Archive for February 5, 2023
Turned the Corner?
Luke Edwards writes in The Telegraph that West Ham now appear to have turned a corner under David Moyes. They endured a nightmare start against Newcastle United at St. James‘s Park on Saturday, in which Joe Willock had a goal inside 40 seconds disallowed and then Wilson ran through the middle of the defence to convert Sean Longstaff’s pass, and the Hammers were behind after three minutes. But West Ham – contrary to Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool of lately which conceded an early own goal against Wolves yesterday and finally lost 0-3 at Molineux – recovered from this setback.
With Declan Rice breaking up play in midfield, the Hammers managed a deserved equaliser coming from Rice’s corner, taken nicely by Brazilian record signing Lucas Paquetá, who held off Kieran Trippier at the far post before poking the ball beyond Nick Pope. This was only his first League goal from open play after his arrival from Olympique Lyon (so far Paquetá had only scored from a penalty against Leeds), and he celebrated it with a double summersault.
After the game David Moyes said that it was probably one of their best performances and he was very pleased for how his team controlled the game. He insisted that he was optimistic to keep Declan Rice at the club: “Whatever the British transfer record is, he is going to break it whenever he leaves West Ham,” said Moyes. “When you see what is going for £85 million at the moment, he is going to blow that out of the water. I hope he stays …”
So far the British transfer-record is the £106 million deal for Argentina World Cup winner Enzo Fernandez who was transferred to Chelsea in a record January for the Blues – greater than any club in history – of around £290 million for eight players including the loan fee for Joao Felix.
However Chelsea was held to a 0-0 by Fulham in their latest game and the Blues are only 9th in the Premier League table, one point ahead of Liverpool in tenth.
West Ham will face Graham Potter’s outfit at the London Stadium in an early kick-off next Saturday. It will be very interesting to see if Potter or Moyes will have worked better with their respective squads during this week. Will the Hammers prove that they really have turned the corner? They are still only one point ahead of the relegation zone and Everton which now sit 18th after their shock 1-0 win over leaders Arsenal.
Come on you Irons!
EXTRA TIME 
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