Stylish Watford breeze past West Ham
Watford beat West Ham 2-0 thanks to goals from Will Hughes and Richarlison in David Moyes’ first game in charge of the Hammers.
In a first half littered with yellow cards, the hosts took an early lead thanks to Hughes. West Ham responded well and pushed for an equaliser either side of the break, but Richarlison put any hopes of a comeback to bed when he finished off a swift Hornets move on the hour-mark.
A very scrappy opening ten minutes was topped off with a very scrappy opening goal. Marvin Zeegelaar’s cross from the left was only cleared as far as Andre Gray, whose attempted shot dropped perfectly for Hughes and the midfielder calmly slotted past Hart in the West Ham goal.
Watford came a whisker away from doubling their lead just after the half-hour mark. Joe Hart parried a Richarlison shot into the path of Kiko Femenia, but his low drive from the edge of the box flew just wide.
Moyes’ side then took the initiative and came close to an equaliser on multiple occasions before the break. With five minutes to play in the opening period, they fizzed the ball around on the edge of the box before Mark Noble split the Watford defence with an inch-perfect pass through to Cheikhou Kouyate. He looked certain to score but Heurelho Gomes rushed off his line to smother the effort.
The Watford goalkeeper continued to produce heroics moments later after when Marko Arnautovic powered a header towards goal. Christian Kabasele stuck a leg out, deflecting the effort and completely wrong-footing Gomes, but he somehow managed to get an arm to it and push away. From the rebound, Arnautovic closed in and tried to dink over the goalkeeper, but he recovered in time to save again.
West Ham continued to press after the restart and should have been level on 52 minutes. Arnautovic cut back for the onrushing Kouyate inside the area, but he fired way over the bar.
However, it was Watford who doubled their lead soon after. Hughes picked the ball up in the middle of the park and released Richarlison down the left. He drove at Winston Reid before unleashing a low, left-footed drive that found its way into the back of the net, despite Hart getting a hand to it.
The Hammers didn’t give up and had an effort cleared off the line on 74 minutes. Manuel Lanzini fired a shot towards goal but Kabasele did well to get back and save his team.
Watford proceeded to close out the game with relative ease to push them up to eighth in the Premier League table and condemn David Moyes to a losing start at West Ham.