West Ham United earned back-to-back wins for the first time in the Premier League this season after a 3-1 win over Fulham on Sunday afternoon at the London Stadium.
Following Andreas Pereira’s early goal, Jarrod Bowen levelled from the penalty spot before half-time before Gianluca Scamacca and Michail Antonio both netted in the second half to move the Hammers level on points with Liverpool in tenth place.
There was however controversy surrounding West Ham’s second goal. Having dinked the ball over Bernd Leno off the end of Lucas Paqueta’s pass, VAR checked the goal first for offside, and then, for a possible handball, but Scamacca’s goal did eventually stand. Here are the major talking points from Sunday’s London derby.
READ MORE: Every word West Ham’s David Moyes said on Fulham win, VAR, Gianluca Scamacca and Lucas Paqueta
Eight days, three wins
It has been a busy eight days for West Ham, with a trip to Anderlecht coming in between home ties with Wolverhampton Wanderers and Fulham. Yet, with wins in all three, the Hammers have very quickly picked up some momentum and are now on the best run of form they have been in all term.
After such a slow start, a three-match run in the league against Wolves, the Cottagers and next, Southampton, was going to be make or break as West Ham looked to get their season back on track. So far, so good, having picked up all six points available to them.
They made it difficult for themselves at first when Neeskens Kebano made the most of an empty West Ham right side where Bowen was down injured and Thilo Kehrer was caught out of position before Kebano teed up Pereira, who got outside of Kurt Zouma before firing past Lukasz Fabianski from a tight angle that seemed to favour Fabianski.
A brief lull period of shock followed, but after Scamacca went close twice in quick succession after being found by Paqueta’s passes, West Ham won a spot kick when Pereira blocked Craig Dawson from attacking a corner, just seconds after referee Chris Kavanagh had warned Pereira. Bowen coolly slotted the penalty, sending Leno the wrong way.
Scamacca then got a deserved goal shortly after the hour mark after previously going close four times, calmly controlling and dinking the ball over the on-rushing Leno, again set up by Paqueta. Antonio finished the scoring during a ten minute cameo, first denied by Leno before the German goalkeeper saw his own captain Tim Ream crash into him, leaving Antonio with a tap-in.
Before the international break, West Ham had been out of form, but starting a hectic October with three straight wins over Wolves, Anderlecht and Fulham has got the season back on track. The key now will be making the most of that form, especially with trips to Liverpool and Manchester United to come later this month.
The VAR turning point
Shortly after the hour mark, there was a long stoppage, with Scamacca and his teammates having mooted celebrations when the Italian put the ball in the net for a third consecutive appearance in all competitions.
At first, he was right to. VAR first checked for an offside, but Scamacca had positioned himself perfectly, narrowly avoiding being past Fulham’s back line prematurely. Then, it was handball, the more questionable of the two decisions.
After a stoppage north of three minutes, referee Kavanagh gave the goal, despite not going to his pitchside monitor to boost his own chances of making the correct decision. Given rightly or wrongly, the goal was awarded following a result of boosted West Ham confidence that started shortly before Bowen’s goal and did not end until the game did.
With the chances West Ham, and especially Scamacca, had, on another day, it could have been a more convincing scoreline, but credit to Leno, he made a number of crucial saves to keep his side in the game. When Ream ran into him to make it 3-1, he could hardly be blamed for being fouled by his own player.
From that second goal for the Hammers, Fulham hardly troubled West Ham’s back line, but had the decision gone the other way, the result could have been different, despite the Hammers’ spell of dominance.
Big money partnership forming
Two of West Ham’s big money signings seem to be forming an exciting new attacking partnership that really exhibited its own potential throughout the win over Fulham, with Paqueta in the No.10 role behind Scamacca up front.
There was a glimpse of it when the two played together for the final 20 minutes against Anderlecht on Thursday, with Paqueta clipping the ball to Scamacca before a spin and shot to give the Hammers three points in Belgium.
That goal was clearly a sign of what the duo could do over a full game together in what was only their second match together in the same starting line-up. Twice in the first half did Paqueta find Scamacca to create chances, the first a header that saved by Leno before Scamacca then turned and shot across goal and narrowly wide minutes later, a move not too dissimilar to the Italian’s midweek goal in Belgium.
The duo work well together and it comes at the right time, with Scamacca scoring in each of his last three appearances and Paqueta continuing to work towards his best, putting in what was comfortably his best performance for the club so far.
Speaking on the duo after the win, Moyes said: “If you were any centre forward, you'd want to play with [Lucas] Paqueta, he looks like he is someone who is going to give you the ball when maybe you need it or when the opposition least expect it.”
“I thought there were bits of Paqueta today that were terrific and then there were other bits that I thought were poor. I think at the moment, it’s the bit between the really high and the low, but I thought today he played ever so well.”
Clearly Paqueta is developing more and getting both fitter and more acclimatised to the Premier League and the best is still to come, not just with his chance creation, but with his tricks and work-rate he got fans cheering and off their seats, exactly why West Ham could end up forking out a club record fee for him if add-ons are eventually triggered.
When Paqueta does get the pass right, he has got a confident, goal hungry and in-form striker in front of him ready to take the chances, something he did against both Anderlecht and Fulham and will hope to continue to do in the weeks and months to come.
Jarrod Bowen takes on David Moyes’ challenge
When returning from the last international break, West Ham boss Moyes told England hopeful Jarrod Bowen that a run of goals between the start of October and the World Cup break next month could earn him a spot in Gareth Southgate’s Three Lions squad for the tournament in Qatar.
Bowen has really taken that challenge head on in the last three games and he has done little wrong since coming back from being with England and not featuring for a single minute in their games against Italy and Germany last month.
Starting in all three games for West Ham, Bowen has scored against Wolves and Fulham. He also played a big part in Scamacca’s opener vs Wolves last weekend, took the corner that led to Dawson winning a penalty and would have had an assist in Anderlecht, had Said Benrahma converted the golden chance Bowen provided for him.
Bowen is really looking like himself again having gone seven league games without a goal or assist at the start of the season. He’s winning tackles, pressing high and looks so confident on the ball and when dribbling, typical traits of the Bowen that was last season’s top scorer and initially earned his place in the England squad in June.
There are still ten games to go in all competitions before the season pauses for the grandest tournament of them all, but a continued spell of Bowen playing at his best may force Southgate’s hand when picking his squad for the tournament next month.
Michail Antonio’s late goal
Antonio only played for the last ten minutes against Fulham but got his second league goal of the season in what was an impressive cameo display from the Jamaican international.
The recent form of Scamacca has led to Moyes switching his first-choice striker to the Italian for now, with Antonio having to settle for minutes off the bench and in the Europa Conference League at present.
Moyes made a point of giving credit to Antonio in his post-match press conference and rightly so, he caused Fulham’s back line problems with his runs and while his goal was fortuitous, he had to be persistent to be ready for the rebound and credit too him, took his chance.
With the turnaround of games and the busy season ahead, Moyes wants to be able to rely on all of his attacking players to score goals. For the second time already this season, Bowen, Scamacca and Antonio scored in the same game, the other being the home win over Danish side Viborg in August.
West Ham have scored 21 goals in all competitions this season, 14 of which coming from Bowen, Scamacca and Antonio. With goals now starting to come more frequently than they did earlier this season, Moyes can feel confident that those who should be scoring are indeed doing so.
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