I really worry for Big Sam’s beloved unrelegated record, though his players haven’t been fully BigSammed yet, I suppose, and the transfer window remains open. For now they look short on quality at both ends, even if it took a really superb bit of finishing to beat them tonight in a game of few clear chances. Talking of superb finishing, Michail Antonio has had a chat with BT Sport:
We’ve started the season well. We’re on 32 points in the league, last season we finished on 39. Each game we’re giving 100%, we’ve got another win, we just keep going, keep pushing on. As a striker you want to be out there, you want to play, you want to score goals, and that’s what I’m doing right now. It’s unbelievable. This season the chemistry is so good in the squad and you’re seeing it on the pitch. The thing is, we’re not playing at our best. We’re managing to just get wins. Things are looking good but the fact is we’re not at our best and we can be better.
Here’s the league table, which shows West Ham in seventh, just three points from second, and West Brom in 19th, fully five points from 17th (with two games out of hand).
90+5 mins: It’s launched into the area, Bartley flicks on, Fabianski collects, and that is the end of the game!
90+4 mins: Robson-Kanu wins a free-kick on the halfway line. West Brom get a last throw of the dice.
90+3 mins: Gallagher goes down in the penalty area as Yarmolenko comes across, but the referee spots that there was no contact whatsoever, and takes out his yellow card for the first time.
90+2 mins: West Brom win a free kick, a few yards beyond the halfway line. It’s sent high and long into the box, where Fabianski punches it off Bartley’s head. VAR checks whether he actually punches Bartley’s head, but he’s not guilty.
90+1 mins: There will be four minutes of stoppage time, or somesuch.
90 mins: What a chance! It’s a cross from Gibbs on the left, and Furlong runs in from the right and ghosts untracked into the middle, where he meets the ball 10 yards out and half-volleys just wide!
Big Sam reacts on the touchline. Photograph: Richard Pelham/NMC Pool
89 mins: West Ham are now defending more resolutely and breaking pretty badly when they do win the ball, giving West Brom multiple opportunities to not be rubbish.
86 mins: I’ve ignored another West Brom substitution, Robson-Kanu having replaced Livermore a few minutes ago. “How much do you think a player like Antonio would cost if he was five years younger and his hamstrings weren’t made of spaghetti?” wonders Oliver. “West Ham have a real job on their hands to find a younger upgrade within their budget, surely.” If anyone was both as good as Antonio and only 18, he and his club would soon be extremely wealthy.
83 mins: Antonio has done enough running about, and Noble is going to replace him.
82 mins: Some news on Snodgrass: the idea of forcing a buying club not to play a particular player in a particular match is expressly outlawed in Premier League regulations. They are investigating. Here is the regulation in question:
Club Contracts
I.7. No Club shall enter into a contract which enables any other party to that contract to acquire the ability materially to influence its policies or the performance of its teams in League Matches, any matches in the Professional Development Phase Games Programme or the Professional Development Leagues (as those terms are defined in the Youth Development Rules) or in any of the competitions set out in Rule L.9.
78 mins: Chance for West Brom! Furlong crosses from the right, Gibbs knockes it down at the far post, Gallagher hits across the ball in search of some swerve but at the expense of accuracy, and his shot goes straight to Fabianski.
77 mins: “No yellow cards in last night’s game and none so far tonight,” notes Richard Hirst. “Who’s gone soft, players or referees?” There have been nothing other than completely humdrum minor fouling here, giving the referee no chance at all to get his notebook out.
74 mins: A shooting chance for West Brom, from a free kick 30 yards or so from goal, but they pass it instead to Sawyers, who dances around a bit then gives it away. Incidentally, Furlong came on for Grosicki a couple of minutes back.
72 mins: West Ham win a free-kick on the left, which Cresswell sends infield. It comes off a defender and drops to nobody in particular. Soucek sees it, decides that maybe he can poke it, fall over and win a penalty. So he pokes it, falls over, and doesn’t win a penalty. He was on his way down before he was kicked, but I do think he was kicked.
69 mins: Antonio is absolutely priceless. He’ll play anywhere, doesn’t complain, looks decent wherever he’s put, can hold the ball up or chase it down, is fast but also really quite skilful, and finishes like a born predator. Here’s his goal:
Football on BT Sport(@btsportfootball)
It's that man Michail Antonio again for West Ham! 🎯
He scored the winner against Burnley and now he's put the Hammers ahead vs. West Brom...
A good, deep cross from Cresswell, a header down from Yarmolenko, and an absolutely first-rate bit of finishing from Antonio, hooking the ball into the corner of goal when facing in entirely the wrong direction!
Michail Antonio shoots ... Photograph: Richard Pelham/NMC Pool
Then watches as his shot heads goalwards. Photograph: Mike Hewitt/Pool/Reuters
65 mins: Between the 46th minute and the 55th West Brom had 57% of possession and looked the more threatening side. Since then West Ham have had 65% of possession and taken complete ownership of the game.
62 mins: West Ham make a couple of substitutions, bringing Yarmolenko and Fornals on for Benrahma and Lanzini.
60 mins: Rice goes close again! West Ham win a free-kick 15 yards outside the penalty area, and Cresswell catches the Baggies’ defence snoozing with an early pass into Rice, who from an acute angle beats Johnstone but also the far post!
59 mins: Excellent clearance! Bowen touches the ball to Antonio, in the box but with his back to goal, so he lays back to Lanzini, whose shot was heading in until O’Shea somehow popped up and got a head on it. A few moments later Rice has a low, curling shot from 20 yards that skids a foot wide.
57 mins: Nothing comes of that corner, of the one West Ham win soon afterwards. Now level-pegging once again, the teams need to decide whether to stick or twist.
54 mins: West Brom have been well on top since the break, though without really threatening the goal until they went and scored. Now Grosicki finds space on the left, and his low pull-back is turned behind.
West Ham, lulled into a false sense of security by West Brom’s complete awfulness over the previous 50 minutes, let Pereira run about 15 yards and then lash a low shot across goal and in at the far post!
Matheus Pereira fires the Baggies back onto level terms. Photograph: Kevin Quigley/NMC Pool
Pereira celebrates his goal. Photograph: Glyn Kirk/Pool/Reuters
49 mins: Gallagher tries to cross to Robinson but miscues sufficiently badly that it will go down as the visitors’ first shot on target.
48 mins: West Brom don’t seem exactly brimming with ideas. They half-heartedly counter-attack down the right, and although the home side only have their back four defending, with none of their midfielders except Rice very interested in helping out, they dawdle and eventually lose the ball.
46 mins: Peeeeep! The visitors get the second period under way.
The players are on their way out and nearly ready for half two. Control your excitement.
Key stat:
Duncan Alexander(@oilysailor)
WBA haven't won a top-flight game on a Tuesday since May 1985 which was in between series 4&5 of Bullseye and now Bowen scores on 45 and you're saying I don't get a speedboat for that
45+2 mins: And that’s half-time. It was by no means a good half, but that late goal has transformed the complexion of the match, and there’s now a chance that the rest of it might be reasonable.
A GOAL! A GOAL HAS BEEN SCORED! BY SHOOTING! Benrahma’s high cross from the left floats over the entire area, is volleyed back across goal by Coufal, and Bowen chests it into the top corner from eight yards!
West Ham United’s Jarrod Bowen (left) puts the Hammers ahead. Photograph: Glyn Kirk/Pool/PA
Bowen celebrates his goal. Photograph: Kevin Quigley/NMC Pool
The view of Bowen’s celebrations from up in the stands. Photograph: Glyn Kirk/AFP/Getty Images
45 mins: Ajayi underhits a backpass from the left with Antonio on the prowl, and Bartley does well to anticipate and cut off the danger before the West Ham striker can run clear on goal.
43 mins: The Baggies break, Robinson sends in a low cross from the left, and Fabianski does well to claim it.
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