Upon Further Review: Sebastien Haller clinical as he opens his West Ham account

The Hammers outmuscled the surprisingly fast and dangerous Watford Hornets as West Ham’s transfer-breaking striker Sebastien Haller opened his Premier League account. Upon Further Review, the Frenchman worked for his goals.

If the Premier League did secondary assist, chalk Sebastien Haller up for one of those as well. His holdup play allowed for Lanzini to get into the box, and a perfect looping cross found the Argentine baller, who was fouled ahead of the Noble penalty for West Ham’s opening goal.

But, we’re not here to talk about assists. No, this is all about the needed brace Haller scored in just his second match for the Hammers. While the game was extremely open, West Ham had to work to create their chances, and thankfully when they fell to Haller he made no mistake.

The first goal was largely created by Arthur Masuaku and (obviously) Felipe Anderson, who had the assist on the play. Masuaku, who has been under fire after the Brighton draw, played well moving forward in this match, and his dribbling and elusiveness helped him beat multiple markers to find Anderson.

Anderson then took control of the ball on a play destined to find Haller instead. He knocked the ball to the byline and eventually megged the defender, giving Haller the tap-in in front of the net. As Will Hughes knows, however, tap-ins aren’t as easy as they seem.

The real crux of this goal was Haller giving up possession to Anderson and not hanging his head on the play like a certain previous center-forward would have. Instead, he put his head down and beat Dacoure to the ball for the goal.

His second was a bit more exciting than the first, albeit from similar range. This time, West Ham used one of their seven corner kicks to actually ignite some offense and eventually set up a Haller bicycle kick to slam the match closed.

Lanzini took the corner short, a tactic which has been recently implemented and has been made successful by the off long cross deeper into the box. Anderson is the entended target on the front post crosses, likely due to his speed and ability to either knock the ball on net or push it along for a secondary chance.

On this occasion, Anderon opted for a diving header on net which the keeper Foster did well to deflect onto the crossbar. Once parried away, Haller caught the ball on an acrobatic bicycle kick that he managed to keep away from the keeper and defenders.

Not since Andy Carroll’s overhead rocket against Crystal Palace have we seen a kick like this, and it’s a welcomed addition. Haller took his chances well in this match, slotting home the two close-range goals to keep his team above water in a really tense, offensive match.

With multiple chances that were saved or off the mark, Haller was an everpresent striker for West Ham in this match and proved he doesn’t need to rely on a striker partner to get the offense going. It’s an exciting time to be a West Ham player, especially with Haller sitting on top of the formation, ready to smash the ball into the back of the net.