Hammers 3 Fulham 1
By Hugh Southon
First things first – welcome back Manu Lanzini!
The Little Argentine midfield wizard made his long awaited comeback 15 minutes from time and immediately had a big impact with some great midfield runs – one of which looked like ending with a comeback goal.
He was seriously up for it, pulling out of nothing and really looking the part after taking over from Felipe Anderson, who himself had caused plenty of problems to a terrible Fulham defence.
The visitors having taken the lead through Babel were finally buried by a Chicharito hand balled equaliser (who cares? Not me), Issa Diop’s first PL goal for the team and – finally a lovely Antonio header – from a well delivered Arnautovic delivery.
The Hammers were quite shocking for the first ten minutes but took over and were always pushing forward onto a defence which was as fragile as it gets.
And 3-1 was a decent reflection of the Hammers supremacy in which Arnie played a very decent part after arriving as a second half sub.
One fierce shot was deflected onto the bar and his body language was far better throughout as the Hammers rose above Everton into ninth position.
Declan Rice was enormous, Mark Noble was always on the case and goalscorer Antonio was regularly catching the eye.
Fulham played a full part in things and created their chances but with the likes of Anderson and Lanzini in the side we are going to become a very dangerous outfit indeed.
Whether we can make that seventh place is very debatable with Watford winning at Cardiff and us having played a game more than Wolves who are three points better than us in eighth with a visit to Bournemouth coming up tomorrow.
But the real story of the night for me was Manu Lanzini over whom we have and were still worrying that a big knock could do more serious damage.
For tonight though he was at it from the moment he arrived and looked like the fella who has inspired us so often before.
Great result – exciting game and the future looks great!
Glad we won and great to see lanzini back but for me it wasn’t that impressive ..Antonio was very good and we done a job but in my eyes it wasn’t as comfortable as you are making out Hugh but hey ho a wins a win
Agree it wasn’t a great performance with Zaba and Anderson in particular having off nights but it’s a win and so good to see Lanzini back.
Agree it wasn’t a great performance with Zaba and Anderson in particular having off nights but it’s a win and so good to see Lanzini back.
Good news.
But plenty of work before Man City on Wednesday.
Think Pellegrini should of played Fredericks from the start.
Zab has probably played his last start of the season. We could of done with giving Nasri some minutes instead and was Arnautovic only fit enough for a subs role ?