Pure West Ham elation for Andriy Yarmolenko

Not a dry eye in the house on Saturday as West Ham’s defacto starting right-winger Andriy Yarmolenko scored his first goal since tearing his achilles last September. The Ukranian forward couldn’t contain his joy when celebrating and we couldn’t either.

Talk about a pretty quick turn around. West Ham winger Andriy Yarmolenko was getting called out for his performance against Watford a week ago but played the hero in his return to the London Stadium against Norwich City. Maybe he just needed to get up to playing speed again? Regardless, no one is criticizing his performance against the Canaries, especially after that celebration.

Yes, Yarmolenko is back on the score sheet after his long injury lay off, and man did he deserve his goal in this match. Prior to banging in his 56th-minute goal, Yarmolenko bashed a short-corner-turned-cross off the post with a thunderous volley.

The goal itself was a tidy finish after a Noble pass deflected back Yarmo’s way. He skinned the defender twice and sat him down only to pass the ball to Nobes in the box. He followed the ball enough to stay onside and made no mistake on the finish when it bounded back his way.

To say it was special for him would be an understatement. Having torn his achilles tendon twice in his career now, Yarmolenko needs some good luck and finally, he had a little bit in this match. His celebration was emotional as well, running to the bench and hugging the medical staff that he trusted to get him back to full health.

We covered his hunt for Ukranian Premier League history prior to the season started and noted: “The only stumbling block for Yarmolenko’s success [this season] is the play of Michail Antonio who finished last season extremely strong.” With Antonio out long term, the right-wing position is Yarmo’s to make his own, and he’s off to a good start.

Yarmolenko now has three Premier League goals to his name and is two behind former Liverpool player Andrey Voronin, six behind Chelsea’s Andriy Shevchenko, and seven behind Tottenham’s Serhiy Rebrov for the Ukranian Premier League goal scoring throne.

With health now on his side and a much clearer path to consistent first-team football, Andriy Yarmolenko can settle in and chase history with West Ham. Anyone who is spoken of as highly as he is by his teammates and cares enough to show off his physio team deserves a string of good luck moving forward.