It was a match between two former Premier League winning managers as Manuel Pellegrini’s West Ham United took on Claudio Ranieri’s Fulham at the London Stadium. The result of the match, however, was nothing of a surprise as the Hammers dealt another massive blow to Fulham’s hopes of staying alive in the top flight by inflicting a 3-1 defeat on the Cottagers.
The visitors, however, started the match well as Ryan Babel scored the opening goal to give them an early lead. It was cancelled out by Javier Hernandez’s controversial goal that possibly had his hand involved. From then on it was all West Ham as Issa Diop put his side in the lead with a thumping header and Michail Antonio put the final nail in Fulham’s coffin with an easy finish in the 92nd minute.
Here is how the West Ham United players were rated from their win against Fulham.
Lukasz Fabianski: 6
Was not troubled much by the opposition attackers after letting in the early goal. Made an excellent save to deny Babel before the goal was scored.
Aaron Cresswell: 6
Tried to get the ball up the pitch whenever the opportunity was there. Was caught on the wrong foot while backtracking in the first half but made amends in the second.
Issa Diop: 7
Should have done better to prevent Babel from scoring the early goal. Defended well after that early mistake and scored the second goal for his side to put them in the lead.
Angelo Ogbonna: 7
Looked solid throughout the match after the early hiccups. His fine assist to set up Chicharito was classy.
Pablo Zabaleta: 6
Did well with his passes into the right areas. Looked fatigued towards the end of the first half and was eventually taken off.
Declan Rice: 7
Another good display from the ‘former’ Northern Irishman as he kept good possession of the ball in the middle of the pitch. The precision of his tackles and interceptions were entirely accurate.
Mark Noble: 6
Played the deep-lying midfielder role in the first half but went up quite a few times as the game progressed. Gave away the ball on a few occasions though.
Felipe Anderson: 7
A calm and composed performance from the Brazilian as he kept tormenting the opposition defenders with his classy footwork. His passes were as accurate as ever for most parts of the match.
Robert Snodgrass: 7
Provided the telling corner for Diop to score his goal. Kept getting the ball in the right channels and looked much more energetic than his past few performances in the league.
Michail Antonio: 6
His passes were a bit wayward in the first half, but he got past the shoulders of Tim Ream quite a few times in the second. Notched up a “training ground” goal as he headed past Sergio Rico from a Marko Arnautovic assist.
Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez: 7
A decent performance from the Mexico international as he kept the pressure on the opposition with his shot-making and skills. Scored a very controversial goal which seemed to have his left hand involved as he headed the ball into the net.
Substitutes
Ryan Fredericks: 7
His introduction in place of Zabaleta injected some serious pace down the right flank. Made a clean tackle to dispossess Aleksandar Mitrovic in the second half inside the box.
Marko Arnautovic: 7
Looked in decent touch after he replaced Chicharito in the second half. Kept deceiving the Fulham defenders and set Antonio up with a sweetly taken chip in the box for the final goal of the match.
Manuel Lanzini: 6
Made his way back onto the pitch for the first time since his training ground injury in the World Cup which kept him out of action for so long. Did well in his short stay on the pitch.
