Mark Noble heaped praise on West Ham trio Felipe Anderson, Marko Arnautovic and Michail Antonio for their performances in the 1-0 win against Tottenham.
The Hammers captain claimed the attacking trio were really hard for Spurs’ defence to handle and that Manuel Pellegrini’s side could have easily scored more on Saturday.
“I thought he was fantastic today (Antonio), great ball from Marko, him, Marko and Felipe were really hard for the Spurs back-four to handle today and we should have probably scored a couple more,” said Noble (BBC Radio 5 Live, Saturday April 27th 17:48).
Noble was then asked to grade West Ham’s season out of ten, and he opted to award his side a 7/10 for their efforts but claimed he was known to be harsh.
“I’m harsh on us, so I always want to improve, I’d say we started off at a zero and to be honest apart from the last couple of weeks if more decisions had gone our way…probably up to now I’ll give it a seven,” added Noble.
OPINION
Noble is right to drool over Antonio as he was sublime against Spurs, but it’s also nice to hear praise heaped on Arnautvoic and Anderson. Arnatuvoic and Anderson have both submitted some disappointing displays at times this season, and are both inconsistent for various reasons. Yet against Spurs both showed the best of their ability, and it saw Hammers fans have a very pleasant day out at Spurs’ fancy new stadium. West Ham have been frustrating this season as for every great performance, they submitted an awful one that hurt your eyes. Yet given that they now have the privilege of being the first team to beat Spurs in their new stadium, it may help the current season go down as a successful one once the dust settles. With that in mind Noble grading the Hammers’ current season 7/10 is probably fair, even if he thinks it’s harsh. The only reason it will look too high a rating in hindsight, is if the Hammers don’t build on what they’ve done this season in their next campaign.