Report and highlights as Robert Snodgrass and Michail Antonio heap more misery on rock-bottom Fulham
Saturday 15 December 2018 23:44, UK
West Ham claimed a fourth Premier League win in a row with a 2-0 victory over rock-bottom Fulham at Craven Cottage on Saturday.
Fulham missed a host of early chances before Robert Snodgrass and Michail Antonio exposed their defensive frailties in the space of 12 minutes to put the Hammers two up at the break.
West Ham's first-half double took Fulham's goals conceded tally to 42 for the season, as their wait for a first clean sheet of the campaign continued.
The defeat leaves Fulham three points from safety at the bottom on the Premier League, while West Ham climb to ninth after their best run in the Premier League since February 2014.
Recalled into the Fulham starting line-up after his goal at Old Trafford, Aboubakar Kamara nearly vindicated his selection with the opening goal on nine minutes, but striker spurned a glorious chance as Lukasz Fabianski saved his near-post shot.
And Fulham were made to pay for that miss as Felipe Anderson spun away from Denis Odoi and rolled the ball back to the edge of the area where Snodgrass curled a fine effort into the top corner.
Aleksandar Mitrovic failed to haul Fulham level when he headed wide from a Joe Bryan cross on 26 minutes, but the chances kept on falling Fulham's way.
A brilliant Odoi cross landed perfectly for Kamara a minute later but Fabianski got down low to his left to keep the header out. Frustrated with his earlier misses, Kamara then stung the palms of the West Ham 'keeper with a 25-yard drive.
But after a flurry of missed Fulham chances, West Ham gave then hosts a lesson in finishing as Javier Hernandez flicked a cross from the left onto Antonio at the back post, and the forward took a touch to control before slotting a second through Sergio Rico's legs.
From there on, Fulham showed little sign of getting back into the game. A driven cross from Cyrus Christie was nearly turned into his own net by Issa Diop, but that was a brief moment of panic in an otherwise assured defensive display from West Ham.
Claudio Ranieri: "We shot at goal 16 times - we have to be more and more effective. They create two counter-attacks and they scored two goals. It's unbelievable. I can say nothing today. They tried their best. When you play a team with experience and quality you try to do your best and we tried. My players were fighting to the end."
Manuel Pellegrini: "We are very happy, to win four in a row is not easy in the Premier League. We didn't create too many chances but we scored the chances and we defended very well, especially in the second half."
The Paraguayan did not put a foot wrong at Craven Cottage, despite the testing conditions in sodden south-west London. Many eyebrows were raised when West Ham signed Balbuena last summer, but with each passing game, it's looking like a shrewd piece of business from the Hammers.
Fulham travel to Newcastle and West Ham host Watford in the Premier League on Saturday at 3pm.
