Match Review: West Ham score early and late to seal FA Cup win

With both centre-forwards scoring headed goals, West Ham wrapped up their FA Cup third round draw with a win over a strong Birmingham team. The Hammers’ youngster impressed, Arnautovic stormed off, and Carroll was as polarizing as ever in the match.

In the end, it seems like a solid and dominant effort from West Ham who ended the match with 74% possession over their opposition. The Irons also nearly tripled Birmingham’s passes (617-211), had 22% better accuracy, more shots on target, fewer fouls, and fewer offsides, but with the eye test, Birmingham were a lot closer to the Hammers in this match than many would have liked.

The difference for West Ham was the quality their youth players brought to the pitch. Grady Diangana and Xande Silva both started the match and both looked great up their respective wings. Diangana was constantly overlapping wide with Michail Antonio and showed tremendous strength holding up play alone.

He finished the match without making it to the scoresheet, however, the now first-team winger showed his quality by consistently providing an option for his midfielders and always having an eye for attacking. Diangana also impressed with his tracking back, showing up in full sprint to cover for Antonio who played up the pitch frequently.

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Silva similarily looked impressive, tracking back on the left side, while overlapping with Masuaku going forward. It was his first start in a West Ham shirt and he looked comfortable throughout the game. He had a propensity to attack the middle of the pitch, almost playing as a secondary striker at times, which opened up opportunities for Masuaku and Carroll.

Outside of the youth, West Ham’s new signing Samir Nasri played an impressive 58 minutes in his West Ham debut. He was played off of Arnautovic/Carroll as a #10 but was constantly dropping deep to get the ball and joining the attack out wide to strengthen numbers down the pitch.

Most impressive of Nasri’s performance was his passing. The Frenchman looked extremely comfortable and on the same page with his West Ham teammates, connecting especially well with Arnautovic and Diangana early on. He earned man of the match honors in his hour of play and impressed throughout his debut! One to build on for sure!

Your Man of the Match! 😍 pic.twitter.com/hDqXGQOeOV
— West Ham United (@WestHam) January 5, 2019

We’ll end with the goalscorers for West Ham. Arnautovic notched West Ham’s first just two minutes into the match. Off of a solid corner delivery from Diangana, Ogbonna heads it on goal from distance and Arnautovic nodded in the rebound over the keeper and in front of his marker.

Arnautovic looked relaxed and loose on the pitch but a bit of back pain saw Manuel Pellegrini pull his striker from the game after just 20 minutes of play. Arnie was noticeably angry for the substitution but returned to the bench. Pellegrini cleared the air post-match, stating he wanted to protect his main CF who, Pellegrini said was “angry for just one minute, that is it.”

Andy Carroll was brought on in Arnautovic’s place and ended up scoring the second and final goal of the match. He headed in a terrific cross from Michail Antonio and celebrated with a calm, relieved look on his face as he thanked the fans and shot a kiss out to his family.

Carroll didn’t offer much of anything in build-up play in this match and was often seen jogging lazily through the midfield while his wingers attacked the play. He isn’t the type of player Hammers fans have gotten used to with the rise of Arnautovic but Carroll should improve with more match time and fitness.

The big man did look solid on defensive coverage for corner kicks, of which Birmingham had 10, with his most impressive play being a headed goal-line clearance on a headed attempt by the opposition. Was it the perfect performance? Far from it. But Pellegrini seems determined to get Carroll firing and use him off the bench this season. This was a good building block for him.

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Alas, West Ham make it through to the fourth round of the FA Cup with this 2-0 win. Birmingham counterattacked the Irons a lot more effectively in the second half, testing keeper Adrian 4 times throughout this match, but most of their attacks ended up being toothless. With Pellegrini selecting a “B” team, it was a solid performance from the Hammers who will take the win and move on.