It wasn't pretty, but it was a positive result! A victory at home was essential for West Ham United, and the home team, devoid of some seriously major players delivered the goods at a sun drenched London Stadium. In a way it was a match of redemption for Mikael Antonio, finally shorn of the sheckles of being a right back, he was able to be the player that all West Ham and Nottingham Forest fans know he is capable of, and topped off a turbo charged performance with a winning headed goal against a resolute Bournemouth side in the 82nd minute. However, truth be told, in the early exchanges of the match Antonio was like a bull in a china shop! He had the touch of a r****t and was so keen to make a killing pass he ended up 'murdering' the move on more than a few occasions, but he needn't have worried, because Gokhan Tore operating on the opposite flank was so useless that Antonio shone like a bright light! We all know that managers have their favourite players, but Slaven needs to go the specsavers route and see that Tore is packing a few too many pounds for someone in his position, he is currently more a flying bumblebee than a winger!
Antonio clearly looked like a player who had been given a second chance, but was obviously over eager, the chance he was given was courtesy of a solid, if immature, performance at right back by Sam Byram who picked up his customary yellow card. Speaking of yellow cards, Eddie Howe's boys weren't there to make up the numbers, and put themselves about to some effect, much to the chagrin of the 'London Stadium' faithful (how weird does that sound?) and it could be argued that it took a dismissal for a second bookable offence by Harry Arter before Hammers were finally able to take advantage of the majority possession that they had experienced as the match wore on.
The team played without an 'I' in it and deserve huge amounts of credit for digging their heels in, rolling up their sleeves and getting the job done, three points gained, a result ground out in front of a massive packed new stadium in the sun shine! It could have been worse, a brave new world? - Ed
Comments
a point made
to slav hopefully...I actually thought that Tore had his best match for us up to date...whilst not brilliant he and Antonio looked far more comfortable when when they swapped wings go figure both men playing on there fav sides and improving what a brilliant idea!..now all we have to do is get rid of Valencia..how many more chances does he need to PROVE he can be the player he thinks he is.....with both our main strikers out surely that would be enough to make sakho get fit and prove slav wrong? but that ship seems to of sailed...bony a decent loan maybe but danny ings available as well and deff worth a look........as for yesterday well any team shorn of all there creative players will struggle to score look at sunderland there is a team that has relegation written all over it as for us well as soon as our injury list shortens we will be fine.....citeh in a weeks time would seem a gimme to them considering our depleted squad but for once the international break could do us some good and give us a chance to get some players rested and fit again as long as they are not called up and injured again! COYI
How many times has Antonio
How many times has Antonio played for us in that forward role and got us a goal out of nothing? Even at times like yesterday when it looked like we perhaps didn't deserve to win? Having someone like him in the team is invaluable - his work rate, sheer power and pace and hunger for the goal elevates him beyond the technical or 'football brain' players - yes he is raw but he knows how to play and what his playing style is, simply put he will win you matches! Hopefully Bilic will start playing him to his strengths from now on and not persist on trying to make him an average utility player
what he does
is instill fear in the opposition when he's running at you...very difficult to knock off the ball and his ability to hang in the air for the header is like ronaldos......and if we had a fit striker or two our options upfront would have defenders worrying who to cover.
Out of Jail
Wow, we needed those three points and won them by shear tenacity. Good news for us is that Bournemouth were very poor on the day and were not a match for us even with a depleted side, I agree Valencia is crap and we need to get shot of him, replacement? Again I agree that Danny Ings may fit the bill, don't think that we can afford Bony, he is a mercenary and is only in it for the dosh where Ings has things to prove. Antonio is a bull of a player, strength, pace, and skill. For me he is a future international, now if you like, as the rest of the squad proved they are crap! Byram and when he returns Cresswell, seem to me to be our future for full backs, surely there must be some young center backs out there, any ideas? Let's face it, the truth re Carroll is that he will not play a regular role for us due to his propensity to injure himself on a regular basis, sitting on the bench and coming on as a shock sub will possibly be his role. By the way did anyone see the report on the Beeb website showing a picture of empty seats? How they would all like us to fail, the schadenfreude is all too obvious.
I'm totally agreeing with all of you.
Antonio reminds me a little bit of Marlon Harewood in our first season after coming back up, but he's better than that. He has pace and power and as you all say, he's almost impossible to knock off the ball. His strength is in going forward, but he can also get back to help defend, which is totally different from playing RB. In my view he is far better right now than Tore is, though the cross to Antonio was excellent and hopefully a sign of things to come. Our problem right now is that we have NO strikers. Don't know what the step up is but Browne, Samuelsen and Martines all looked very good in the PL2 match v Newcastle.