Lanzini returns in style as Hammers win
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 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!