West Ham United 1 (Soucek 90+1) v Fulham 0.
Yellows: Ogbonna, Diop. Mitrovic, Loftus-Cheek.
Played Saturday 7 November 2020 at empty London Stadium.
It would be unfair to judge this hard fought game or any individual in it on the 5 minutes of additional time, but that is where the drama was. A much improved Fulham matched West Ham United all the way for endeavour and skill, particularly from goalkeeper AlphonseAreola, until those last 5 minutes, and looked like breaking their run of 13 consecutive defeats in F.A. Premier League London derbies with their 2nd draw in 18 Premier London derbies (PLDs). For the Hammers the win gave them 8 wins and 4 draws in their last 12 home PLDs against the Cottagers.
Everyone is looking at Fulham’s Ademola Lookman, once of Everton and on loan from R BLeipzig, as the key player in this game, but perhaps it was West Ham’s Said Benrahma, their buy from defeated EFL Championship playoff side Brentford, beaten of course by the visitors! Benrahma came on as substitute on 72 minutes and provided the assist for the increasingly impressive Hammers’ midfielder Tomas Soucek to score in the first minute of additional time. There was controversy about offside but V.A.R. allowed the goal. The hero turned to villain when Benrahma fouled the visiting Captain Tom Cairney in the box. Up stepped Ademola Lookman whose attempted “Panenka penalty”, the last kick of the match,was far too weakly struck and easily caught by Lukasz Fabianski in the home goal. That was his 7th penalty save since the start of the 2016-17 season, 3 more than anyone else, and perhaps his easiest.
Enough said about that. For me, from the comfort of my armchair watching the highlights on Match of the Day, the high points of the match were the genuine compassion shown by the home team’s Fabian Balbuena in his embrace of the visiting forward after the final whistle, and West Ham United’s Manager David Moyes saying that they too would have contested the offside decision which gave them the winning goal. Humanity and honesty.
The next PLDs match is on 28 November 2020 when Chelsea entertain Tottenham Hotspur. Until then, keep safe, and remember “Hands, Face, Space”, Andrew at PLDs.