I’M A LOUZA
Watford 1 West Ham 4
The only good thing about Boxing Day’s reverse is that Hammers have a chance to relocate their winning ways within two days, away to Watford. Rice’s suspension, due to a surfeit of yellow cards in the first half of the season, means Noble will start for the first time in the Premier League in 2021-22. Moyes’ patience with Masuaku has run out, so Johnson returns.
Before the travelling away fans can give their vocal cords a workout, Watford are ahead. The move begins, like many goal scoring moves against Hammers in the last few games have, by the ball being given away in midfield, this time by Dawson and Diop. Even then there is a chance to clear before Emmanuel Dennis hits an unstoppable volley past Fabianski. Could this be the awning of a a fourth successive defeat for West Ham?
Thankfully not. It takes nearly twenty minutes, but Hammers settle and begin to pummel the Watford goal with shots and crosses. Finally Bowen finds Soucek, who strides past Cathcart and stylishly passes the ball into the net past Bachmann, turning into overdrive. West Ham are so superior now that a swift second is inevitable. It’s Antonio who passes Cathcart this time and crosses for Benrahma to put Hammers into the lead.
The pummelling continues in the second half and Bowen hits a third when Soucek’s deflected cross finds him at the far post. VAR does it again by finding a foul in the build up. The real third comes ten minutes later when Bowen is floored chasing a weak chest pass from Kucka to Bachmann, and Mark Noble gleefully slaps the VAR awarded penalty home.
Although Watford enjoy some possession after the goal, Hammers have plenty of chances to up the score and finally hit a fourth, substitute Nikola Vlašić’s first goal of the season, a move started by another Bowen run and cut back. For that piece of genius, I have finally bothered to check and get the accents in the right order in his surname.
1 Lucasz Fabiański, 31 Ben Johnson, 5 Vladimir Coufal, 16 Mark Noble (c), 15 Craig Dawson, 23 Issa Diop, 28 Tomas Souček, 10 Manuel Lanzini, 22 Saïd Benrahma, 9 Michail Antonio, 20 Jarrod Bowen
Substitutes: 11 Nikola Vlašić, 23 Arthur Masuaku, 33 Alex Král
Goalscorers: Tomas Souček, Jarrod Bowen, Mark Noble (penalty), Nikola Vlašić
