West Ham captain and talisman Mark Noble has pinpointed their reaction to Everton’s goal as the most-pleasing aspect of their 3-1 win over the Toffees last weekend.
The Hammers secured their first win and points of the Premier League season at Goodison Park thanks to a double from Andriy Yarmolenko and a goal from Marko Arnautovic.
Noble has however highlighted their reaction to Everton making it 2-1 as the thing that pleased him most about their performance against the Toffees.
In a column for the Evening Standard, he said: “What pleased me most, though, was the way we reacted in the second half after Everton scored to make it 2-1 right on half-time. We had played well in the first 45 minutes and the manager said, “Relax, calm down” and told us to keep playing the way we had been – and we did that.”
OPINION
This is a somewhat surprising thing for Noble to highlight about their win over Everton, but you can see where he is coming from. The Toffees managed to pull a goal back just before the break and the Hammers could easily have crumpled in the second half in the face of that mounting pressure. They showed no signs of doing so however and fought back to take a comfortable win, and one that will have impressed many. The manner of their victory, as Noble points out here, was eye-catching, and they will have shut a few doubters up with such a performance. Things do not get any easier this weekend however, with Chelsea making the short trip across London on Sunday. The Blues are unbeaten this season and will provide a huge test for the Irons, who will be coming in more confident after their horrific start to the season.