West Ham the perfect place for Chamakh to redeem himself

Andy Carroll, Carlton Cole and Marouane Chamakh is not a strike force that provides much confidence in the way of considerable goals, but should West Ham get plenty of balls into wide areas, a top-half Premier League finish is still not out of the question.

With Carroll expected to be out until the end of the month at least and Modibo Maiga off to the African Cup of Nations, Sam Allardyce was going to be left short of options in attack.

Another physical striker was the preference and rumours were prevalent that a bid to Southampton was in the pipeline for Rickie Lambert.

However, a six-month loan with Chamakh has been agreed instead and in truth it is a minimal risk worth taking for the Hammers.

Chamakh should fit in with Allardyce’s direct style and is arguably at his best attacking crosses, as he showed when netting 17 headers in two seasons with Bordeaux earlier in his career.

There is little doubt he has underachieved at Arsenal, but things simply don’t work out for some players at certain clubs, as Arsenal have previously discovered at a large cost with Francis Jeffers.

The fact Arsenal liked to play on the floor was never totally going to play to Chamakh’s strengths and in all honesty even if he did score more regularly at the Emirates, he would have found it nigh on impossible to dislodge Robin van Persie.

In truth, Chamakh never fitted the Arsenal mould and a move across London could be what is required to restore some confidence.

It would not be the biggest surprise if he was West Ham’s top scorer over the remainder of the season.

Service from Matt Jarvis in the wide areas will be key, while Chamakh will be an additional target from Mark Noble’s craft at free kicks and corners.

Five defeats in eight league games have seen West Ham slip to 11th in the table, but 9/5 is not the worst price that they end the campaign in the top half, assuming that Chamakh can rediscover some of the form that drew him to the attention of Arsenal in the first place.

All odds and markets accurate as of publication’s time and date