TROY’S DEELIGHT
Gracia defends scorer’s celebrations as he fires up Watford against Hammers
WATFORD boss Javi Gracia defended Troy Deeney after he celebrated wildly in front of West Ham fans after scoring a first-half penalty.
Deeney loves a battle and the sheer force of his personality was stamped all over this match. What could have been a humdrum contest was turned i nto an open, thril l i ng, aggressive confrontation.
The striker drove his team to their second win in a row after a barren run stretching back to October, and ended West Ham’s four-match winning streak.
Two years ago he accused West Ham players of trying to “mug us off ” with their showboating when the Hornets fought back from 2-0 to sting the Hammers 4-2.
There was no chance of anything fancy yesterday after Deeney raised the temperature with his celebration after hammering home a spot-kick. Gracia said: “I like the way he plays and his commitment – all the things he does day by day.
“He is my captain and an important player for us.”
Once Watford got the pace of the game there was no stopping them. Gerard Deulofeu might have scored if he’d pulled the trigger earlier and Deeney was denied by a last-ditch tackle. They got their reward when Fabian Balbuena brought down
Watford have won five of their last eight Premier League games against West Ham.
West Ham have kept a clean sheet in only one of their past 11 home league games. Roberto Pereyra and Deeney drilled home from the spot.
His reaction was to run towards a corner of the stadium filled only with home fans, execute a failed knee slide, pick himself up, punch the corner flag and give the rival supporters some lip. He escaped a booking.
With the tensions rising on and off the pitch referee Lee Mason was finding it difficult, even managing to miscount the steps for a wall after awarding a free-kick for Angelo Ogbonna’s tumble on the edge of the box.
For West Ham, near miss followed bad miss. Chicharito had a shot pushed around the post, and after the break Michail Antonio headed against the post and Arthur Masuaku’s effort was saved by Ben Foster.
Chicharito should have converted but missed the ball, and then Foster made a superb save to deny Robert Snodgrass and Antonio hit the bar.
There was still time for Foster to tip substitute Andy Carroll’s effort over before Watford gave the scoreline a lopsided look when Deulofeu and Pereyra played a neat interchange of passes for the Spaniard to score.
Hammers boss Manuel Pellegrini said: “We were a bit unlucky not to at least draw. We had at least three or four good chances to score.
“The last game we scored from most of our chances, today we couldn’t.”