There possibly aren’t enough superlatives to describe that performance from West Ham United. They looked composed in possession, strong in the tackle and tormenting on the attack.
West Ham would’ve expected Norwich City to come to the London Stadium with their pressing style and dangerous front four and cause an upset. Early doors, it looked like that would be the case. Norwich utilised their full-backs in Max Aarons and Jamal Lewis and pinned the Hammers back early doors.
But the normally dangerous Teemu Pukki didn’t have a sniff as Issa Diop returned to his imposing ways and kept the Finland international at arms length.
After an early onslaught, West Ham composed themselves and began to cause Norwich problems. Mark Noble led the charge, putting himself about and getting into Emi Buendia and Todd Cantwell and the West Ham midfield responded accordingly. As Manuel Lanzini and Felipe Anderson got in their rhythm, Arthur Masuaku broke on the left-wing, playing it across the floor and there was Sebastian Haller to score his third goal in two games.
The goal set the tone for the rest of the first half as West Ham grew in confidence and dominated Norwich in terms of possession. Nonetheless, Norwich were still in the game as West Ham failed to build quickly on their 1-0 advantage.
As the teams came out for the second half, it began similar to how the first half ended. Ryan Fredericks and Andriy Yarmolenko, who had looked shaky at the start, began to feel their way into the game and they broke on the right hand side. A jinking run from Yarmolenko saw his cut back blocked and, as Noble attempted to get his effort off on goal, it feel to the Ukrainian, who smashed the volley home from a few yards out.
Norwich caught a second wind around the 70th minute mark but Manuel Pellegrini smartly used his substitutions, bringing on the industrious Robert Snodgrass and Carlos Sanchez to assuage any fears of a comeback and secure West Ham their first three points at the London Stadium this season.
A fantastic August for the Hammers, so let’s see who were the top performers today.
