PROPHET IN THE BLACK COUNTRY
West Ham 2 West Bromwich Albion 1
Strange to find similar opposition within three days of the previous home game, but here are West Bromwich Albion, now managed by Big Sam Allardyce, ensconced in his standard managerial role, targeted with keeping another struggling side in the Premier League against the odds.
West Brom won here 1-0 in the FA Cup fourth round a year ago, pre-Covid, in their guise as a Championship side led by Slaven Bilic, with coach Julian Dicks in tow. One year on and 1610 people have today died of the virus in the UK, and we’re playing games behind closed doors as we have been for nearly seven months. How different can something similar be in the space of a little less than a year?
David Moyes is in his second incarnation as manager at the club since arriving just over a year ago, and his stock is currently high. The signings of Bowen, Soucek and Coufal, and Behrama and Dawson on loan have all reaped spectacular success. He has reanimated the careers of Cresswell and Masuaku and has seen Angelo Ogbonna develop into one of the best central defenders in Europe. Best of all, Moyes has given Declan Rice the captain’s armband and persuaded the precocious England international to stay at the club and maybe harness the greater part of his early career here. Hammers’ fans still can’t attend matches at London Stadium, but it’s a small price to pay for the joy of seeing the club climbing up the table, now only a few points from the summit.
Robert Snodgrass isn’t in the West Brom squad tonight thanks to the often deployed gentleman’s agreement that precludes newly signed players appearing against their previous clubs in their first few matches. Moyes sanctioned the same agreement back in 2007 as Everton manager having signed Tim Howard from Manchester United after the goalkeeper had been on loan there. Big Sam chooses to make the arrangement public in his interview before the game. If it subsequently results in lost points for both sides after an intervention by the PL police, his sobriquet will probably change to Big Mouth.
The game runs in a similar fashion to the Burnley fixture played three days previously, with West Brom getting most of their available squad behind the ball from kick off, surrendering possession stats for a clean sheet. The best chance of the half falls early on to ex-WBA defender Craig Dawson in the eighth minute when he puts a header wide of the goal from the edge of the six yard area, possibly thwarted by the sight of the five yellow and green bar-coded shirts on the line. There is little else of substance to comment on in the one-sided first half until the single minute of injury time, when Hammers finally find a way through. The last of a bombardment of crosses, this one from Saïd Benrahma, falls to the feet of Vladimir Coufal, wide on the right, who slams it back in on the half-volley past Sam Johnstone via the improvised chest-flick of Jarrod Bowen. A rib cage ripster. Before I am allowed to consider whether any player has scored a hat-trick of chested, powerfully-kneed or shoulder-volleyed goals, the whistle sounds for half-time.
West Ham have now gone 320 minutes this year without conceding a goal, and they manage a further five until Matheus Pereira hits a hopeful shot in from the edge of the area past the momentarily unsighted Fabianski. It hits the back of the net gently like a pocketed snooker ball. I feel the familiar weight on my shoulders at the revelation, especially after the goal survives a VAR appear for Conor Gallagher impeding the goalkeeper’s view from an offside position. ‘You’ve seen them ruled out plenty of times from that position, Brian,’ an imaginary voice sounds in my ear. We’ll save our next positive VAR for the forthcoming Liverpool game. The scousers owe us one for what happened at Anfield.
So what does a successful West Ham team do now? Thankfully the attacking strategy is turned up a notch. Crosses and shots rain in from Lanzini and Rice, and the lead is finally re-established within two minutes of Yarmolenko and Fornals coming on as a double sub offensive. Cresswell’s far post cross finds Yarmolenko, who sets up Antonio to yank the ball in athletically past Johnstone for his second goal in four days.
NB. Sam Allardyce is from Dudley and this move represents a return to the Black Country for him; also his first managerial position there. What’s that they say about never being a prophet in your own country?
1 Lucasz Fabianski, 15 Craig Dawson, 21 Angelo Ogbonna, 3 Aaron Cresswell, 5 Vladimir Coufal, 41 Declan Rice (c), 28 Tomas Souček, 9 Saïd Benrahma, 20 Jarrod Bowen, 10 Manuel Lanzini, 30 Michail Antonio
Substitutes: 7 Androy Yarmolenko, 18 Pablo Fornals, 16 Mark Noble
Scorers: 20 Jarrod Bowen, 30 Michail Antonio
