West Ham continued their impressive start to the season after managing a 2-1 win over champions Manchester City at Upton Park. The team came under pressure last season due to the dour football that was being played. Manager Sam Allardyce promised a lot of changes this season and he has stayed true to his word in the opening few months of this campaign. New signings like Valencia and Sakho have been influential this campaign, while Morgan Amalfitano continued his goalscoring run against the top teams. His goal gave West Ham a lead in the first half before Sakho doubled their advantage in the second half.
Even though West Ham had many nervous moments in the second half when City responded to going down, they held on for a victory. David Silva’s goal just minutes after the Sakho will only proved to be a consolation. This defeat against Chelsea chance to open an eight point advantage at the top of the table. Over the last few weeks, West Ham have had an impressive results over the likes of Liverpool and QPR. They also came close to snatching a win at Old Trafford. Sam Allardyce says that he was extremely pleased with the intensity shown by his team, which proved to be crucial.
“There was no doubt that was the best of our three home wins. The performance was the best of the lot as well, because the quality of the opposition we played makes it the best performance we did this season. I think the difficulties we had to cope with in the closing stages meant this was a magnificent effort by the players. Watching the TV before the game, they put up the top scorers in Europe and (Sergio) Aguero and (Edin) Dzeko were both up there, and neither of those two have scored,” said Allardyce.