Written by: George M

Saturday’s win over Chelsea was vintage West Ham. After going nearly two and a half months without a win, the lads put in the best shift they have done all season. Performances like Saturday’s keep us fans guessing what sort of team will turn up for our remaining fixtures. It is hard to think of any players that didn’t perform well in the win. However, there were five stand-out players on the day which were in contention for man of the match with one player shining brightest in the 1-0 win. Check out the nominations and winner below:

Angelo Ogbonna

It’s still baffling as to why Pellegrini dropped Ogbonna last month. Ogbonna is an early contender for Hammer of the Year and was absolutely solid on Saturday. We have often seen times in recent seasons where the ball has headed towards Ogbonna and his resulting actions have usually ended up in a monumental error ultimately leading to an opposition goal. However, on Saturday and most times he has played this season, he hasn’t looked phased at all. If he carries on playing this way, he most certainly will win Hammer of the Year come May.

Aaron Cresswell

The goal scorer definitely needs to be nominated. Cresswell has scored some great goals during his time at the club and his right footed finish on Saturday was definitely up there with one of his best. Cresser knew he wasn’t going to beat Reece James for pace, so he knew he had to try something different. The cut into the box showed great quick thinking and then the finessed finish into the bottom right corner would make some of the league’s top finishers turn their heads. We are starting to see the Cresswell of old this season. Let’s hope he keeps it up and if he does, he could also be in contention for Hammer of the Year.

Mark Noble

Nobes always seems to turn up for London derbies. Although his performance against Spurs could be questioned, his performance against Chelsea was vintage Noble. It is being reported that Noble was involved in a pre-match talk with the rest of the team in which he made it clear to everyone how much this game should mean to all the players. Noble is one of those players that will always try to make a difference off the pitch as well as on it.

Declan Rice

It is fair to say that this season has started off slowly for Declan – so what a relief it was to see Declan play an absolute blinder against Chelsea. It was always going to be an interesting game for Declan when considering it was the first time he was playing against his childhood best friend, Mason Mount. Declan made sure Mount never had much dictation on the game and ensured the West Ham back line were always well protected throughout the 90 minutes. What was great to see was Declan’s determination to get forward and try and take hold of the game. Let’s hope the Chelsea games boosts his confidence and he can consistently put performances in like.

David Martin

The worthy winner of the Man of the Match award.

It’s really quite hard to make sense of the past two and a half months. Ever since Fabianski went off injured against Bournemouth, us fans have been treated what can only be described as a horror/comedy show. It’s baffling as to how Roberto was that bad of a keeper, but enough about him. It had been reported a few weeks ago that David Martin’s role at the club was to only be used in training to help train up the club’s strikers. He was pretty much just being used as target practice. Week in and week out during our winless run, the fans were calling out for Martin to be called into the starting 11 to help save us from more torture. Finally, Pellegrini gave in.

One of the main reasons Martin fully deserves the Man of the Match award wasn’t down to his performance in the pitch but for taking on the responsibility set on him on the day. The weight of every West Ham fan was resting on his shoulders. Had he messed up, the fans would’ve had to put up with another loss and worse yet, knowing we had no better options to deal with our devastating goalkeeper situation. Martin knew that any mistake by him would be attached to the rest of his career at the club. To add to the mounting pressure, Martin also had his legend of a Dad in attendance. This would have only added more things for Martin to think about. Fast forward to the end of the game, Martin had put in an excellent shift and his emotions were to show for it when the final whistle blew.

From every West Ham fan, Thank You David Martin!