West Ham bounced back from their disappointing Europa League semifinal defeat against Eintracht Frankfurt as they hammered Norwich City 4-0 at Carrow Road. Here are our talking points from the game against the Canaries.

EL qualification still possible

Manchester United’s 4-0 capitulation against Brighton means West Ham have Europa League qualification in their own hands again. Beat Man City (easier said than done of course!) and the Seagulls, and the Hammers will finish above the Red Devils. Ralf Rangnick’s side have an inferior goal difference (+1 to West Ham’s +11) and are facing Crystal Palace on the final day of the season. [Read more…]

Norwich City were officially relegated as West Ham put four past them at Carrow Road earlier this afternoon. The 4-0 win for the Hammers, plus the 2-0 victory over the Canaries at the London Stadium earlier this season saw them complete a league double over Daniel Farke’s men- their first one over Norwich since 1973.

Manager David Moyes made only one change from the side that had lost 1-0 to Burnley, with skipper Mark Noble returning to take his spot in the starting lineup. Here are our talking points from the game.

Easiest league win of the season for West Ham: This was perhaps West Ham’s easiest league win of the 19/20 campaign so far. Norwich were abysmal- a side resigned to their fate, and much of the game, the second half in particular, resembled a training ground exercise for West Ham. Michail Antonio looked like prime Messi and scored four goals in the fixture- the only West Ham player to do so in the modern Premier League era. Antonio was also the first WHUFC player to score a hat trick since Andy Carroll four years ago. [Read more…]

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…]