WEST HAM BATTLED to their first Premier League win in nearly a month as in-form Javier Hernandez and the returning Marko Arnautovic secured a 2-0 triumph over Watford at the London Stadium on Saturday.
Speculation this week has suggested West Ham’s faith in David Moyes has been shaken by the 3-1 loss at Brighton and Hove Albion last time out, but the club publicly backed him and his players eased matters by ending a run of three successive games without a victory.
After initially looking shaky, Moyes will have been particularly impressed with how his side responded and swiftly took charge in the first half, creating a few decent chances and seeing a Hernandez effort disallowed for offside.
The Mexico international was decisive in legitimate fashion just before half-time, though, heading in for his third goal in four Premier League appearances.
Watford became a better attacking threat out of necessity in the second half and the match opened up – Gerard Deulofeu having their best chance with a long-range free-kick which tested Adrian.
Javi Gracia’s men piled the pressure on at times, but poor defending late on allowed Arnautovic – playing for the first time since January 20 due to a hamstring injury – to wrap things up and move the Hammers on to 30 points, level with their visitors.
Buoyed by their unlikely thrashing of the champions, Watford started brightly and nearly took an early lead after eight minutes – Adrian Mariappa forcing Adrian into a smart save with a header from Jose Holebas’ cross.
But any early promise quickly vanished, as West Ham woke up.
Arnautovic dribbled past three defenders and eventually squeezed the ball through to Joao Mario, who shot at Orestis Karnezis from a tight angle with 11 minutes played.
Set-pieces appeared to be a weakness of Watford’s, though they were bailed out by Hernandez straying just offside when converting Joao Mario’s delivery in the 32nd minute.
Another Joao Mario free-kick caused trouble soon after, picking out James Collins whose header found Arnautovic, only for Karnezis to pull off a desperate save.
But Karnezis could do nothing to keep Hernandez at bay in the 38th minute, as the Mexican nodded into the bottom-right corner following Michail Antonio’s brilliant run and cross.
Watford’s need for an equaliser meant more gaps appeared in their defence, but West Ham failed to exploit them with their final pass letting them down on several occasions.
The hosts had to rely on Adrian to keep them ahead just before the hour, as the goalkeeper palmed away Deulofeu’s 30-yard free-kick.
West Ham should have finished Watford off 18 minutes from time, but Hernandez failed to square to Arnautovic after a darting run into the area and Karnezis managed to halt the striker.
But Arnautovic was presented with a chance soon after and he took full advantage to end Watford’s chances, slamming in from close range after Sebastian Prodl’s clearance ricocheted right to the attacker.
Meanwhile, Mat Ryan made a stunning last-gasp penalty save from Charlie Adam as Stoke City missed the chance to move out of the Premier League bottom three in a pulsating 1-1 draw against Brighton and Hove Albion.
Jese Rodriguez was pushed in the area by Dale Stephens in the 88th minute at the bet365 Stadium and reacted angrily after not being allowed to take the spot-kick.
And the forward’s mood will hardly have improved when Ryan flung himself to his right to keep out Adam’s effort from 12 yards, Lewis Dunk pulling off a superb tackle to prevent the Scot tapping in the rebound.
Incredibly, substitute Anthony Knockaert then came to Brighton’s rescue by clearing Mame Biram Diouf’s header off the line from Adam’s corner in a frantic ending.
The dramatic conclusion came after Jose Izquierdo – a scorer in the reverse fixture that finished 2-2 – had given Brighton a first-half lead with a goal that would not have looked out of place had Barcelona scored it.
Xherdan Shaqiri levelled in the second half with a brilliantly precise finish, but Adam’s failure to make the most of Stoke’s late opportunity means they stay 18th, with Brighton three points above.
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Quality player, very surprised he was dropped.
I’d be very surprised if he was dropped in the first place as he needed match time. He’s better than Jager in all facets that I’ve seen, scrum, maul and as we’ve all seen, in the lose. Jager, just not seeing it with him especially scrum. Am I missing something???
@Noel Lynn: Bealham is certainly well ahead of Jager and all other TH (Furlong apart) in Ireland, but I think Jager is doing a better job than you’re giving credit for. He’s been very good at scrum time for munster, especially when he came up against Porter, and was solid against Wales. His ruck defense was excellent both clearing and counter rucking and his goal line defense was superb. His lineout work wasn’t up to scratch IMO and he still needs to improve his S&C but he’s certainly got a high ceiling and a great addition to our TH stock.
@Noel Lynn: Short answer – yes
Easily the best TH after Furlong, who seems to have recovered some of his previous form. Great to have several options here between Furlong, Bealham, O’Toole and Jager. The order is not important as they are all playing well at the moment.
Literally no one else is suprised.
@Thesaltyurchin: I’m surprised, arguably pushing Furlong for a starting spot
Bealham is a quality player but I think it’s getting a bit clearer that farrell and his coaches are huge fans of jager. To go from the ‘training squad’ to the verge of the 1st choice 23 over a couple of weeks is pretty phenomenonal
@munsterman: jager has plenty to work on to over take Bealham. He may not have over taken TO’T yet, so 1 step at a time.
@Patrick O’Sullivan: well I’ve never seen farrell move so quickly to promote a player in a meaningful match. Even players like Joe Mccarthy and crowley had to put in their time in camp for a year or so. There’s every chance that bealham will be back-up th v England but you wouldn’t bet on it
@munsterman: There’s every chance that Bealham will start and Jager on the bench if Furlong injured.
@Con Cussed: yea that’d be the most likely scenario I’d imagine. It’s quite tough on otoole who’s been very good for Ireland too
@munsterman: Agreed. It just means the pressure is now on all four to keep the momentum up. It’s a tough position and injuries abound so can see them all getting a chance in the future.
This could mean Furlong has an injury concern… I hope not!
Has anyone authoritative said that Bealham was dropped? As far as I recall the mood music before the Welsh game was that Bealham had proved himself across a number of matches to be no great step down from Furlong; and that Farrell was taking advantage of a game we were almost certain to win to have a look at Jäger off the bench.
Depressing stuff
@Kevin Ryan: when have we ever seen farrell use a competitive game to just have a look at a player? The only time he ever changes up his side much is v the most tier2 of tier2 nations in Nov or else gets A games set up
@munsterman: Giving a guy a debut as a bench prop is not really changing the side much, though. And if he didn’t pick this game, he’d have to wait until the Autumn, assuming SA too strong. Anyways, we’ll see what Farrell does with the selection for the England game.
The story around Bealham is a bit of a head scratcher. Why was he dropped? Some say he needed time off as a new dad. Personally I believe the coaches think Jager is a better prop. When your coach uses faint praise to describe your last performance then you are in trouble. I think Farrell described Bealham’s last outing as “decent enough”. In all these scenarios the public never gets a true picture until someone writes a book.
@Tom Reilly: I seem to have missed him saying that about Bealham – was that in a press conference? I checked the post Italy match press conference again to refresh my memory, and Faz was effusive in his praise of the set piece, calling it excellent and top notch, so I’m surprised he would then be naming Finlay as not being a top performer. A lot of media said that Finlay was doing as much as he could possibly do to challenge Furlong for the starting berth on the back of his performance against Italy, so I don’t think I’m the only one who thought he performed excellent in that match.
@Tom Reilly: ah, I heard it now – it was from the pre-Wales match conference. To be honest, the way I hear it, it seemed more so saying that Oli deserved a chance in spite of Bealham having a decent performance. TBH, I think he couldn’t say “Wales’ scrum is poor so this is the best chance to give Oli a tryout in the six nations window”, so has to justify it on the basis of competition for places. If he said Finlay was excellent, then he would effectively be needing to say that Oli is even better, which would be a huge amount of pressure to put on a debutant. So, he kind of has to nearly qualify Bealham’s performance so as not to put down Wales.
@JoeVlogs: As I said earlier it is hard to know what exactly is going on. I think most people think Bealham did not deserve to be dropped from a playing point of view. Maybe something else is going on.
The euphemism that Alex Ferguson developed to replace “dropped” was “rotated.” The image that most of us have of a “dropped” player is of someone so bad in the last match that they had to be replaced. Sometimes it is about building squad depth, other times you were the Lions captain last week and this week not in the 23 – an utterly unexplainable event.
I suspect that Furlong has twinged his hamstring. If Furlong is out, Bealham absolutely starts ahead of Jager – and we all know that.
@PatN: I meant calf not hamstring
Bealham should be pushing Furlong for a starting position not getting dropped
When was the last v good game from Furlong?
@Derek Casserly: Last week!
There is much debate about the word “dropped” concerning Bealham. Was he or wasn’t he dropped. IMO if a player is available for selection, has been selected everytime he is available and then he is not selected, then he is indeed deemed “dropped”.
Let’s stop using the word “dropped”. To play at elite level you need a squad of 35 players and the ability to get game time into all of them. ( let’s not repeat RWC errors from the past). Rotatated is a much better word.