16 Comments

Irons win the battle but Pellegrini war will go on

West Ham won the battle but the war surrounding Manuel Pellegrini’s position will rage on for a while yet after this hard-earned win which saw us dominate the first half and cling on for our lives at the end.

That’s a worry because this was not a great Saints side and we really could and should have won by two or three if truth be told.

Having said that we saw a penalty ruled out for a double foul on Antonio and Haller which makes you wonder what’s the point of technology if it can come up with decisions like that.

Pellegrini finally decided to play two up and it worked, as virtually every fan knew it would be, with the Frenchman scoring the only goal of the match following some amazing input from Antonio.

He was truly amazing with a stunning nine out of ten performance whilst Haller looked a player reborn with the man of the match alongside him.

Mikey had a brilliant goal ruled out for the same reason as at Chelsea – the ball hit his hand on the bounce and with the rules as they are there was no alternative but to rule it out.

Fornals is improving and saw a great shot well saved and Declan put in another fine performance.

But this was all about Antonio if we are honest – a player who is clearly not the type that is on the manager’s favourite list was unplayable at times.

The team put in a great shift against a team that’s been in reasonable form recently but there’s still a way to go and the manager will now this was the first fragile brick in his wall.

 

About Hugh5outhon1895

Hugh Southon is a lifelong Iron and the founding editor of ClaretandHugh. He is a national newspaper journalist of many years experience and was Bobby Moore's 'ghost' writer during the great man's lifetime. He describes ClaretandHugh as "the Hammers daily newspaper!" Follow on Twitter @hughsouthon

16 comments on “Irons win the battle but Pellegrini war will go on

  1. Give it a rest that’s 2 wins from the last 3 games let’s get behind all the team and that includes MP

  2. when Antionio plays West Ham are at it, We have our biggest dips in form whenever Antionio gets injured. it happened last season and happened again this season.

    • Superb result, but it makes you wonder how a manager can buy Haller for 45m and not being able to play him the right way until it’s almost to late.

      Add to that, the signing big Roberto, Sanchez, Yarmolenko, Wilshere are terrible mistakes.

      Pellegrini must be replaced, I’m not trusting him.

  3. Lets hope the manager realises two up top is the way forward. They were excellent. Totally agree with Fornals, he really gives it all. I thought that Balbuena and Ogbonna were excellent too. I thought Fredericks was dire and I hope that Pellegrini realises this. I also thought Sanchez and Yarmo were poor when they came on. I really hope that Fabianski, Reid, Lanzini and Anderson are all available for the Palace game and raring to go.

  4. I gave Antonio a 10. I don’t think that there was anything more that he could give – brilliant performance. And that goes for the rest of the team, too. Plenty of effort, especially from Noble & Haller. This team has the ability to be a top side, , but it needs this effort in EVERY game to achieve it. Come on you Irons, you’ve shown that you can do it; now continue to do it in every game.

  5. Ogbonna brilliant too

  6. Exactly what I said scraped a win and now it just carries on ..nice to have a win but again bitter sweet…..let’s hope that the people who said he will still get sacked even if we win are right……..INCREDIBLE

  7. Played well today. All the mid-table teams seem to be having poor runs this season, hopefully we’re coming out of ours!

  8. Much more like it.Effort and heart is all we ask for.Whatever happens with the manager situation we have to kick on after a 12 day break against Palace.We all know there are some very good players here and hopefully he has seen that 2 up top is the only way forward.Come January the Board have to give whoever is in charge a lump of money for a quality midfielder and striker at least.Sanchez,Roberto,Yarmolenko and even Fredericks look totally out of their depth.Plus we have Fabianski,Reid,Lanzini and Johnson coming back from injury so i feel a lot better than i have all week tonight.

  9. Have aday of was anyone watching the same team we were average against a terrible team it was one of the worst games I have ever seen if we played against a team that could string 2 passes together we would of been battered and should of been battered if ings had scored when he hit the post it would of counted as he wasnt offside ings disallowed goal should of stood as who he did he foul they totally outplayed us in the second half it was a extremely lucky win and will paper over the cracks that we are awful we will lose our next four games and they will say if we lose hes sacked then were scrape another win and it will go round and round if he stays mp we will go down my nightmare just keeps on going I love this club but mp is destroying this club and so are the owners I’ve had anoth of being fed lie after lie top 6 we couldn’t finish top six in the championship

  10. Grateful for the win against very poor opposition.
    Very worrying though that we were hanging on at the end .
    A fifth yellow card for Fred means he misses the Palace game . Zabaleta up against Zaha shows the paucity of the squad and irresponsible transfer activity from MP .
    That the threat of sacking finally persuaded him to play 2 up top says a lot about him .
    Oh and we would not win this game of any other without Antonio .
    MP mentioning being without an “ important “ Wilshere is delusional .

  11. With Frederick ‘s out please play Johnson if he is fit as Zabba will.get anialated and please MP two up top and it will be a close game IMO it works and it worked well today so why not every game!!and please no more Sanchez he is a liability IMHO. .

  12. So u remove my comment but not he’s childish one so it’s ok for him to mock me when I’m pouring my heart out over my club who I love dearly

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