Skipper Noble hails West Ham after ‘difficult’ week
West Ham United captain Mark Noble said his side’s 3-0 demolition of Crystal Palace was “a satisfying end to a difficult week”.
The Hammers were emphatically dumped out of the FA Cup by Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City on January 7, while star man Dimitri Payet has expressed a desire to return to France.
However, the Hammers brushed aside their off-field problems as they put an out-of-sorts Palace to the sword at the London Stadium on Saturday to move up to 12th in the Premier League.
Sofiane Feghouli gave the home side the lead, before Andy Carroll raised the roof when he sent a sensational bicycle kick into the back of Wayne Hennessey’s net.
Manuel Lanzini added a late third, and Noble said the victory was a much-needed boost for the squad ahead of their clash with Middlesbrough.
Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images
“It was a definitely a satisfying end to a difficult week,” he said. “Obviously we had the Dimitri Payet situation, Big Sam [Allardyce] coming back and Tonks (James Tomkins), who is a friend of ours, coming back too, so there were a lot of factors in play.
“In the first half, there were a few nerves there, but once we got that first goal I thought we were the old West Ham.
“We went to two up-front to cause them a few more problems and it worked, so it was a really commanding performance in the end.
“I’m just happy that the situation got sorted out. A win settles nerves and puts everything on the backburner and we can look forward to Middlesbrough.”
