Archive for July, 2020
The Final Curtain
The extraordinary 2019/20 Premier League season has come to its end on Sunday. Liverpool have won the PL for the first time since their last First Division title in 1990 with 99 points. That means that the Reds have got one point more than last year’s champions Manchester City (98), but remained one point short of the 100 points City amassed two years ago.
The three other Champions League spots go to runners-up Manchester City and to Chelsea and Manchester Utd.
The 39 points West Ham have won are nothing to be proud of, but the Hammers finished the season very well, losing only one in seven games within the last weeks. Hence they have avoided to be part of the bunch of three that had to fight relegation until the last day of the season. The Irons’ final result was a 1-1 draw with Aston Villa. For the for latter this result was enough to stay in the Premier League. Bournemouth (despite winning at Everton), whereas Watford and Norwich are relegated.
Jamie Vardy claimed the Golden Boot for the first time with a total of 23 goals and Kevin De Bruyne won the 2019/20 Playmaker award matching Thierry Henry’s total of 20 assists for Arsenal, which he set in 2002/03.
“Losing only one game in seven is not bad considering we lost a couple of games when we came back from lockdown,” manager David Moyes reflected at the end of this season. “You have to say we’ve been in really good form since then and I can’t praise the players enough for how well they’ve done, because their attitude has been great and every day they’ve been at it, and even the boys who’ve not been in the team have been excellent.”
Declan Rice has been crowned 2019/20 Hammer of the Year.
West Ham United’s ever-present England international midfielder received nearly 50% of all votes cast by the Claret and Blue Army, winning the prestigious award after finishing as runner-up in each of the previous two seasons.
The 21-year-old held off the challenge of runner-up Angelo Ogbonna, who enjoyed a strong season at centre-back, with ten-goal forward Michail Antonio in third place.
Manager David Moyes was full of praise for Declan and for his other players as well:
“Everybody talks about Declan and he’s played all the games, all the minutes and he’s done incredibly well. He’s improving, he really is, he’s getting better as a young player and we want to make sure we keep making him better because I want us to have a good young team.
“The likes of Declan have been so good, Tomas Soucek has joined him, Issa Diop at the back, Jarrod Bowen and young Ben Johnson has come back into it the last few weeks – I’ve got to say the signs are there are five or six good young boys and we can use that as a framework to build on, coupled with two or three good experienced players we’ve got, hopefully we can start to see a side for the future!”
The 2020/21 Premier League campaign will kick-off in just seven weeks’ time. Let’s hope Declan Rice will stay and West Ham United can take the momentum of a strong finish to the 2019/20 season into the rapidly approaching new season.
Come on you Irons!
100 Jahre Salzburger Festspiele und 100 Jahre Bundes-Verfassung
Dass die Salzburger Festspiele trotz des Coronavirus heuer stattfinden, ist mutig und richtig.
Ihre Präsidentin Helga Rabl-Stadler (Bild) hat es mit der ihr eigenen Beharrlichkeit geschafft, dass die Festspiele im Jahr ihres 100-Jahr-Jubiläums – mit all den Corona-bedingten Einschränkungen – stattfinden können.
Diese Jubiläum fällt mit 100 Jahren österreichisches Bundesverfassungs-Gesetz zusammen: Am 22. August 1920 wurde der erste “Jedermann” in der Fassung von Hugo von Hofmannsthal unter der Regie von Max Reinhardt auf dem Domplatz aufgeführt, am 1. Oktober 1920 beschloss das österreichische Parlament das bis heute gültige B-VG, mit dem von Hans Kelsen die moderne Verfassungsgerichtsbarkeit begründet wurde.
Bei einem spannenden Symposium am 24. Juli 2020 wurde in Salzburg unter dem Titel “Verfassung der Kultur, Kultur der Verfassung” an beide Gründungsakte erinnert.
“Die Kunst ist eine Schwester der Demokratie”, sagte Maja Haderlap in ihrer Ansprache. Auch in Ausnahmezuständen müssen Kunst und Kultur stattfinden!
Dass es die Salzburger Festspiele im heurigen Jahr gibt, ist ein wichtiges Statement. Ich hoffe, dieses Beispiel wirkt weit über sie selbst hinaus und hat positive Auswirkungen auf die Ausübungsmöglichkeiten für Kunst und Kultur in ihren verschiedensten Formen. Auch Kunst hat “Systemrelevanz”!
Link: https://www.vfgh.gv.at/medien/Grabenwarter-Der_moderne_Verfassungsstaat_als_Garant_.de.php
When Will Playing in “Splendid Isolation” End?
It’s “splendid isolation week 16.” I thought Iain Dale would write this in his weekly “Letter from Tunbridge Wells”, because he has been counting the weeks since he went into lockdown in March in his emails which arrive every Sunday. But no, nothing remained the same last week. There has been “a wee spot of light away in the distance,” as David Moyes put it before the crucial game against Watford on Friday, “and we are aiming to get it”.
This post has also been published with West Ham Till I Die
Instead of reporting “week 16” of splendid isolation, Iain told us that he had ventured into London last Thursday for the first time in four months, and on the Friday Boris Johnson set out a road map for ending lockdown that could see theatres reopen from August and crowds return to sport stadiums in October if “pilot events” go well (the first of them being a cricket friendly in The Oval on 26-27 July). Premier League Clubs are even more ambitious. They are hoping that games could be played with supporters present as early as September, with around 50 percent of capacity, due to social distancing and obeying of healthcare rules. But of course that will all depend on avoiding a massive “second wave”.
So there’s at least some hope that I’ll be able to spend the credit I have with West Ham United on match tickets in autumn. However, the only West Ham game I could attend this season, flying over from Austria, will remain the defeat to Newcastle back in November. Our following weekend trip to London had been planned to take place by mid-March, together with three friends and their wives, with an afternoon being reserved for football in the London Stadium of course! Well, you will have guessed it: It was the Wolves match on March 15th we had intended to watch. And this fixture happened to be in the round which was the first to be postponed entirely because of the coronavirus. We had already decided to cancel the trip beforehand, with figures rising and discussions about a lockdown already much more intense in Austria than in the UK at that time. The lockdown in Austria was announced exactly on the weekend we had planned to stay in London!
”Promise less, deliver more”
Four months later, we still do not know when we will be safe from the virus, but at least West Ham is safe now: On Friday night the Hammers virtually secured their place in the Premier League with their 3-1 victory over Watford and now they are even mathematically safe after their 1-1 draw on Wednesday night against Manchester Utd. That brought back some happiness to the Irons’ supporters who have suffered a lot this season. I’m sure plenty of us have celebrated on Friday as if we had won a cup final, and rightly so! Premier League survival was achieved that night by a team starting with purpose and determination, ready to vindicate what manager David Moyes hat asked his players the day before: “Promise less and deliver more,“ he had demanded ahead of the Watford game.
And they did deliver: Within ten minutes the Hammers were 2-0 up courtesy to goals of in-form attacking duo Michail Antonio and Tomas Soucek. And when Declan Rice made it 3-0 with a brilliantly timed long range shot from Mark Noble’s assist, it was all but clear that “the winner stays up game” belonged to West Ham. I celebrated the victory in “splendid isolation” because I had watched the game all by myself on my notebook, sitting in the parlour of an old mansion house in Reichenau an der Rax, one hour south of Vienna, being the only guest of this newly renovated guesthouse this weekend – due to bad weather (and Covid-19 of course).
”He wears Claret and Blue, he’s West Ham through and through”
Friday was also a very special day for skipper Mark Noble who became one of only ten players who have played 500 games for the Club within the last 125 years. In his 500th appearance on Friday evening, he once again led his teammates into a crucial battle and marked this appearance with another typically committed and influential performance from the centre of midfield, also giving the assist to the decisive 3-0 by passing the ball to Declan Rice who scored that beautiful goal (that I will tell you more about below). In the matches since the restart after lockdown, “Mr. West Ham” has played in a more advanced link-up role in midfield which seems to have suited him better than a mere defensive role which he often had to play in previous games. Also in the match against Manchester Utd Mark could not be criticized for playing sidewards and backwards, making the game slow. He linked up with Rice, Soucek and Bowen in some neat attacks, the latters being January signigs who have contributed very much to West Ham’s revival and helping Antonio to become the most prolific goalscorer of post-lockdown.
Mark Noble made his debut in the senior team at the age of just 17 in a League Cup match against Southend in August 2004. That was around the time I renewed and intensified my support for West Ham. The Hammers, in addition to my lifelong support of Rapid Vienna, had first caught my attention back in grammar school when we had developed an interest in English football. They had been on the list of foreign clubs to follow since, but because of their promotion within the season of 2004/05 my interest in them increased significantly and hasn’t stopped to this day. Within these almost sixteen years West Ham have been promoted twice from the Championship via the play-offs (in 2005 and 2012), have reached one FA Cup final (in 2006) and managed a “great escape” in the unforgettable spring of 2007 when I travelled to our first game at Upton Park with my friend Alfred! This game was a defeat (of course…), but with a beautiful goal scored by Carlos Tevez and with Mark Noble playing in midfield.
West Ham in a nutshell
Tevez took the goal from quite a similar position to the one from which Declan Rice hit the back of the net on Friday evening against Watford. It even was almost the same minute of the game, although the circumstances of the matches being very different: Whereas Rice scored the 3-0 in the 36th minute facing a completely empty Sir Trevor Brooking Stand at Stratford, Tevez’ 1:1 came in the 35th minute in front of an erupting Bobby Moore Stand at Upton Park. When I watch the video of this goal I still get goose bumps!
However, that joy didn’t last long back in 2007. With Chelsea’s next attack, just a minute later, they were in front again, and eventually they won 4-1. These two minutes between the 35th and the 36th minute of that game could be seen as “West Ham in a nutshell“: Absolute joy erupting in the ground after Tevez’s brilliantly taken goal, immediately followed by the bursting of the bubble when Shaun Wright-Phillips scored at the other end of the pitch within a minute after the equaliser.
How to change a habit?
David Moyes adressed this “trademark” of the Club in his press conference before the Watford game. It’s this habit of “bursting bubbles” shortly after they have started to fly, which the Scot wants to change when he’s given more time in his second spell than two years back in 2018 when he was replaced after “having done his duty“ of keeping West Ham up. The end of this story (replacing Moyes by a manager of – supposedly – “higher calibers” when the Board decided to turn to former Manchester City and Real Madrid coach Manuel Pellegrini) can also be seen as a typical “fade and die” situation after having “nearly” played the “West Ham way” from autumn of 2018 to the day Fabianski got injured and was replaced by a poorly selected subitute goal keeper. Well, this time round it is all but secure that David Moyes will remain in his managerial position after having guarded West Ham to safety.
When Moyes came back to London in December he said that he refused to consider surviving Premier League relegation a “success” and insisted that in the long term his ambitions sat far higher than that. The manager wants a cultural reset – away from the view he had of West Ham when he was at Everton, namely of a “flaky, inconsistent” side.
That was a view, he said, that was reinforced by one of his earliest memories from the first time he was appointed manager in November 2017, when Watford were his first opponents. “My biggest memory from that night was Marko [Arnautovic] coming off with a sore finger,” said the Scot. “I thought ‘my goodness, what is this I have got here?’. It was my perception [that West Ham were soft] and a lot of managers would still see it that way. It is something we need to change. We have to alter that culture.”
He pointed to a word he heard during lockdown: “One of the things I heard in lockdown came from the Archbishop of York. He said ‘promise less, deliver more’. That has to be a bit of West Ham,” Moyes said ahead of the game against Watford.
Now with the boys having delivered and secured another 4 points and Premier League football next season, it remains to be seen if Moyes‘s intention to change this mentality will reap fruits and West Ham will stop being the team everybody wants to play if a losing streak shall finally come to an end. Far too often, West Ham have not delivered, and famous wins were followed by silly defeats and lacklustre displays. Therefore within the sixteen seasons since Mark Noble’s debut the Hammers have only once qualified for Europe via their league position. And since supporters who have witnessed the Irons winning silverware have to be 40+ of age, two medals for winning the play-off-finals are the only trophies Mark Noble (33) has won with our beloved club. “Let others wage wars for European qualification or Cup silverware, ‘tu Felix West Ham’ celebrate surviving another relegation battle,” that could be our ironic motto in variation of the famous saying about how the (long-gone) Austrian empire had been built by the House of Habsburg (“Let others wage wars, thou, o happy Austria, marry”).
Well, I’m sure no one of us would mind if David Moyes adds some steel to the “soft Irons” when he puts together the squad for next season, as long as he doesn’t forget the attacking flair and creative flow that always has surrounded West Ham! The latest signings of Jarred Bowen and Tomas Soucek have been a success, let’s hope the gaffer will find more “hungry players” he can motivate to give “blood, sweat and tears” when they put on the shirt, like “Mr. West Ham“ Mark Noble has done for 16 years now. Moyes has really earned the chance to show us what he can do for an entire season or more.
The “new normal” sound of football
Next season will start without supporters present in the ground – an isolation of the game which is not “splendid” at all. Without the noise of the crowd, the sound of the game feels like grassroots football on a playing field somewhere in a small village, as one can hear almost every single word which is spoken on the pitch and the sidelines.
The German newspaper “Die Zeit” even had the idea to publish every word that the players had spoken on the pitch during an entire game, filling sixteen pages of the latest issue of “Zeit Magazin” with the words that were exchanged from the first until the last minute of the “Geisterspiel” between Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich. Reading the repetitive language of the players you may think of rap in terms of rhythm, and some things written down sound like a Dadaist play. It was not a surprise that the conversation was dominated by a trio of David Alaba – Joshua Kimmich – Thomas Müller who warned and encouraged the other players for 90 minutes. If the referee made a decision to the disadvantage of Bayern, they often immediately questioned it and tried to put the ref under pressure.
Let’s hope that not only these “ghost games” will become a thing of the past some time this season (maybe as soon as September or October), but let’s also look forward to the prospect of changing the brand of “soft and inconsistent West Ham” within David Moyes’s second spell. But don’t worry, I’m not dreaming of a Bayern-like transformation of West Ham United. It would be boring to win the league seven times in a row like Bayern or Red Bull Salzburg – that would obviously contradict the motto of all the years I’ve been a member of the Claret and Blue Army: “Never a dull day with West Ham United!”
Though no promises will be made anymore, according to David Moyes’s call to “promise less and deliver more“, with the positive end to the season – not just avoiding relegation, but doing it in style in recent games, including the first double over Chelsea since the 2002/03 season – we dare to dream that the Irons will perform better in their fifth season in the London Stadium than the four years before. And I dare to hope to witness a game of the next campaign in London, as soon as travelling will feel more safe and crowds are going to be allowed to cheer on their team inside the ground again.
If things are going well, we will meet again in autumn!
Come on you Irons!
Barnsley manager Struber lost for words
Liverpool’s first top flight triumph for 30 years surely was something to celebrate, but one tier lower, on the other end of the Championship table, there also was an incredible wave of emotions when Barnsley FC scored an injury-time winner at Brentford to survive relegation.
An emotional Gerhard Struber, the Austrian coach who took over at Barnsley in November (leaving Carinthian club WAC) was close to tears when he reflected on Barnsley’s survival after their last-gasp victory away to Brentford in the last round of the Championship. Due to Clarke Oduor’s goal from Patrick Schmidt’s low cross in the first minute of second-half stoppage time, Barnsley avoided relegation with their 2-1 away win by a one point margin over Charlton (losing to already promoted Leeds). Three Austrian players, Michael Sollbauer, Marcel Ritzmaier and Patrick Schmidt were in the middle of jubilant celebrations, together with their Austrian manager, after the final whistle.
Struber’s interview is really moving. That’s football!
Link: https://as www.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/12034262/emotional-struber-lost-for-words
Wigan and Hull also have to play in League One next season along with Charlton, though Wigan‘s relegation because of a 12-points-deduction due to entering administration is subject to an appeal. Barnsley’s survival has vindicated the club’s decision to bring in Gerhard Struber, from Austrian side Wolfsberger AC, as their manager in November.
West Ham last night also made sure that they are also mathematically safe with a 1-1 away at Manchester United.
The relegation battle in the Premier League will be decided on Sunday afternoon with Aston Villa (v West Ham), Watford (v Arsenal) and Bournemouth (v Everton) still fighting. Two out of these three clubs will be relegated, Norwich‘s relegation is already inevitable.
UPDATE: Erfolgstrainer Struber: “Ich war ein bisschen der Papa” (Interview, Der Standard, 5.8.2020)
https://www.derstandard.at/story/2000119191881/gerhard-struberich-war-ein-bisschen-der-papa?ref=article
Gunners games key to PL survival
There could still be three teams in Claret and Blue in the Premier League next season, as Aston Villa moved out of the relegation zone with a win over Arsenal last night. Now Watford, equal on points with the Villans, but behind them now with a worse goal difference, will play the Gunners in the final round next weekend.
A 10th league defeat means Arsenal, playing in their first match since reaching the FA Cup final, will finish outside the top six for the first time in 25 years.
They can come no higher than eighth after a disappointing performance by Mikel Arteta’s side against relegation battling Aston Villa, Eddie Nketiah going closest to equalising with a header which hit the post.
However, the Gunners will still have a big say in the relegation battle when they host Villa’s rivals Watford on Sunday. Villa play West Ham at the London Stadium.
Villa‘s magnificent comeback in recent games
After Watford’s 2-1 win over Newcastle on 11 July, Villa looked down and out – seven points from safety with four games to go.
But Smith’s side have reacted magnificently in the closing stages of the season, beating Crystal Palace, drawing at Everton before overcoming Arsenal with a gritty display oozing in character to give themselves a fighting chance of staying up.
They will be safe if they win (presuming Watford do not win by two more goals than they do), or draw providing the Hornets do not win. But defeat would send Villa down if Watford avoid defeat or if Bournemouth win at Everton.
West Ham still need one point out of their remaining games against Manchester Utd (tonight) and Aston Villa to be mathematically safe, though their mich superior goal difference should already have secured Premier League survival.
When theatres reopen, what will have changed?
“Our audiences are tired of watching things on screen, and desperate for live performance that’s presented safely,” says Polly Graham, the young artistic director of Longborough Festival Opera, and she speaks for nearly everyone running a performing organisation.
The Times had a long article on the current situation of performing arts and theatre venues in the UK. The situation is difficult and the outlook not good. After 16 weeks of lockdown some outdoor events may take place, but theatres will (maybe) open some time in autumn with reduced crowds if Britain can avoid “a second wave”.
Streaming has been the only possibility to watch operas and plays in the months that are lying behind us, and might well be part of “the solution” for the performing arts also within the next months, but without performances in front of a real audience it’s like trying to put a very expensive icing on a non-existent cake.
Timna Brauer and Elias Meiri: “Songs from Jerusalem” in the Südbahnhotel
I have been lucky to watch my first live performance after lockdown last weekend in the “Südbahnhotel”, an old hotel on the Semmering, one hour south of Vienna. They are having a small summer festival there, and Timna Brauer and her husband Elias Meiri sang “Songs from Jerusalem”. I was extremely grateful for this evening. Live music with improvising and communicating with the crowd generates an atmosphere you will never experience in your living room in front of a screen.
I very much hope the measures in place at such events, like smaller crowds (from 1 July, up to 250 are allowed indoors in Austria), distance between the spectators, wearing a protective mask etc, help to avoid the spread of the virus there, and the festival will go on during summer, followed by the reopening of opera and theatres in Vienna in autumn when events with up to 5,000 people in closed rooms (and up to 10,000 outdoors) should be possible under Austrian COVID-19-regulations.
We need the performing arts more than ever, they touch our hearts, nourish the soul and can give hope in these difficult times!
Let’s hope the regulations which make these events possible will not have to be tightened again and the spread of the virus remains under Control.
Legend
On the night Mark Noble became one of only 10 players in the last 120 years to make 500 first team appearances for West Ham Utd.
Noble, born 8 May 1987, has played almost all of his youth and first team football for the club apart from two short loan spells at Hull City and Ipswich Town in 2006. His loyalty and services to the club have earned him the nickname “Mr. West Ham“.
He now is part of the small and illustrious group of players who played 500 first team games in Claret and Blue
Vic Watson, Jimmy Ruffell, Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst, Billy Bonds, Frank Lampard Sr, Trevor Brooking, Alvin Martin and Steve Potts
Mark Noble quite rightly takes his place among those legends.
Born in Canning Town, East London, Noble played for Barking Colts and moved to Arsenal‘s academy at age 11. Local side West Ham United showed an interest and Noble signed as a youth player. He became the youngest player ever to appear in their reserve team, aged 15 and made his debut in the senior team at the age of just 17 in the League Cup in August 2004 in a 2–0 win against Southend United. He made his league debut in the Championship in January 2005, in a 4–2 defeat away at Wolverhampton Wanderers. On 30 May 2005, Noble played in the 2005 Football League Championship play-off Final which saw West Ham beat Preston North End 1–0 to secure a return to the Premier League. He had entered the game as an 82nd-minute substitute for Shaun Newton.
Noble scored his first goal for West Ham against Brighton & Hove Albion, the side’s first of three in a 3–0 home win in January 2007 in the third round of the FA Cup, from an assist by Carlos Tevez. On 4 March, he scored his first Premiership goal and the opening goal of the game, against Tottenham at Upton Park in a game West Ham eventually lost 4–3 in the final seconds. He was in tears on the pitch afterwards, but in the end he helped West Ham securing Premier League status in their “Great Escape” of the 2006–07 season. He played 11 games in all competitions, scoring three goals in that season.
In 2012 he helped West Ham regain their Premier League status in the play-off final at Wembley, being part of a promotion winning team for the second time in his career.
He has played for England at U16, U17, U18, U19 and U21 levels. He captained the U21 side, scoring three goals in 20 appearances. Despite appearing for England at numerous youth levels, he never was capped for the full international side.
Noble has played more Premier League games for West Ham than any other player, in addition to being the longest serving player in their current squad, having been in the first team since 2004. He is West Ham’s first-choice taker for penalty kicks and has won the club’s Hammer of the Year trophy twice, as well as being voted Hammer of the Decade at the end of the 2010s.
In 2014, Noble was ranked in the top five penalty takers in the top European leagues and was in the top 10 in the world based on the percentage of penalties successfully converted since 2009.
2015 he took over from Kevin Nolan as Club Captain and “has proved himself to be the inspirational leader we all knew he would be,” as West Ham’s joint Chairmen David Sullivan and David Gold put it in their message of honour on his 500th appearance for the Club.
In his first season as a skipper Noble steered the team to an unforgettable final season at the Boleyn Ground, and he has been a constant and comforting source of reliability during the first few seasons at London Stadium.
Noble (33) is one of only 10 players in the last 120 years to make 500 first team appearances for West Ham Utd. And in his 500th game on Friday evening, he once again led his team-mates into a crucial battle and stood up to be counted, marking this appearance with another typically committed and influential performance from the centre of midfield, helping secure Premier League status for the Club that he’s giving blood, sweat and tears for in every single game he walked on to the pitch.
Born in east London, and bleeding Claret and Blue like the supporters of this great Club, Mark Noble always has been acknowledged as “one of us”. He’s a fantastic servant to West Ham United and will forever be remembered as “Mr. West Ham” in times to come
What a legend!
A message from the Joint-Chairmen to Mark Noble:
https://www.whufc.com/news/articles/2020/july/18-july/message-joint-chairmen-mark-noble
Virtually safe!
West Ham “deserve to be in the Premier League” says captain Mark Noble, after his side’s blistering first-half performance ensured a victory that virtually secures their top-flight status but leaves Watford in major trouble. (BBC)
Prior to the match, manager David Moyes had asked his players to “promise less and deliver more” and they did just that in a terrific first-half showing that eased any nerves.
The Hammers started brightly and scored two goals within ten minutes (goals: Michail Antonio who is the most prolific player post-lockdown with seven goals since the restart, and Tomas Soucek, excellent again in midfield). And when Declan Rice made it three before halftime, it was almost clear that the Irons would pick up a crucial win.
With their 3-1 victory over Watford they have moved six points clear of the relegation zone with two games remaining and, with a goal difference that is also significantly better than their rivals’, the Hammers’ place in the top flight seems assured.
David Moyes said: “We are in a good position. Teams still have that chance and we have to do that job. Even scoring the goals has helped – I wanted us to keep our goal difference as good as it could be.
Mark Noble, who came through the club’s academy and made his 500th appearance in the match, said: “It’s an amazing day for me, my family – this club deserves to be in the Premier League and tonight went a long way to achieving that.
“Seventeen or 18 years ago I was trying to sneak into Upton Park without a ticket. To play 500 games for the club you grew up supporting, grew up half a mile away from here, your family support – it’s what dreams are made of,” Noble was beaming.
With two games to play and 37 points, the gaffer still wants more: “We still have a couple of games to go. If we get 40 points we’ll have done it off our own back,” David Moyes said.
Forward Antonio, fresh from scoring four against Norwich in the previous game, took his tally to nine for the season with his goal in the sixth minute: it was a calm, left-footed finish to set the Hammers on their way.
Soucek‘s flying header and Rice‘s delightful long range shot ended the game as a contest, despite there being nearly an hour still to play.
The second half still cost me some nerves because Watford made it 3-1 through Troy Deeny quite early and pressed for a second goal.
But after half an hour West Ham regained their grip on the game, and in the end the Hammers could celebrate to be virtually safe and remain in the Premier League.
The remaining fixtures of the teams in 15th – 19th place are:
West Ham: Manchester Utd (A), Aston Villa (H)
Brighton: Newcastle (H), Burnley (A)
Watfordjh : Man City (H), Arsenal (A)
Bournemouth: Southampton (H), Everton (A)
Aston Villa: Arsenal (H), West Ham (A)
WHU v Watford 3-1, extended highlights: https://www.whufc.com/news/articles/2020/july/18-july/extended-highlights-west-ham-united-3-1-watford
Geschafft!
Mit einem 3:1-Sieg über Watford liegt West Ham nun zwei Runden vor Schluss sechs Punkte vor dem ersten Abstiegsrang und kann praktisch sicher sein, dass man auch nächstes Jahr in der Premier League spielen wird.
Mit 3:0 ging es in die Halbzeit, aber nachdem die Hornets gleich zu Beginn der zweiten Hälfte das 1:3 erzielten und ständig im Vormarsch waren, wurde es noch eine Zitter-halbe-Stunde, bevor West Ham – je länger das Spiel dauerte – eine Sicherheit zurückgewann und schließlich als 3:1-Sieger vom Platz ging.
Das Spiel habe ich im Salon des renovierten Thalhofes in Reichenau gesehen und nun feiere ich hier allein im Thalhof den im leeren London Stadium errungenen Klassenerhalt!
Jetzt kann ich mir ein Schluckerl genehmigen! I’m forever blowing bubbles! Come on you Irons!
What a score at halftime!
A fantastic score at halftime for West Ham! The Hammers lead the Hornets 3-0 at London Stadium.
In the sixth minute of this crucial relegation decider, Michail Antonio continued his hitting streak and scored his fifth goal in succession. And just four minutes later Tomas Soucek’s header made it 2-0 for the Irons!
Then Declan Rice got on the scoresheet with only his third Premier League goal, making it 3-0 in the 36th minute with a precisely timed long range effort!
A win would mean that West Ham have leapfrogged Brighton and would sit in 15th with a six-point-gap between them and Aston Villa in 18th! Things look bright now for David Moyes’s men!
Come on you Irons, let’s win this one and finish the business! Then let’s celebrate staying up!
But there’s still one half to go …
EXTRA TIME 
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