Defensive midfielders: Declan Rice – 7th
Previous – Stay (7th)
Sign him up, sign him up, Declan Rice, Sign him up! That’s all that needs to be said for Rice as of late and we’re all hoping for a new year’s message from our club confirming that news. Rice has yet again put in a tremendous performance being the heartbeat and rock for West Ham in the center of midfield. He picks his tackles out well, outlets the ball with great accuracy, and sticks to opposing players incredibly close.
Fulham didn’t have an answer for the forcefield around West Ham’s penalty area after the first fifteen minutes with Rice and co. keeping the dangerous chances to the outside. He has a really solid relationship with his centre-backs, too which has provided a lot of teamwork with long headers and ball claims between Diop and himself. He is a supremely talented player in a position that doesn’t get too much spotlight, nevertheless, he is a tremendous talent for West Ham.
Attacking midfielders: Felipe Anderson and Robert Snodgrass – 5th and 16th
Previous: 7th and 20th
Felipe Anderson added an assist on Snodgrass’s goal this past match week with a terrific effort. He corralled the longball from Noble, fought off the lunging tackle into his legs and pressed on, waiting the perfect amount of time before picking out Snodgrass with a beautiful cutback pass. One of the most in-form players in the past two months, Anderson was the target of Tighe’s excerpt:
"Felipe Anderson’s slow rise has now led him to fifth place. That might seem a little lofty, but he really has been stupendous over the past month, and his spike in form has coincided with a series of dips from others, such as Gylfi Sigurdsson, Anthony Martial and Ryan Fraser."
Robert Snodgrass is usually the distributor of the ball but has thrown caution to the wind and now has back to back games with a goal. Both were beautiful left-footed strikes and both were a long time coming. It was great to see Snoddy get his first for West Ham against Palace two weeks ago, but it was even more important to see him stay hot and in the goals against Fulham. What a striker, too!