Fresh Football Premier League Analysis, transfer news and blogs.
West Ham reached the quarter finals of the FA Cup with an impressive 2-1 win over London rivals Chelsea on Wednesday night.
One player who did impress on the night was West Ham’s Michail Antonio. The Englishman has played at both right back and right midfield this season, but on Wednesday night he led the line as a striker. The Hammers have struggled to find a reliable number 9 this season, and that has just been part of their big early season problems. But Bilic has obviously seen potential in Antonio as a striker, he has strength and pace and is also very good in the air. He’s scored a lot of goals from the right and it seems sensible to give him a go upfront. He’s played there a few times already, but it was on Wednesday night where he really excelled there, and certainly looked more useful than Simone Zaza in that position.
Antonio played as a lone striker and came up against new Chelsea summer signing David Luiz, who cost €35million. But on the night Antonio made the Brazilian look nothing like that value.
Here’s how the fans reacted to his performance on Twitter.
Antonio up front today was immense, ran himself into the ground. As did all of our players, what a great night
— West Ham Stuff ⚒ (@WestHamStuff) October 26, 2016
MOTM @Michailantonio by far anyone notice he offered to play RB and stopped Slav from taking Lanzini off because Ed was injured, superb! ⚒
— Samm. (@samuellwalkerr) October 27, 2016
@Raashaad Antonio was everywhere mate - played as a lone striker & destroyed Luiz. Feel sorry for David for when he has to face his family.
— West Ham Central (@WestHam_Central) October 27, 2016
Spare a thought for David Luiz. Michail Antonio absolutely tore him to bits, poor guy probably doesn’t know what day of the week it is
— West Ham Stuff ⚒ (@WestHamStuff) October 26, 2016
Michail Antonio playing up front once again. Tells you a lot about #WHUFC‘s poor recruitement during the summer.
— Benny Berger (@benny_berger) October 26, 2016
Antonio worked tirelessly up front, humiliating David Luiz several times throughout the game. It is great for West Ham that they have a player like him, who is so versatile and willing to work hard no matter where he plays. Excelling in striker just shows how Antonio was certainly not a right back. His defensive abilities are not great at all, but he has so much to give going forward. He really works hard, has a great leap, strength and pace, whilst his dribbling skills are also of a very high quality.
