West Ham turned their fortunes around and claimed all three points with a 4-2 victory over Burnley in the Premier League this week. Felipe Anderson finally justified his huge price tag by scoring a brace and his goals sandwiched by Marko Arnautovic’s opener and Javier Hernandez’s injury-time fourth ensured that the Hammers completed an emphatic victory.
Things haven’t gone according to the script for the Hammers in recent weeks. After a horrible start to the season, West Ham were hit hard by a series of injuries to several of their key players just when things were beginning to fall into place for Manuel Pellegrini.
West Ham currently have as many as seven players on the treatment table including the likes of Carlos Sanchez, Andriy Yarmolenko, Jack Wilshere, Lucas Perez, Manuel Lanzini and Andy Carroll. Quite clearly, Manuel Pellegrini would have been a worried man, particularly due to the injury to mega-money summer recruit Andriy Yarmolenko. West Ham did not have a realistic replacement for the Ukrainian barring the inconsistent Michail Antonio.
But 20-year-old Grady Diangana has emerged as the answer to the club’s injury problems. The Anglo-Congolese winger has emerged as West Ham’s latest academy talent who is making a name for himself in the Premier League.
Diangana was given his senior debut in the second round of the Carabao Cup against Macclesfield Town and helped the Hammers to a resounding 8-0 win. The 20-year-old was the standout performer in the Carabao Cup tie, scoring a couple of goals in that goal fest and showed impressive ability to link-up the play in the final third.
While his first goal came from a clever one-two with one of his teammates, he showed his whole repertoire of skills in the second goal, cutting inside from the right and keeping his composure to find the net with a clinical finish.
Diangana made his bow in Premier League just after a few days, coming on as an injury-time substitute in the 3-1 victory over Manchester United. He was given his first start against Leicester City and showed glimpses of his potential but it was in the 4-2 win over Burnley that he showed his true colours.
Drafted into the eleven ahead of the experienced Michail Antonio, Diangana started as a right-winger and caused all sorts of problems for the defenders with his pace and trickery. He used his skills and instant acceleration to good effect and got inside the box in the first half before being fouled blatantly by Steven Defour. However, for some unknown reason, the referee did not point to the spot.
Well, that was Diangana’s first impact and he slowly grew in confidence as the game progressed. The 20-year-old received the ball in the midfield and released a superb through ball to set up Felipe Anderson for West Ham’s second goal. He wasn’t put off by the huge frame of James Tarkowski charging towards him and showed every bit of his composure and awareness to release the ball at the correct moment.
However, his fairytale outing in the Premier League was far from over. Diangana played a clever one-two with Marko Arnautovic just outside the box to set up Felipe Anderson for his second goal. It is very common for wingers of his age to get carried away with their pace and flair but Diangana showed that he has a lot more to offer at the highest level. In other words, his decision-making was right up there with the very best.
The 20-year-old has already earned rave reviews for his stellar performance against Burnley and if he continues his development down the right path, he has all that it takes to make it big at the Premier League stage.