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ANDY CARROLL has his heart and his head set on staying at West Ham.
Now the injury-jinxed forward needs his ankle, groin, hamstring and knee to show solidarity and allow him to win a new deal.
The former England striker showed the depth at the disposal of
Manuel Pellegrini as he came off the bench at half-time to help secure the club’s first hat-trick of three-goal wins since 1982.
And the £17.5m forward, who is entering the final months of the contract he signed in 2013, now wants to play a bigger part in the Chilean’s East End revolution.
“My heart is here, my head is here,” said Carroll. “It is easy for me because my family is from here. It is an easy place for me to stay.
“It has been hard to come back – I have been through a lot – but I am enjoying it. I love everything about it. I just need to get myself fully fit.
Sharp
“I played 45 minutes against Palace and that is a step towards being fully fit. I am not as sharp as I want to be yet but I don’t think that will take long.
“It is important for me to get back playing and get back fit – fully fit – and ensure I deserve another deal here. It will be great if I can get it. If not, we will see what happens. But at the minute I am focusing on staying here.”
Carroll, whose £90,000-a-week salary means he will have cost £45m over his six-year contract, has started only 59 league games for the Irons – and not one since January 2.
But after Palace took the early lead through James McArthur, he showed his value after the break.
Robert Snodgrass equalised and then Carroll won the free-kick which led to Javier Hernandez’s strike. Felipe Anderson’s super curler meant Jeffrey Schlupp’s 76th-minute header was not enough for Palace.
“The manager is very attacking and there are goals in the team,” said Carroll, 29. “I feel like I don’t have to score to make an impact. I think even if I don’t get on the scoresheet, I cause problems.”
Palace skipper Luka Milivojevic slammed team-mates Wilf Zaha and James Tomkins for picking up late booking to rule themselves out of Saturday’s clash with Leicester.
Roy Hodgson’s side have now lost seven of their last 10 Premier League games to slip to within two points of the drop zone.
Frustrated Zaha was cautioned for the second consecutive game – and the Eagles have not won in the top-flight without him since September 2016. Former Hammer Tomkins was booked after the match for arguing with referee Anthony Taylor.
Milivojevic said the lack of concentration and focus as Palace conceded three goals in 17 sloppy second half minutes was “unacceptable”. And the Serb was also furious about the late lack of discipline.
“It is something we talked about before the game and to pick up two yellow cards in the last minutes was something we didn’t have to do,” he said.
“We were chasing a result and maybe at that moment we lost a bit of control because we were just thinking that we had to score.
“Football is a lot of up and down. Sometimes emotion is the problem. When you win you are really excited because you played well but Tuesday and Saturday now we have lost and it is very disappointing because we know what we can do.
“In football there are a lot of these kinds of situations. We just have to win the next game and change the mood.” WEST HAM (4-4-2): Fabianski 6; Zabaleta 7, Balbuena 6, Diop 5, Masuaku 6; Snodgrass 7, Noble 6, Rice 6, ANDERSON 7 (Obiang 84); Perez
5 (Carroll 46, 7), Hernandez 7 (Diangana 75). Subs: Adrian, Cresswell, Ogbonna, Antonio.
UP NEXT: Fulham (a), Premier League, Saturday.
CRYSTAL PALACE
(4-4-2): Hennessey 5; Wan-Bissaka 5, Tomkins 6, SAKHO 7, Van Aanholt 6 (Schlupp 55, 7); McArthur 6 (Ayew 66, 5), Milivojevic 6, Kouyate 5, Meyer 6 (Puncheon
84); Townsend 6, Zaha 6. Subs: Guaita, Ward, Sorloth, Kelly.
UP NEXT: Leicester (h), Premier League, Saturday.
Referee: Anthony Taylor 8.
YOUR TURN: How many goals did defender James Tomkins score in 243 appearances for West Ham before joining Palace for £10m – 0, 11 or 22?