Robbie Earle reacts to ‘nasty’ moment in West Ham United win vs Aston Villa
West Ham United finally claimed their first goal and points of the Premier League season with a 1-0 win over Aston Villa thanks to Pablo Fornals.
The Spaniard found the back of the net late in the second half with a strike from the edge of the box that deflected off Villa defender Ezri Konsa and over goalkeeper Emi Martinez to secure all three points away from home.
But commentator Earle, speaking on the USA Network [28 August, 15:32] said it was a moment that had been coming in the game and described the deflection as a “nasty” one when reacting to the goal live on air.
“You just felt that was going to be a moment in the game and how it happened, massive deflection off Ezri Konsa,” he said.
“They’re slow to go and engage, a great pick out from Declan Rice, good first touch, hits the target and it’s a real nasty one. It loops over Emi Martinez and it’s scenes of joy for West Ham.”
Huge
At this stage of the season, when you’re in the position that we’re in right now, it honestly doesn’t matter how they go in so long as they continue to count in our favour.
That goal from Fornals was deserved based off the second half performance, where Said Benrahma was brilliant as a half-time substitute following a really poor first half in which they were dominated.
The Hammers struggled in the first half, failing to take shots and create clear chances, as did Villa, and it was always going to take something magical or crazy to break the deadlock.
Now the team must take the momentum from the result and put it into a performance against Tottenham on Wednesday where they will have to perform far better than that to get a result against a top side.
“Nasty” seems like a bit of a harsh word to use but it makes sense, because Villa will feel very hard done by that they ended up with nothing from the game because of that strike and deflection.