Arnautovic strike hands Davie first Hammers win
David Moyes earned his first win as West Ham boss at the fifth time of asking thanks to an inspired performance from Marko Arnautovic.
The £ 2 5 m i l l ion Austrian, a club-record capture, finished off a superbly-worked move in the sixth minute to stun champions Chelsea. The curling strike from Arnautovic was his first since moving to the London Stadium in the summer. It was also his first in the Premier League since April 15, when he was still at Stoke. After a nightmare run under Slaven Bilic, Moyes’ boys were organised and hard- working, cont i nuing the favourable impression they created last week at Manchester City – despite being beaten.
Victory for West Ham, who move up to 18th, was only their third in 22 league matches against Chelsea.
For Blues boss Antonio Conte it ends a seven-match unbeaten run and leaves his side 11 points behind leaders Manchester City, who face derby rivals United later today.
Moyes said: “We needed to find a result and have done that. We came close against City and for long periods we thought we were going to get it.
“But today the spirit of the team, how we stuck together and our effort were all fantastic. We did the basics well.
“Don’t get me wrong, Chelsea kept us under pressure but we played well, scored a good goal in the first half and could have scored a second if we’d been better with the ball.
Hammers keeper Joe Hart remained on the bench as Adrian kept his place after last week’s man- of- the- match performance at the Etihad Stadium.
The England No.1 was ineligible to play against parent club Manchester City last weekend, with 30-year- old Adrian deputising and earning rave reviews for his display. The Spaniard was excellent again yesterday, a calming influence behind his defenders .
Hart will surely have his work cut-out now if he is to force his way back into the Hammers side.
Moyes was also pleased with his defence who helped keep a first clean sheet in 11 games.
He said: “We have people who can score and cause problems but need to stop conceding goals. This match was a move in that direction.
“I have two really good keepers. Joe was professional when I told him he wasn’t playing as Adrian had played well last week.
“We have kept a clean sheet so at the moment Adrian has earned his place in the team.
“We’ve beaten the champions but we need our season to turn now.”
It took just six minutes for Moyes’ men find the net, with Arnautovic scoring his first of the season.
After lovely passing between Pablo Zabaleta and Manuel Lanzini around the Chelsea box, Arnautovic picked up the ball on his left, dropped his shoulder to skip past Cesar Azpilicueta and curled home from 10 yards.
West Ham looked the better team in the first half as they tried to build on their one-goal advantage.
Chelsea almost turned the game on its head though, just before the break, when Alvaro Morata headed wide, then Eden Hazard went close with a halfvolley that fizzed across goal.
Moments later, N’Golo Kante saw his dipping effort pushed away by Adrian.
Chelsea dominated posession for most of the second half and should have pulled level in 82 minutes but Morata sent his close-range effort into the side netting from eight yards.
Blues manager Conte reckons his side’s title defence is over after their fourth league defeat of the season.
He said: “In my experience, when you lose four games in a season, it ’s impossible to win the league.
“If you want to stay in the race for the title in the first part of the season you can only lose once or twice.
“Too many players were tired. We made a lot of mistakes with the final ball, the important decisions and it shows the players are needing rest.”