West Ham 3-0 Fulham
What a difference a week makes. Just a week ago West Ham were humiliated by Swansea 3-0 though this weekend, with new loan signing Andy Carroll up top, West Ham looked a completely different side.
Going into this match up the sub story was that of two strikers. Andy Carroll who had joined West Ham from Liverpool on loan for the rest of the season and Dimitar Berbatov who had been signed by Fulham from Manchester United, though only one of them started and only one of him had any real say in the match.
Whilst Carroll may have been a £30+ million flop at Liverpool he made an immediate impact for West Ham setting up Kevin Nolan inside a minute as the Hammer's took an early lead. It wasn't long until Carroll was involved again...and again. Through out the first half West Ham kept hitting it up and Carroll kept winning the ball time and time again as he frustrated and irritated a Fulham defense that looked petrified.
It was due to the clear fear in the Fulham defense that West Ham netted their second goal. After a cross was cut out for a Hammer corner the Fulham defense were at 6's and 7's and Winston Reid charged through the area to net a thunderbolt header to dobule the lead with less than half an hour gone. By then it seemed as if West Ham were in control and just over 10 minutes later they secured the 3 points after the ball was have cleared to Matt Taylor who's shot just seemed to split the Fulham defense.
Despite having the 3 points in the bag West Ham didn't have the perfect afternoon as both Andy Carroll and Guy Demel limped off in the second half, however Carroll seemed to be taken off more a precautionary messaure than anything too serious. For Big Sam it wasn't just the performance of Carroll that will have pleased him but the whole squad. Kevin Nolan's role in the team was again crucial to the Hammers positives, and he's now netted his second of the season and Ricardo Vaz Te looked exceptional. With both Matt Jarvis and Yossi Benayoun expected to be in the West Ham squad for their next match we may well see West Ham looking more and more like a team that have the quality to stay up.
Fulham's Martin Jol will certainly be very unhappy at his side who didn't look like a side who opened their Premier League season with a 5-0 win. They looked terrified at the back and up front they looked toothless barring the occassional flash from Damien Duff and second half substitute Dimitar Berbatov (who aside from one or two moments was anonymous). The few positives that Jol can take from the game are that Keiran Richardson looked pretty creative and Steve Sidwell never gave up on the match despite being out numbered and out played in the middle. A poor performance and a poor result for Fulham.
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