BBC pundit Garth Crooks has hailed West Ham attacker Michail Antonio after his display against Tottenham, labelling him ‘devastating’ and including him in his Premier League Team of the Week.
Antonio scored the only goal of the game at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday lunchtime.
Writing in his regular column for the BBC Crooks said: “Michail Antonio: This is a player who has a lot of ability, who is strong as an ox and can score goals with his feet and head.
“West Ham’s Antonio appeared to be the perfect foil for Marko Arnautovic and I’m not entirely sure why it’s taken manager Manuel Pellegrini so long to discover this bourgeoning double act.
“Tottenham couldn’t cope with Antonio running in behind their back four to devastating effect. It’s so refreshing to see a team prepared to play the long ball game instead of this continuous tippy-tappy nonsense. A word of advice for Antonio – keep scoring the goals, dump the celebration.”
OPINION
Tottenham were poor on Saturday but that’s to take nothing away from West Ham who finally seem to be finding some rhythm and form under Manuel Pellegrini. They shouldn’t just be able to raise their game against Spurs though. Fans want to see this passion and intensity week in, week out, and if they do West Ham could easily break into the Premier League’s top-six club. That has to be the aim next season and while they’ll need to add at least another couple of players, the nucleus of the side is there. Michail Antonio was brilliant and there’s a hope that he’ll be able to retain this form that he showed in the 16/17 season. There have been murmurings that he’s not been fit and that the club wanted to sell him in the summer, but he’s back doing what he used to do best. In the 16/17 season he scored nine in 29 games and this was his sixth goal in 31 games this campaign. It’s very encouraging for West Ham fans.