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Wham Bam Thank You Man (U) - Terriers Taken To The Cleaners

nevillenixon's picture
Submitted by nevillenixon on Sun, 14/01/2018 - 13:32

Manuel Lanzini scored a brace of goals as he and 'Elbows' Arnoutovic, ably assisted by Hammers' captain Mark Noble, ran riot during the 4 - 1 victory away to fellow relegation strugglers Huddersfield Town. During the BBC's football focus broadcast from the John Smith's Stadium earlier in the day the Huddersfield players said that the defeat they suffered at the London Stadium earlier in the season was one of their worst performances and that West Ham would be shocked at how different Huddersfield would play when at their own ground, well they certainly were different! The match at the London Stadium was a cagey affair which saw Hammers run out 2 -0 winners eventually, but it was plain for all to see that West Ham were lucky to win that day and that the Terriers deserved more from the match.

Fast forward to Saturday's game, West Ham arrived following a run of really successful results which included victory over champions Chelsea and draws against other London rivals Arsenal and Tottenham and the 3 - 0 destruction away to Stoke City which hastened along the departure of Mark Hughes, however neither Andy Carroll or Diafra Sakho were included in the squad which was already without the services of human dynamo Michail Antonio so all in all West Ham were not expected to do too well, but they were reasonably priced at 3.10 to win the game (see this article on how odds work if you're not familiar).

Many West Ham fans, including us at the Org were extremely underwhelmed with the appointment of David Moyes to replace Slaven Billic, Moyes was lampooned as the 'corpse' and his early games were not anything to write home about, but now Moyes is transformed, he is animated on the touch line and along with Stuart Pearce wills his players along while administering instructions when able to do so, compare his demeanor with the sad figure that Saven Bilic cut towards the end of his tenure, it was really rather sad to see such a bear of a man shoulders stooped and with the look of a 'dead manager walking'. The turn around of West Ham's form since Moyes' arrival has been nothing short of brilliant, players like Masuaku and 'Elbows' Arnoutovic have been transformed and Mark Noble is starting to play (with serious instruction and guidance) like he did when the french snake that is Dimitri Payet arrived!

The victory over Huddersfield was important in more ways than one, having gone toe to toe with some of the Premier League's top teams there was a question as to whether the players could see off 'lesser' teams, well the answer at the John Smith's Stadium was emphatic, the result catapulted Hammers up to the nose bleed heights of 11th, and with three matches that are on paper winnable Moyes and Co could be looking at an outside chance of making the Europa League! Now who would have thought that a month or so ago? Onwards and upwards - Ed

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Onwards and upwards is right ,who would have thought it 6 weeks ago ,in all my years following the Irons ive never come across such negativity and pessimism that existed here up untill a few short weeks ago ,i think if you were to take a poll of west ham fans then it would most probably point to relegation and after that even worse ,we've gone from having a moutain of problems under Slav to having one or two under Moyes ,he seemed to stamp his authority on the club straight away .So now it looks like our dead wood will soon be leaving us and we'll be left with a far better squad of players and 4 or 5 young fellas that are chomping at the bit for a chance ,even his biggest fans must see that Slavan must have been the cause of our demise, now i reckon all we have to do is keep the Driscoll brothers away from the transfer market and everything will be ticketyboo

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272 users have voted.

Burkie 1

Speaking of Antonio, there is a rumour that Everton want him, and are prepared to allow Tom Davies to move in the other direction. Obviously, this does not sound too credible.

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303 users have voted.
moore2come's picture

Kiss of death there Nev with mention of Europa League!! I'd just be happy with a enough wins to see us finish in the top half and then an effective summer of transfer activity, trying to get it done reasonably early (tough with the WC) and G&S fading into the background like owners should, have a great pre-season (no injuries, tough with SC in your squad), and hit the ground running come August.

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256 users have voted.

Over confidence from Huddersfield thinking they were going to beat us going by media reports and our rejuvenated pair of Arnie and Lanzini were the reasons we won, especially after Arnies goal 11 seconds into the second half.
We still only had a third of the possession as Moyes continues to play with a solid defence and the counter attack.
Not the West Ham way but it's what we have to do at the moment to stay in the Premiership.
Moyes has gone on record saying he wants to play like Spurs eventually but with 12 teams all relegation contenders this season including ourselves playing to not lose I don't see too many games as exciting as Saturday's game where we put 4 goals away, more than likely close games won or lost by the odd goal or drawn. A very tough season still and a way to go before we are safe from the drop imo.

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202 users have voted.

A D Bonds

I think you confuse lack of possession with a gameplan. Huddersfield were always gonna have more possesion then us as thats there style of play so Moyes set the team up that way and had a gameplan to counter it as shown by our first goal. Which btw is one of the biggest difference between Moyes and Allardyce for those thinking and Moes and Bilic to, that he actually shows tactical flexibility and looks for weaknesses to exploit. Moyes while not wanting to lose games also sets out trying to win.

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295 users have voted.
moore 6 legend's picture

R.I.P Cyrille Regis, always liked him back in the day.

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asheshammer's picture

Imagine my surprise seeing 4-1! First two goals are absolutely great. Noble in like a shark in frenzy; Elbows control and shot --fabulous. Third goal all down to deft Elbows pass, and final goal completely made by Elbows' effort -- really thought that was a penalty and should have been if the goal hadn't been scored. Will have to stop calling Marco Arnautovic "Elbows" now --I do believe he has fully redeemed himself.

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