Several West Ham players in Premier League Team of the Week after 2-0 win over Man Utd

West Ham secured their best result of the season so far as they beat Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s Manchester United 2-0 on Sunday afternoon. The victory took them to fifth in the league table, tied on points with Leicester and Arsenal but below the duo on goal difference.

A big name scalp often brings recognition in the form of places on the Team of the Week, and four Hammers players have found their names in various pundits’ XI for Game Week 6.

Garth Crooks (BBC): Garth Crooks’ Team of the Week has one West Ham representative- skipper Mark Noble, chosen in a four man midfield alongside James Maddison, Bernardo Silva and Kevin de Bruyne.

Crooks also brought to light an interesting stat- West Ham’s win percentage under Manuel Pellegrini with Mark Noble playing is 48%, but it drops to 18% when the veteran medio doesn’t feature. [Read more…]

Yarmolenko good, Cresswell’s 400th game, Fourth Consecutive Clean Sheet & more- Talking Points from West Ham vs Manchester United

West Ham added to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s woes by crafting a fine 2-0 win over Manchester United earlier this afternoon. The result took the Hammers to fifth in the table (they would’ve been fourth if not for Arsenal’s late winner against Villa), and makes Manuel Pellegrini the only coach to have got the better of four different Man Utd managers (Moyes, Van Gaal, Mourinho and Solsksjaer) in the Premier League.

Here are our talking points from this clash at the London Stadium.

Yarmolenko good: We’ve often criticised Andriy Yarmolenko for his below-par performances in the past, but today was one of his best displays for the club. The Ukrainian winger’s goal was a rare moment of quality in an otherwise cagey first half for both teams (coming back from an offside position and then producing a fine finish).

Another heart-warming thing to see was him putting a last ditch tackle in the 78th minute to stop Jesse Lingard after Lukasz Fabianski had come off his line to deny United’s first time effort. Yarmolenko has often been criticised for ignoring his defensive work and not tracking back enough, so this was fantastic to watch. [Read more…]

Aston Villa v West Ham Predictions- What do the media pundits think?

Premier League football returns after the international break, with West Ham in action on Monday night against newly promoted Aston Villa. Manuel Pellegrini’s side will be looking for their fourth consecutive win across all competitions at Villa Park after having beaten Watford, Newport and Norwich in straight succession last month.

Ref watch: The referee for this game is Mike Dean. In Villa’s last season in the top flight before this one (2015/16), Dean was in charge of six of their games. They lost five of those six, and the only team against whom the Midlands outfit picked up points, as you might expect, were West Ham!

Villa will be without the key duo of Jonathan Kodjia and Trezeguet, with the former injured and the latter suspended. Here is what the big media pundits have predicted for this Round 5 clash.

Mark Lawrenson: Lawro reckons this will be a close one, but expects Villa to make their “home advantage count”. Also says Dean Smith’s men will be up for this one after having their late equaliser against Crystal Palace disallowed.

Lawro has predicted a 2-1 win for Villa. His celeb opponents this weekend- the trio of Chelcee Grimes, Craig Mitch and Reece Parkinson however don’t expect the home side to emerge victorious, with Chelcee (2-2) and Reece (1-1) both expecting draws and Craig predicting a 2-1 win for the Hammers.

Charlie Nicholas: Over at Sky, Nicholas has made a slightly controversial statement, saying that “people are far too excited about Declan Rice“, and reckons Wilshere and Noble will be back in the starting line up. He also says he likes “what Villa have at the moment” and like Lawro, has gone for a 2-1 AVFC win. [Read more…]

Fantastic Felipe, First home goal for Yarmolenko, Cantwell miss, Haller penalty not given & more- Talking Points from West Ham v Norwich

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. [Read more…]

Media Player Ratings for West Ham against Watford- Haller excellent, Yarmolenko disappointing

Here is a look at the how major papers rated West Ham’s players in their game against Watford on Saturday. The Hammers defied the pre-game predictions of several pundits by emerging 3-1 winners at Vicarage Road.

Sebastien Haller was the star of the show for the visitors, with his two goals sinking the Hornets after a sustained spell of pressure from the home side after the interval had come to nothing. One of the papers even had “Hallerlujah” as their headline for this fixture. The French international also became the Hammers’ first TOTW representative this season. [Read more…]