Moyes Masterstroke-Villa Out Thought+Out Fought

If they have their hands on hearts, most Hammers fans will admit they were surprised and fearful of the team David Moyes selected to take to the pitch against 'high flying' Aston Villa at Villa Park yesterday evening. Moyes, still smarting from the lesson dished out by Liverpool on Sunday, set his stall out, and the players performed exactly as he had instructed them, his 'spoiler' tactics against the preening ballerina, Jack Grealish, were a joy to behold. Bringing in full back Ryan Fredericks to help double up on the player Moyes himself dubbed 'one of the best players in the Barclays Premier League' was a masterstroke, Fredericks may lack technical ability but he does have pace to burn, an attribute he used to good effect throughout his time on the pitch.

Praise to Fredericks indeed, but the player who got under Grealish's skin, and in to the midfielder's head was Vlad 'the impaler' Coufal. He marked Grealish out of the game so effectively that the mobile head band was forced to try and operate on the opposite side of the pitch to avoid Coufal's 'close attention'. Nothing summed up the situation more than when Grealish tried to 'front up' Coufal following an energetic tackle by the Hammers defender, 'Vlad' just gave him an 'Ogbonna' stare and that was it, 'Jackie' turned to the Ref as if to say "look, that nasty thug just pushed me over", and the Ref, credit to him, just looked back as if to say "it's a man's game son, try playing like one!".

The annoying thing about Grealish is that he IS a brilliant football player who has massive potential for England, he just has to cut out all the crap, the screeching when tackled etc. Anyway, enough oh the hair banded one, what about Lingard? We hate to say "told you so", but we did, it was clearly obvious that Moyes's lack of signing a traditional forward meant that he was going to do one of his now famous conversions, and that is what he did by giving Jesse Lingard a starting berth, a unique decision bearing in mind the player's previous lack of game time, but it paid off handsomely.

Almost from the get go, Lingard linked up brilliantly with Said Benrahma and Big Mich Antonio, to a detached observer they looked as if they had been playing together for years! Their combined link up play was almost telepathic at times, as they ran Villa ragged, particularly in the 2nd half.

Villa did hit the outside of the post in the first half, and if that had gone in the outcome might have been different, but 'Tommy' Soucek ensured the Irons were first on the score sheet with one of his trademark runs from midfield, then Lingard opened his Hammers account with a deftly struck low shot. Villa did strike back via a pass from 'Jackie', but he did have to change the side of the pitch that he was on in order to provide it.

Some might say that Fabianski should have saved the effort that put Villa back in the game, however it was Villa's keeper who was the real 'villain', if Fabianski's goal conceded was soft, then Matinez's was super silk, he should have stopped Lingard's first goal but was beaten by the pace, he most definitely should have stopped Lingard's 2nd which he somehow let slip under his body, and all this from a 'top' keeper who had previously kept TEN clean sheets this season.

Hammer's defence was imperious, although 'Les' wasn't quite his usual reliable self, he gave the ball away on several occasions which is not like him, apart form that everyone to a man put a shift in, and essentially Villa were out thought, and out fought, the perfect remedy for 'Sunday Blues'! -Ed