West Ham 2-1 West Brom: Michail Antonio scores winner for Hammers

Michail Antonio scored for the second game in a row as West Ham edged out fighter West Brom to move up to seventh in the Premier League.

However, West Brom leveled shortly after the restart through Matheus Pereira’s thunderous drive from a distance.

Dara O’Shea blocked Manuel Lanzini’s shot on goal, but Antonio gave West Ham the win with a hook shot.

Thereafter, West Ham seemed comfortable without threatening to increase their lead as they clinched a third consecutive Premier League victory.

West Brom’s loss, meanwhile, puts them in 19th place, five points from safety.

Antonio underscores the importance for West Ham

Antonio has endured an injury-ridden season and his start against Burnley at the weekend was his first since November.

But the forward made up for lost time by scoring the decisive goal in that game and, despite concerns about how he would manage to start a second game in three days, was again the winner of the game against the Baggies.

Antonio is a deadly shot inside the box, as his 41 Premier League goals were scored inside the penalty area and is an integral part of how David Moyes wants his West Ham side to play.

They have become a more defensively solid team under the Scotsman, with West Brom’s goal the first the Hammers have conceded in their last five games in all competitions, but they are also winning games by narrow margins, underscoring the need. of a player of the quality of Antonio. .

Moyes is looking to sign a forward in the January transfer window, but keeping Antonio injury-free for the rest of the season will be arguably more important to West Ham’s ambitions.

Another defeat, but some hope for Baggies

West Brom manager Sam Allardyce has built a reputation for leading seemingly doomed teams away from relegation problems, but when he took over at the Baggies on December 16, it seemed like this would be too far a task.

They had won just one of their first 13 games before Allardyce’s arrival and lost three of their first four games in charge, conceding 13 goals and scoring just one in the process.

But a hugely impressive 3-2 win at Wolves on Saturday has given Baggies fans hope that luck is beginning to turn and while this game ended in defeat, there were signs of encouragement.

In a game of few chances for both sides, West Brom often looked like a threat on the counter and could have snatched a point with more composure from Darnell Furlong, who threw a wide volley in injury time.

A first since Fenton: the statistics

• West Ham has won each of its first four games of a calendar year for the second time in its history, last managing to do so in 1958 with Ted Fenton, a career in which they also beat Stockport County in an FA Cup match. .
• West Brom has lost 12 of its 19 league games this season; in fact, seven of the last nine teams that have lost at least 12 games in the middle of a 38-game Premier League season have been relegated (except for Swansea in 2016-17 and Burnley in 2018-19).
• This match between West Ham manager David Moyes (564) and West Brom manager Sam Allardyce (518) was the 1,082th Premier League match combined between the two men, the most matches between two bosses. faced since April 2018, when Manchester United beat Arsenal (José Mourinho (285) against Arsene Wenger (825).
• After 11 games without a goal in all competitions, Matheus Pereira has since scored in each of his last three appearances for West Brom (four goals), as many as he has scored in his previous 37 games.
• Before accepting the job at West Ham in 2011, Allardyce had only lost two of his 14 games against the Hammers. However, since leaving the club in 2015, the now-West Brom manager has suffered losses in each of his four meetings, all in the Premier League.
• Each of Michail Antonio’s 41 Premier League goals come from within the area, with his winner for West Ham his 14th goal at London Stadium in the top flight, now the highest total of any player.
• West Brom extended its winless streak in the top flight on Tuesday to 33 games since beating Watford 2-0 in May 1985 (14 draws and 19 losses). In fact, their 30-game streak without a Premier League win on this day is the most of any team on any given day in the competition’s history.

Whats Next?

West Ham is in action in the FA Cup when they host Doncaster in the fourth round on Saturday 23 January (15:00 GMT). West Brom’s next game will see them host Manchester City in the Premier League on Tuesday 26 January (20:15).