There’s never a dull moment with West Ham, as the old adage goes. And last week was “West Ham in a nutshell”, a lot of downs made us desperate, sad and angry at the same time, but at last the Hammers came back in style with their highest victory in the London Stadium so far.
Having moved up the table in December with three consecutive wins against Burnley, Hull and Swansea, in the next three games West Ham did not score a single goal, lost 0-1 at Leicester and 0-2 at home to Manchester United, and in the end got humiliated in the London Stadium by Manchester City: the Hammers were eliminated from the FA Cup in the 3rd round with a 0-5 defeat. And to make things worse, our star player Dimitri Payet went on strike and declared that he wanted away (to his former Club Marseille) and would never kick a ball anymore for West Ham. But it wouldn’t be good old West Ham, if the Hammers hadn’t surprised us in the face of adversity.
And what a victory that was against Crystal Palace in a crucial London derby, what an atmosphere and what a strike by the Big Man against Big Sam’s Eagles who were sent back to South London with a 0-3!
Andy Carroll scored the goal of the season with a magic scissor kick that made forget Payet’s earlier wonder goal with that solo effort against Middlesbrough back in October.
Sofiane Feghouli tapped in his first Premier League goal to make it 1-0, and Manuel Lanzini sealed the win with a fine chip making it 3-0. And the Argentine jumped into the crowd after having scored his goal, as his compatriot Carlos Tevez had done when he had converted a freekick in an other London derby back in 2007 – scoring his first West Ham goal against Tottenham.
What a week
The last week really was West Ham in a nutshell: having been trashed by Manchester City in the FA Cup, rattled by Payet’s infamous behaviour, being on the verge of total despair because of losing the best player before a crucial match that could make us slip down the table again, and still the fans did not really feel at home in the London Stadium being more or less quiet in the first half against Crystal Palace … But then manager Slaven Bilic made a clever substitution after a fairly poor first half, everyone pulled together, the crowd responded when the players showed character and determination, and then the time of Michail Antonio had come:
The winger, who much too often has to play as a defender , had been forced to miss the build-up through illness, but played a decisive part with three crucial assists during the game, the first one of them coming in the 67th Minute. Antonio got in behind a Palace defender and took the ball around Palace keeper Wayne Hennessey. His cross towards goal found Feghouli who was in the right place to knock the loose ball into an empty net.
Carroll secured all three points for the home side in spectacular fashion on 79 minutes. Antonio’s left-footed cross fell perfectly for the Hammers forward and he produced a great piece of skill to fire the perfect scissor kick past Hennessey into the roof of the net.
And then Antonio turned provider once again on 85 minutes as he played the perfect through ball into the path of Lanzini who showed all his class to deliver the perfect chip over the Palace keeper as the Hammers celebrated their highest victory in the London Stadium so far.
Overcoming adversity
From utter despair to highest joy, from 0-5 in the last game eight days before to a convincing 3-0 without the man whose name I don’t want to mention again here! A brilliant comeback that was topped with a wonder goal, three assists from that man Michail Antonio and a jump into the crowd that showed how tense the last week had been and how relieved and happy the players were now! And the fans really felt “United United” in their still unfamiliar new home, everyone pulled together in a time of adversity to overcome this situation and showed spirit and determination!
Well, next weekend could see us move up into the top half of the table if the Irons get three or at least one point from their away game at Middlesbrough. But for today I am happy with West Ham sitting in 12th, nine points away from the relegation zone.