Antonio carries West Ham clear of danger
The small print says West Ham United’s survival is still not guaranteed but, on a night like this, you would struggle to find anyone in claret and blue who cared about the maths. West Ham are as good as safe, even if official confirmation is yet to arrive, thanks to a 30-minute spell of glorious attacking football and a victory that could be their most important in years.
The relief could be seen in the celebrations of Declan Rice’s sensational strike, the outpouring of joy at the end and, most of all, in the face of Mark Noble, who collapsed to the turf after the final whistle. This was the West Ham captain’s 500th match for the club he loves, and there cannot have been many more satisfying nights in all those years of service.
In a game billed as a “winner stays up” clash, West Ham’s firsthalf blitz moved them six points clear of the relegation zone with two games remaining and a healthy goal difference next to their name.
David Moyes and his players can breathe again, no doubt thankful for being able to enjoy the final week without the fear that will be sweeping through their counterparts at Watford.
Nigel Pearson had urged his team to play with freedom, despite the pressure. Instead they clammed up in an excruciating first half that will provide renewed hope for Bournemouth and Aston Villa behind them.
Next up for Watford are Manchester City, and then Arsenal. It does not get any easier and, if they play anything like they did in the first half here, they will have no one but themselves to blame if they go down.
“There’s no getting away from the fact this result is bitterly disappointing,” said Pearson, who appeared to be struggling to contain his anger afterwards. “It’s a really poor result for us. It’s a case of finding solutions. I’ll look at it again and the players will get honest feedback. There isn’t time to dwell on it. It was not good enough.”
Every great escape needs a hero and no player has proved quite so important, for any side in this relegation scrap, as West Ham’s Michail Antonio. With seven goals since the restart, he has been the Premier League’s most prolific player of the post-lockdown world. Rice helped out, too, scoring his first goal of the campaign at last, and there was another strike for Tomas Soucek, excellent again in midfield.
In that 30-minute frenzy at the start of the game, West Ham had everything that Watford lacked: energy, precision, firepower. The nerves crept in after the interval, though, when Troy Deeney pulled one back for Watford and made this a far more anxious second half than it should have been for the home side.
After the class of Rice’s goal,
which he celebrated with his manager on the touchline, West Ham were forced to show a more dogged resilience at the end. “We have not got it done yet,” Moyes insisted, although he could hardly have said otherwise. “It has obviously not got us completely safe but it has got us in a strong position. The players performed exceptionally well in the first half.”
West Ham’s early vigour would have felt doubly encouraging for Moyes because Soucek and Jarrod Bowen, his two January signings, were at the heart of all their good work. Soucek was involved in the opener, finding Pablo Fornals on the edge of the area. His chipped pass then played in Antonio, whose firm strike skidded through the legs of Watford goalkeeper Ben Foster.
Only six minutes had passed at this point, and only four more went by before Soucek increased West Ham’s lead with a gorgeous header from Bowen’s cross. The home side could hardly have picked a better game to burst into life, with this being the first time since September 2014 that they had scored twice in the opening 10 minutes of a Premier League match.
Watford were reeling and there was another blow to follow. With Noble in possession on the left wing, Pearson’s voice could be heard across the London Stadium. “Stop the cross,” he yelled at his defenders. They listened, in the sense that Noble was unable to cross, but they did little to prevent the West Ham captain from finding Rice instead. His swerving strike ripped into the far corner. “It’s the best I’ve scored,” Rice said. “I scored two bangers in the warm-up and the lads are always on to me to shoot more.”
Watford regained some momentum when Deeney stabbed home shortly after the break, following a fine run by Abdoulaye Doucoure, but West Ham stood firm. The arrival from the bench of Sebastien Haller helped to take the match away from the visitors, who must now be fearing the worst.