Jose Mourinho made his feelings very clear on Tomas Soucek after the Spurs game claiming that Dvid Moyes had found his new Mourane Fellaini.

That’s one big compliment for a guy who of course works the midfield like a master and is one heck of an operator in both boxes.

But even he – who has been a revelation since donning the claret and blue –  refused to accept the Irons were second best and believed they were well worth their point and possibly a bit more.

and Declan Rice have become the heartbeat of a Hammers team which suddenly looks as though it may be heading for something big this season.

Get something against Manchester City to follow the performances against Wolverhampton Wanderers, Leicester City and teh spuds and we can all start to believe that.

Like the rest of the squad Soucek couldn’t have been more pleased with the performance and result and spoke about the performance at https://www.whufc.com/news/articles/2020/october/19-october/tomas-soucek-it-was-massive-point-us.

He declared: “We are very happy. Sometimes it’s very boring when a team is losing 3-0 in the last ten minutes, but we had talked together at half-time and said we wanted to win the second half of the game.

“It was very hard because all week we had prepared well. We had seen many videos and tactics of them, but it is very hard for everybody when you’re losing 3-0 after 20 minutes.

“It was incredible because we played well I think. The whole game we kept the ball and created many chances, and we deserved a point – maybe three points – but still, after 80 minutes, we were losing 3-0. 

“When we scored after 83 minutes, we all believed that we still had a chance. We attacked the whole game and we deserved our point.

“Then we scored three goals and it was an incredible performance for us, because the last ten minutes were beautiful and everyone could see us celebrate in the corner because Lanzini’s shot was beautiful.

“It was a massive, massive point or us, and it was great for us looking to the future. We want to go up in the table and to have a better season.”

‘Beautiful’ and ‘incredible’ are words befitting a goal of the majesty of Lanzini’s equaliser, which arrived in the fifth minute of injury time.

The Argentine’s first-time,  shot from 25 yards had an xG (‘expected goal’) value of just 0.01, according to analytics website Understat.

More literally, a one-in-a-hundred strike.

“For me it was incredible as well,” Souček said. “I believed in him because I know how he can score, how he can strike the ball, attack the goal.

“Every day in training he’s shooting very well. When he had prepared the ball, I believed that he would score – and we could see what a celebration it was.

“When the ball was flying high into the net, I celebrated and all the bench celebrated. All the team celebrated and everyone ran to the corner. It was a draw and I think we deserved a point – maybe more!”
 

Graeme Souness is not prepared to mince his words on the brilliance of Moichail Antnio as a striker.

Despite his performance last night at Spurs perhaps not being right u there he did enough to have the often hammer-sor Sky Sports pundit heaping praise on him.

It came on a day when a new study had found that the Hammers 30 year old front man had become the most fouled striker in the Premier League which tells us everything we need to know about the guy.

And it followed huge compliments recently from former Hammer Tony Gale who described him as a superb front man who had really got to grips with the job before upsetting a few of us by claiming he could become the target for other clubs.

One thing’s for sure, he;s one of the best signings the hammers have made over the last few years and has an option on his current deal to stay for another two years.

Souness was mightily impressed with him last night and said: “The word you’re looking for is hunger. He realises how lucky he is.

He’s had punches on the nose several times and now he’s playing at the highest level and he’ll be enjoying every minute of it.

He’s one of those centre-forwards you wouldn’t enjoy playing against. You get in a race with him, he’s going to beat you, physically if you have a tangle with him, he’s going to beat you.

He’s got good enough technique but the overriding thing for him is his attitude to the game.”

 

 

 

 

Benrahma may not be on an easy first team ride

Suddenly the options could soon be many and the competition at West Ham could become  intense!

Ok, it’s way to early to say Lanzini’s back but, as has been mentioned several times since last night’s game, his confidence will have been boosted beyond belief following last night’s amazing goal.

It was great to read his comments earlier where he declared himself 100 per cent, that this was his second home and that he loved the fans.

For him to it the headlines again for all the right reasons is exactly what he and we needed and it could well be that he will be the man to put some real pressure on new signing Said Benrahma.

If that’s the case the Hammers could be on an earner from FC Porto at the end of the season if Anderson can find some real form in Portugal.

How good would it be to have a couple of hugely creative midfielder in Said and Manu to be battling for the creative role in our team whilst knowing there’s another on the bench just gagging for the chance to do better.

It’s not impossible to believe that the hard working and determined Pablo Fornals could miss out at times should Moyes decide to play both and given that Arthur Masuaku too is in the same sort of exciting form you will get my point about options.

It augurs well for Seb Haller who has clearly needed that sort of creative influence to assist him during his time at the club.

We remain light  in the defensive midfield area but maybe we will strengthen there in January which after all is only about nine week away.

Hopefully, as has been the case so far, the injury curse won’t hit us, because right now things look as bright at the club as they have on many months

Fair play to Jose Mourinho.

He had nothing but good things to say about the Irons after their superb comeback at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium last night.

The guy has clearly mellowed after a few years as there would have been a time when he would have laid into one of this teams big time after conceding three goals in the last ten minutes.

But this time he chose to be more gracious as he explained the shock of taking just one point when three looked comfortably in the bag.

Spurs were punished in a big way after clearly believing they had done enough to see off a tesm that refused to give in and were finally rewarded with a point via the brilliant equaliser from Lanzini.

And Mourinho named one Hammer as being a player on whom David Moyes may have found his new Marouane Fellani.

Commenting after the game the Spurs manager said:”I don’t think we believed that it could ever happen and we were punished by that and punished by their belief.

Worries that Michail Antonio may be unavailable for the match against  Manchester City this weekend have been dispelled.

The player left the action in the 77th minute of the game against Spurs to be replaced by Andriy Yarmolenko and, as reported earlier, was later pictured celebrating with his fellow team-mates on the Spurs pitch as we grabbed our astonishing late equaliser with his hamstring heavily strapped with ice .

Antonio has suffered from hamstring injuries  but ClaretandHugh has been told over the last few minutes that he is fine and there is no injury involved.

The ice strapping was applied as a  standard procedure and the 30 year old will be available to lead the attack against pep Guardiola’s outfit.

In fact the entire squad were announced fit by our source who said that there “were merely the usual bumps and bruises” but a fully fit squad will be available to the manager.

Hammer Michail Antonio was substituted in the second half in the 77th minute to be replaced by Andriy Yarmolenko.

Antonio was later pictured celebrating with his fellow teammates on the Spurs pitch with his hamstring heavily strapped with ice.

Antonio has suffered from hamstring injuries a number of times and we await an update from the club on his condition.

ClaretandHugh have been told that the ice strapping is a standard procedure and not necessarily a cause for alarm.

Seb Haller was missing from yesterday’s matchday squad leading to all kinds of conspiracy theories on social media after the teams were announced at 3.30 pm on Sunday.

A club source explained that Haller trained yesterday but suffered from a small knock so did not make the bench today but his injury is not expected to be long term and he should return to the matchday squad for Manchester City.

With the next game in less than six days time, David Moyes will be hoping both his forwards will be fit in time to face tenth place Manchester City.