Huddersfield Town vs West Ham United. Premier League.
The John Smith's StadiumAttendance24,105.
Saturday 13 January 2018 23:29, UK
West Ham produced a devastating second-half display to thump Huddersfield 4-1, with Manuel Lanzini scoring twice to give David Moyes the 200th Premier League win of his managerial career.
Mark Noble capitalised on a mix-up between Jonas Lossl and Joe Lolley to give the Hammers the lead with a cool finish (25), before Lolley made amends five minutes before the interval with a sublime equaliser for the Terriers.
Marko Arnautovic restored West Ham's lead just 11 seconds into the second period when he latched onto Cheikhou Kouyate's flick, and the Austrian then turned provider for Lanzini's first away Premier League goal since November 2016 (56).
Lanzini completed the rout five minutes later following another swift counter-attack as the Hammers moved above their opponents into 11th in the table, with Huddersfield dropping to 13th place.
Moyes has now completed a double century of wins in the English top flight, with only Harry Redknapp, Arsene Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson - watching on from the stands at the John Smith's Stadium - having achieved more.
After a cagey opening, West Ham profited from a disastrous breakdown in communication between Huddersfield 'keeper Lossl and Lolley from a goal-kick, as Arnautovic forced the midfielder into conceding possession on the edge of his own penalty area, allowing Noble to sweep in the 50th goal of his career.
But Huddersfield, and in particular Lolley, responded well to the setback. Lanzini over-ran the ball to Mathias Jorgensen and, once Tom Ince had invited Tommy Smith forward from the right, the ball was worked wide by Aaron Mooy to Lolley and he stepped inside Noble to curl a wonderful strike into the bottom corner.
David Wagner's side finished the half in the ascendancy but they were made to pay for a sluggish start to the second period as, from the kick-off, Angelo Ogbonna's long ball forward was flicked on by Kouyate to Arnautovic, who lifted the ball over Smith before firing low to Lossl's left and into the net.
The Terriers were rocked by the bolt out of the blue, and their problems increased as, five minutes later, Arnautovic sped away from Christopher Schindler to lay the ball into Lanzini's path and the Argentinian flashed his shot across Lossl for a slick third.
Moyes was delighted to call upon Arnautovic after he recovered from a hamstring injury, and further signs of his blossoming relationship with Lanzini were on show for West Ham's fourth as the Austrian winger spun Schindler on the touchline before allowing Lanzini to take the ball off his toes to cut inside and blast his second into the roof of the net.
David Wagner: "It was a frustrating day because we made too many easy mistakes. The first is an individual mistake that should never happen. With the second one we needed to be stronger and we tried to play offside for the third.
"West Ham have creative individuals who were able to hurt us. We had too many players who were below par today.
"We have to make sure this never happens again, but we know exactly what went wrong. Unfortunately not everything in football goes to plan."
David Moyes: "It's a really big win. The teams from 10th down, anyone can beat each other on any day so it's a big win for us.
"I was a bit disappointed going in 1-1 at half-time, and we told them that. I want our fans to see what we can be like, we're giving fans a reason for coming away from London for away games.
"We had fantastic support and hopefully this attracts more players to the club."
Matt Le Tissier: "Arnautovic was outstanding this afternoon. He was different class and was the difference between the two teams He was a thorn in the Huddersfield side.
"I don't know what Moyes has done to him, but he looked like an absolute world-beater today.
"Once West Ham got in front in the second half, Huddersfield over-committed men forward and Lanzini was able to profit from that. On the counter, they looked very dangerous."
Arnautovic was absent from West Ham's goalless draw with Shrewsbury Town in the FA Cup third round, but David Moyes' decision to protect him was vindicated as the Austrian returned to torment the Huddersfield defence with another display of his improvement since the Scot's arrival.
It's now six goals in his last seven games for Arnautovic, who provided Manuel Lanzini with both his strikes - meaning for the first time in his Premier League career, the forward was involved in three goals in a single game.
Huddersfield will look to regroup when they head to the bet365 Stadium to face Stoke City next Saturday, while West Ham have an FA Cup third-round replay against Shrewsbury Town on Tuesday before entertaining Bournemouth at the London Stadium next Saturday.
