Watford 2-0 West HamOdion Jude Ighalo 39
Odion Jude Ighalo 48
As Watford set about remodelling their squad in the summer it was decided that Odion Ighalo might be surplus to requirements, and only the player’s refusal to leave stalled a move to the Chinese side Hebei China Fortune.
Despite his 20 league goals last season he started their opening game on the bench. Since then however he has become perhaps the league’s most influential attacking player; not since that day have the Hornets fashioned a goal that he hasn’t either scored or created, and there were another two in an outstanding display from both the player and his team here.
West Ham may have taken maximum points from their games against Arsenal, Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea, but they also have one of a possible nine against Bournemouth, Norwich and now Watford, this emphatically deserved reverse coming on a ground where they had not lost in the league for 30 years.
So far this season Watford has been the ideal venue for the disorganised, late-arriving fan, Ighalo’s 39th-minute opener here – one for the dubious goals panel, having perhaps come off a defender’s foot – being the first scored by any side in the first half of any game. Those a little slow to take their seats again missed little, though they may have not have seen Dmitri Payet, initially stationed on the left but frequently roaming infield, pirouetting balletically past his marker in the fourth minute before shooting tamely. A few minutes later he found Victor Moses surging clear, but the on-loan Chelsea forward miscontrolled, and was in any case offside.
Though it was perhaps a surprise that Watford had not picked their mountainous cenre-half Sebastian Prödl to counter the aerial threat of Andy Carroll, making his first league start of the season, the occasional England striker was much more influential in his own half than in his opponents’. In the 10th minute Nathan Aké’s header from a corner was pushed away from goal by Adrián only to fall, after a few swings and scuffs, to Troy Deeney, whose shot hit Carroll first in the head and then the hand, leading to noisy but unsuccessful penalty appeals.
Carroll’s part in Watford’s opener was humiliatingly hapless. Watson, whose set-piece delivery was a threat throughout, chipped in a free-kick, and as it fell to the ground the striker swung his left foot at the ball, totally – and perhaps deliberately – missing it before, still in possession, he turned his back to play and stopped. Aké, unfortunately for him, did not, stealing in, taking the ball off his toes and sliding it across goal, where it was poked over the line by a combination of Ighalo and Aaron Cresswell.
Though Watford’s best first-half chances came almost entirely from set-pieces, they at least had some. Slaven Bilic perhaps felt forced into some kind of change at the break, and in fact made two, replacing Moses and Manuel Lanzini with Mauro Zárate and Enner Valencia and allowing Payet to move permanently infield. The result was 10 minutes of total domination by the home team, and another goal.
Deeney’s pass found Ikechi Anya running from right to left into the penalty area. Off balance, the Scottish winger twisted to send the ball towards Ighalo but the pass was weak and James Tomkins should have dealt with it.
Instead he let it run between his feet, and the Nigerian controlled before spearing the ball into the top corner. A minute later Ighalo was sent clear only for Adrián to save his shot, and a minute after that Deeney speared over the bar when given time and space on the edge of the area. To say that West Ham, victors away from home at Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City this season, were shambolic during this period would be to do the concept of hopeless disorganisation a disservice.
They improved thereafter – it would have been difficult not to – and Payet’s wonderful chipped cross after an hour set up Carroll to volley wide. Their best chance was however gifted to them, as Craig Cathcart’s blind back-pass was intercepted by Valencia, whose shot crashed against the post before Carroll, somewhat summing up his afternoon, failed to control the rebound.
Watford continued to attack sporadically, and might have scored again with 20 minutes remaining had Etienne Capoue successfully picked out the lonely Juan Carlos Paredes. There was still time for Ighalo to make one more telling contribution, as Collins tackled him extremely hard and extraordinarily late and was sent off for his troubles.
Guardian
