Carroll’s stunner sets up ruthless victory as fans condemn Payet
Andy Carroll’s stunning volley helped chase away the gloom as West Ham momentarily set aside the controversy surrounding transfer-seeking star Dimitri Payet and deepened former manager Sam Allardyce’s problems at Crystal Palace.
The London Stadium rose to salute Carroll’s sumptuous 79th-minute strike that, added to Sofiane Feghouli’s opener 11 minutes earlier and followed by a magnificent breakaway goal by Manuel Lanzini, crowned a powerful collective team response to events of the previous 48 hours.
It ended West Ham’s worrying run of three defeats without scoring but leaves Allardyce without a win in five matches since taking charge of Palace just before Christmas.
West Ham manager Slaven Bilic said: “It was a great day for us. I would like to praise the players. The first half was nervous but it was down to the players how we reacted. The second half was magnificent.
“The most important thing is to win but to do it in that style, it was great. To be so solid and have a clean sheet it was great. I can call it like a perfect performance and result. Brilliant determination, brilliant quality. It felt like more than three points.”
Bilic also had special praise for Carroll: “His performance was brilliant. It was a great goal, the crucial one. It doesn’t kill the game off but gives you a cushion of two goals and is already a contender for goal of the season.”
Yet the fate of Payet hung over the afternoon. From fans’ favourite to the people’s pariah, the French genius felt the full force of West Ham fury and righteousness despite his team-mates’ sterling efforts.
Upton Park sang of little else last season, but from a man well on his way to becoming an East End legend, the want-away Frenchman is now an outcast, seemingly having played his last game in the claret and blue.
Bilic broke the news on Thursday that the 28-year-old was effectively on strike, and details quickly emerged of a bid from Payet’s former club, Marseille, as well as his receipt of a £1 million loyalty bonus last September and castiron determination to turn his back on the club who transformed him into an international star.
David Sullivan, the West Ham joint chairman who is understood to be meeting Payet’s agent, Jacques-Olivier Auguste, this weekend, has taken an uncompromising stance. Writing in yesterday’s match-day programme, he took to using capital letters to underline the club’s stance.
“The board’s position is that we do not want to sell Dimitri, we do not need to sell Dimitri for financial or any other reasons and we will NOT sell Dimitri in the January transfer window,” he wrote. “All we ask now is that he shows the same level of commitment to West Ham as the club and fans have shown to him by honouring his contract.”
Bilic wanted nothing to detract from his side’s efforts. “I heard that support from the crowd but it is not personally for me, it is for the decision we made. I’ve said what I’ve said. If I want to add something I will,” he said.
West Ham officials were sufficiently concerned at reports that supporters would attempt retribution to post a security guard on the Payet mural that adorns the outside of London Stadium.
When the 27th minute ticked round, some supporters marked Payet’s shirt number by booing although many more joined in a ringing endorsement of their manager, saluting “super Slaven Bilic”.
Palace’s best moment of the entire game came soon after, Andros Townsend’s free-kick finding James Tomkins, lurking at the far end of the home side’s defensive line. The former West Ham favourite’s side-footed effort rolled inches past the post.
Allardyce said: “It’s tough for us at the moment. We don’t have the capabilities to make sure we don’t lose. Money can buy better players but it’s also about coaching the side that gives you the platform to win games. We have to be more resilient and shut the opposition out. It’s a bit of a shock to me, the way we collapsed today.”
The first hour was listless, neither side showing a spark of quality but West Ham dug deepest. Feghouli became increasingly influential going forward, Carroll posed a mounting threat. Then, just past the hour mark, West Ham won a free-kick just outside the penalty area. This would have been the cue for another Payet pearl but in his absence, Lanzini curled the ball a yard over.
Not to worry. Within moments West Ham were in front. Michail Antonio hurtled forward, rounded Palace goal- keeper Wayne Hennessey and rolled the ball goalwards from a tight angle. The inrushing Feghouli made sure with the touch that delivered his first Premier League goal.
Better was to come with Antonio again the supplier, crossing for Carroll’s crashing finish. Lanzini rounded off the afternoon, dashing away to stroke past Hennessey.
Palace were so poor that West Ham did not even need Payet, whose heart seems set on a return to Marseille, the then financially stricken club he left in June 2015.
The visitors were dispatched with plenty to spare, West Ham fans roared in relief but it still feels like the brightest star is fast diminishing from the London Stadium firmament.
West Ham (3-4-3): Randolph 5; Collins 5, Reid 5, Ogbonna 5 (Byram 45); Antonio 7 (Fletcher 90), Noble 6, Obiang 6, Cresswell 6; Feghouli 7, Carroll 8, Lanzini 7 (Fernandes 87). Subs Adrian (g), Calleri, Oxford, Quina Booked Noble, Carroll. Crystal Palace (4-2-3-1): Hennessey 4; Tomkins 4, Dann 4, Delaney 4, Ward 4; McArthur 4 (Lee 70), Ledley 4 (Schlupp 81); Townsend 6 (Rémy 70), Cabaye 5, Puncheon 5; Benteke 4. Subs Speroni (g), Flamini, Fryers, Kelly. Booked Ledley, Ward. Referee N Swarbrick (Lancashire).