West Ham secured their first home win of the 2019/20 Premier League season as they beat newly promoted Norwich City 2-0 at the London Stadium. The goals came from Sebastien Haller and Andriy Yarmolenko as the Hammers moved into the top half of the table in their last game before the international break.
Here are our talking points from the fixture.
Fantastic Felipe Anderson: Many will consider the second half as one of West Ham’s best ever attacking performances at the London Stadium, and Felipe Anderson was at the heart of it. The Brazilian troubled Norwich all afternoon and was virtually unplayable. West Ham went from 4 attempts at the end of the first half to 18 at full time. They only won 2-0, but on another day, it could very easily have been 5 or 6-0 to the home side.
First goal for Andriy Yarmolenko at the London Stadium: We had criticised Andriy Yarmolenko for his poor performance last weekend against Watford and for fifty minutes today, it appeared that nothing much had changed. All the Ukrainian had to show for his first half efforts was a couple of theatrical falls in the opposition box that amounted to nothing, and even the commentators called his performance “weary”
He however turned it around in the 56th minute with a well taken volley that sealed the game for the Hammers. A minute before the goal, he had hit an even better volley, but was denied by the woodwork.
His celebration with the physios and medical staff (Dom Rogan and co.) after the goal was heart warming- it showed how hard they had worked with him after last season’s horror injury.
Will Yarmolenko be able to replicate the consistency shown by the likes of Anderson and Rice? We certainly hope so, and the next few weeks will be crucial for him.
Cantwell miss: Last week, it was Will Hughes for Watford; today it was Todd Cantwell for Norwich. With the Hammers holding a slender 1-0 lead, the 21 year old mistimed his run, and fluffed what should’ve been an easy open goal header from a Max Aarons cross. There weren’t many chances for the visitors in the game, but this was most definitely one.
West Ham unchanged for this game: It’s not often that Manuel Pellegrini gets to field the same XI in consecutive games and win both of them. Lukasz Fabianski, for once, was relatively untroubled in goal, and also managed a rare clean sheet.
Trybull tackle on Haller, penalty not given?: VAR seemed to mess up on a number of occasions today in the Premier League. One of them was Tom Trybull’s tackle late in the game on Sebastien Haller, which was not given as a penalty. Because West Ham were 2-0 up, it didn’t impact the game, but on another day, it could’ve been a major talking point. The other controversial moments were from the Leicester-Bournemouth game, where Youri Tielemans didn’t get a card for a horror tackle on Callum Wilson, and at Selhurst Park, where Henri Lansbury’s last minute equaliser was disallowed because of a Grealish dive just before the goal (Villa are West Ham’s next opponents after the break!)
Haller tackle on Zimmerman: Speaking of Haller, it was another very good performance from the Frenchman. Norwich had dominated the opening minutes, but seemed to deflate visibly after Haller’s opener. The finish was decent, but the goal itself owed a lot to the striker’s tackle just minutes before on Christophe Zimmermann. It left the Norwich captain hobbling around, and he wasn’t able to get to Arthur Masuaku in time before the DRC defender slid the ball in for Haller to poke home. Canaries fans were furious that Haller’s challenge went unpunished, but referee Paul Tierney didn’t deem it fit to be carded.
West Ham 2-0 Norwich (Haller 24, Yarmolenko 56)
Attendance 59,950
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