There has been nothing to separate West Ham United and Stoke City in a scrappy first half of their Premier League clash at Upton Park.
Slaven Bilic's side were looking to get their challenge for a European spot back on track after a run of five games without a win since October 24, and they started on the front foot by testing visiting goalkeeper Jack Butland twice in the early stages through Cheikhou Kouyate and full debutant Michail Antonio.
West Ham looked full of energy in the opening stages and were dominating the early play, but Stoke gradually found a foothold in the match and it was they who should have opened the scoring on 11 minutes.
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Moments after Marco van Ginkel had just failed to connect with Ibrahim Afellay's wicked cross, the on-loan Chelsea midfielder missed a glorious chance as he could only scuff an effort wide from eight yards out after he had been found by the Dutch winger again.
Both sides were causing the other problems in the final third, with Afellay and Bojan lively for the visitors and Antonio testing the Stoke defence on his first Hammers start, but they were often let down by a poor final ball and neither team could find a telling finishing touch in front of goal.
Marko Arnautovic, fresh from scoring both goals in Stoke's 2-0 win over Manchester City last weekend, typified those struggles in the penalty area after half an hour when he could only side-foot wide from close range after being found by Glen Johnson's low cross.
The game descended into a midfield scrap as the first half came to a close, and though James Collins failed to make the most of three bites of the cherry in front of goal for the hosts, there was nothing to separate the sides at the whistle.
Tom Nightingale
