Tomkins looking pretty solid and partly down to their own insipidness. West Ham, on the other hand, were surprisingly clinical. New signing Mauro Zarate scored the opener in the first half with a nice volley from the edge of the box to mark his Premier League debut before Downing (who only scored one EPL goal last season) added another three minutes later with a low, driving shot.

After the break Tomkins missed a great chance to add to the lead and the home team quickly made them pay when they pulled one back. Marouane Chamakh was the scorer, finding a nice pocket of room between the defence and midfield. Reid was left stranded with the former Arsenal lad in too much space and it was 2-1. But the eternally-maligned Carlton Cole capitalised on some indecisive Crystal Palace defence and it finished 3-1. A very handy win. They’ll play better than this and lose this season. Reid kept up a passing accuracy of over 80%, with a successful tackle and a blocked shot to go with a handful of clearances.

Unfortunately Nolan is set to miss six weeks after injuring his shoulder in training. He lent the captain’s armband to Marky Mark Noble for the Palace game (with Winston Reid likely the next alternative). But Big Sam reckons his squad can handle it.

Up Next: Sheffield United at home in the Capital One Cup; Southampton at home in the League.              

Tommy Smith – Ipswich Town (English Championship)

Two games this week and Tommy Smith played every second of them both. It was a trip to Birmingham midweek followed by a feisty clash with their local rivals Norwich City. We’ll start with the latter.

It’s always tense between this pair. It’s been 40 months since they last played and it took a while for each to figure the other out. But that changed when Lewis Grabban headed home for Norwich from close range, having been played onside by Christophe Berra who’d taken a tumble off to the side after getting tangled up with his marker. Whether or not Cole Skuse thought Grabban would be taken care of by the linesman’s flag or he simply let him get free is a matter for Mick McCarthy to sort out. Norwich made a mess of some decent chances after that, before Daryl Murphy missed a golden egg of a header shortly after the break. Norwich actually had a few shots to put the game beyond doubt and they’ll be a little frustrated at only scoring once from their 17 shots, Smith having to clear off the line at one stage. Ipswich held on just long enough to launch a rapid final 15 minutes of attack but no goal was forthcoming and it was a 1-0 derby win to Norwich. A disappointing result but not an embarrassing one against a side expected to be fighting for the Championship title this season. Tommy Smith’s 2 interceptions and 3 shot blocks helped keep his side in it until the end.

Against Birmingham it was a bit better. Twice falling behind, Ipswich also twice equalised through Christophe Berra with the final goal a stoppage time special. Birmingham’s first came from some non-existent marking from a corner, the second from a midfield giveaway. Aside from that the Ipswich defence batted away everything their opponents hurled at them with Smith playing his best game of the season alongside the hero of the day in centre defence. The two results keep Ipswich lingering in the lower-mid-table, having lost twice and drawn once since their opening weekend win over Fulham.

Also worth a gander, Tommy did an Ice Challenge last week. His nominees are worth a chuckle for us All Whites fans too.

Up Next: Off to Derby, 2am Sunday (NZT).

Chris Wood – Leicester City (English Premier League)

An 84th minute sub, Woody only had time for 6 touches of the ball as Chelsea cruised past Leicester 2-0 thanks to goals from Diego Costa and Eden Hazard. It’s interesting that Wood has gotten that gig off the bench in the first two games, given his standing in the pecking order coming into the season. Obviously Nigel Pearson has been impressed by his determination and resolve in staying with the club, though fellow striker Jamie Vardy (a regular starter last season) just signed a four year contract extension despite not having made it onto the bench yet this season. Vardy, and probably Wood too, may well get their big chances on Wednesday morning when LCFC host Shrewsbury Town in the League Cup. With a big game on the weekend against Arsenal it’s likely that they’ll rest a few starters – especially with Shrewsbury battling away in League 2 (although they’re unbeaten so far…).

Leicester made the quarters of the League Cup last season and it was there that Chris Wood got his best opportunities to shine during the early part of the campaign. He scored four times in the competition last time out, including a hat-trick against Carlisle. The Foxes were eventually dumped out by subsequent winners Manchester City.

And true to form, here's Woody's Ice Bucket reply:

Up Next: A packet of biscuits midweek and the Gunners next Sunday morning (NZT).

Ryan Thomas – PEC Zwolle (Dutch Eredivisie)

The first taste of European footy for any of this pack came last Friday when Zwolle drew 1-1 with Sparta Prague (of the Czech Republic) and young master Thomas played 65 minutes. It was the first leg of the final round of qualifying before the group stages kick in and the first ever excursion in continental football for PEC Zwolle.

Thomas had to overcome an ankle issue that saw him subbed off on the weekend though he seemed fine here, causing some early issues for the Prague defenders. Both teams had chances to open the scoring but the first half ended scoreless. On-loan Ajax winger Jody Lukoki came on at half time and with quarter of an hour to go, after Ryan Thomas had been subbed off, he scored the opener. However Sparta Prague’s reply was swift, if fortunate, as Ladislav Krejci’s shot took a wicked deflection to find the net. 1-1 was the final score and Zwolle need at least a score draw to get through in the return leg.

Their league form is something to behold though. Despite a half time deficit and the Europa League game a couple days earlier, PEC Zwolle finished strongly to claim a comeback win over Vitesse for their third win from three – the second in a row decided by a last minute winner. Ryan Thomas understandably started on the bench, though he was in the action midway through the second stanza and within minutes Zwolle were level. It was a deflected shot from a direct free kick that did the damage, and with just a couple minutes remaining a cheap giveaway at the back let Lukoki in and he slipped a ball to Stefan Nijland for the winner. Nijland had come on with Thomas in a double sub as the team readjusted into a more direct formation following the lone target man style they’d started with. Only PSV have also taken maximum points from their first 3 games.

Oh and coz everyone else seems to get one, here's Ryan Thomas' ALS Ice Bucket Challenge. Nominated by Tyler Boyd of the Wellington Phoenix, no less.

Up Next: That trip to the Czech Rep is on Friday, 6.30am (NZT).

Marco Rojas – VfB Stuttgart (German Bundesliga)

So… here’s something pretty substantial that happened this week:

Yep, after a season where injuries and the standard period of acclimatising saw Marco only play twice for the reserves, he’s accepted a predictable next step by going on loan to second division side Greuther Furth for the season. It’s a fair call given his setbacks and the fact that Stuttgart are a team who had to fight for survival last season and aren’t exactly in the place to be taking a gamble on unproven talent. Rojas should get the opportunity to play much more regularly now and can hopefully win some admirers in the process. Although he was available, Rojas sat out Greuther Furth’s match on the weekend (given he’d been at the club for just a couple of days, hardly a shock) as he watched them fall 2-0 to Ingolstadt… thanks to a goal and an assist from Aussie Matthew Leckie. Greuther Furth are sitting in 7th spot in the German second tier, with a win, a draw and a loss so far.

Furth manager Frank Kramer personally scouted Rojas at Stuttgart training and says that despite his limited experience at this level, he has “enormous potential”. There is no option to buy in the loan deal, and Stuttgart say they remain committed to him in the long term. Also, apparently Rojas has already picked up the language despite just a year in the country. This is the same guy who was a media darling in Mexico with the All White last year as he was the only one in the team who spoke Spanish!

Up Next: Rojas should get his first chance to shine next Tuesday at home to St. Pauli (NZT).