West Ham picked up three very unlikely points against Chelsea at the London Stadium on Sunday evening, with goals from Nayef Aguerd, Michail Antonio and Lucas Paqueta sealing victory against Mauricio Pochettino’s men. Here are our talking points from the clash.
2 assists from JWP on debut
He may not be the flashiest player, but James Ward-Prowse is very effective at his core skills, and he demonstrated it with two assists in this game against the Blues.
The warning signs were already sent to Chelsea with an early corner delivered by JWP, but they didn’t play heed to it, and the very next one resulted in a West Ham goal, with Nayef Aguerd nodding in JWP’s pinpoint delivery.
He also assisted Michail Antonio for a crucial goal in the second half when the game was still in the balance, and West Ham produced a fine defensive effort in the final minutes despite Aguerd’s red to hold on for a win.
There’s also talk of the Hammers being linked with Sevilla forward Youssuf En Nesyri, and his heading skills and JWP’s crosses could be a match made in heaven for Moyesball, if we’re to be honest!
Antonio stunner
He was pretty poor in the first half, but Michail Antonio produced the defining moment of the second half when he came up with a goal out of nothing to put the Hammers 2-1 up. It’s not normally the kind of finish you’d associate with Antonio (his long range efforts generally end up landing in Row Z), and it’s one we hope he can produce many more times!
Felipe Caicedo struggles on Chelsea debut
Chelsea brought Felipe Caicedo from the bench, but the Ecuadorean was off the pace and struggled to impose himself on the game. Both Antonio and Lucas Paqueta- the latter in particularly, seemed to get into his head, and he made two costly mistakes towards the end. One didn’t cost Chelsea, with Pablo Fornals missing the target, but the other did, with Paqueta converting the awarded spot kick to make it 3-1. [Read more…]
