West Ham United 2-0 Wigan Athletic: Match Review
Summary: Wigan missed the chance to move out of the relegation zone as they were undeservedly beaten by West Ham at Upton Park.
The Latics had the chance to overtake Aston Villa, who tackle Manchester United on Monday, but remain in the Premier League bottom three after squandering numerous opportunities in the capital.
Sam Allardyce and his players can now breathe easy after this win pushed them beyond the 40-point safety barrier and lifted them up into the top-half of the table.
Shaun Maloney wasted a glorious opportunity to put Wigan in front early on after Callum McManaman’s pass put him one-on-one with Jussi Jaaskelainen but fluffed his lines as the Hammers keeper narrowed the angle.
The home side soon took control and after a Kevin Nolan went close with a near post volley they finally broke the deadlock mid-way through the half as Matt Jarvis’ wicked inwinging cross from the left evaded everyone in the penalty area and sneaked past Jose into the far corner.
Still, Roberto Martinez’s men were undeterred with Jordi Gomez and Arouna Kone going close to an equaliser in the second half before Jaaskelainen kept out Emmerson Boyce’s header and denied James McArthur with a stunning save from point blank range.
And their profligacy was punished again as Andy Carroll acrobatically set up Nolan to volley past Joel with 10 minutes to go.
Sam Allardyce post match…”Their possession was better than ours but the chances they had they either missed or Jussi Jaaskelainen saved them. We knew Wigan would push forward which left them defensively weakened and we exposed them.”
Roberto Martinez post match…”We should have had something from the game. The second half was as one-sided a game as you will see and to lose [the half] 1-0 was difficult to explain. The team looked a little bit affected by the [Manchester City] fixture on Wednesday.”
Good day for…Jussi Jaaskelainen: The veteran Finnish goalkeeper was the difference for West Ham today with a string of brilliant saves to deny Wigan a deserved goal and preserve a welcome clean sheet. Point blank stops from Maloney and McArthur the pick of the bunch.
Bad day for…Emmerson Boyce: Was given a torrid time by Jarvis on the left wing and allowed the West Ham ample time and space to pick out the cross that led to the first goal. Wasn’t up to much going forward for his own team either.