BBC pundit raves over what ‘brilliant’ West Ham ace Alphonse Areola did v Nottingham Forest
West Ham goalkeeper Alphonse Areola was hailed as “brilliant” for what he did in Saturday’s (17 February) 2-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest by Match of the Day pundit Shay Given.
Goals from Taiwo Awoniyi and Callum Hudson-Odoi earned three points for the hosts at the City Ground, while Kalvin Phillips was sent off on a thoroughly miserable day for David Moyes’ men.
But Areola was a rare bright note for the visitors, the French goalkeeper making six saves in total (SofaScore) to help keep the score down.
One save in particular from Anthony Elanga caught the eye of former Newcastle United goalkeeper Given when he was giving his analysis on Match of the Day (17 February, iPlayer 1hr 5mins).
“Areola made some big saves for West Ham, this is Tavares again can he pick someone out? And Elanga coming in again from the other side, another brilliant save from Areola,” he said.
How does West Ham goalkeeper Alphonse Areola rank against other Premier League keepers?
Areola has been very impressive for the Hammers this season and has a goals prevented rate of 1.07, the joint-seventh best in the Premier League this season (stats by Opta Analyst).
West Ham are in dreadful form right now, building the pressure on boss David Moyes, with this defeat following the 6-0 home drubbing by Arsenal last week but Areola was one of the few who could hold their heads high at the City Ground knowing he had done his best for the team.
Given knows a thing or two about goalkeeper having had a distinguished career in the top flight and he was right to be praising Areola, without who West Ham might have been staring at a much worse defeat.
The thing is, though, the Hammers want their goalkeeper to be significantly less busy than he was in Nottingham and if they are to turn their fortunes around they are going to have to much more to protect his goal.
In other West Ham news, Graham Potter has been mooted amid sack talk involving Moyes.
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