No plaudits but a job well done | Hammer turns around shaky season start

With the emergence of Freddie Potts, Mateus Fernandes and Lucas Paquetá as a credible, combative midfield taking the limelight after dominating their illustrious Newcastle counterparts, few headlines focused on anything else this weekend. West Ham had their first three points at home this season, hopped one place up the Premier League survival table and sent the fans home (eventually) with a spring in their step.

Nuno’s coaching input showed across the team. Defenders looked less shaky, West Ham held out for corners and set pieces – amazingly – and across the team a steely determination grew as the game went on: Despite going behind – with some fans switching off in disgust – West Ham pulled back a deficit to win at a canter.

Areola looked the part and gave his defence confidence

Goal keeper Alphonse Areola received few plaudits: But his performance was unrecognisable from the shaky, nervy display of just weeks ago when the Hammers were defeated 3-2 by Wolves in the Carabao cup. At that stage the Hammers looked lost: Areola had come in for Dane Mads Hermansen who’d been dreadful in his three starts.

The French ‘keeper’s performance wasn’t perfect against the Magpies- his kicking still leaves something to be desired and more often than not gifts the ball back to the opponent – but there were saves of top quality, as West Ham have figured out and featured on the Hammers web site with a hastily assembled ‘every save’ showcase reel released last night.

Check out in particular the first save: – click here for ‘Fonz’s highlights reel from the Newcastle victory. It might not be full of ‘worldies’ but compared with August’s horror shows, Areola’s return to form is indeed another piece of the Hammers’ survival jigsaw in place.

Whether this is an instant impact from Nuno’s newest coaching recruit- the new Hammers goal keeping coach Rui Barbosa would have to be a miracle worker to achieve that kind of turn around in three days -who can tell but it bodes well if Areola keeps up his more positive, (almost) domination of his own six yard area.