Carroll planning to give Hammers another Christmas cracker at Swans

Andy Carroll has history when it comes to scoring wonder goals at the Liberty Stadium and is targeting a repeat this Boxing Day.

Back in January 2015, Carroll produced an absolute gem away to Swansea when he expertly brought the ball down before firing an unstoppable, curling shot into the top corner.

West Ham face a trip to the Swans one day after Christmas and the striker will be confident of finding the net again – having scored four goals in his last five games against the Welsh side.

The injury-prone 27-year-old is fully fit – for the time being at least – after recovering from a knee problem afflicting him earlier in the campaign and is looking to kick on as the Hammers try to climb the table.

Photo credit: Getty Images

“I am over the moon to be back in action and it has been a long time,” admitted Carroll. “Hopefully I can keep fit and get back among the goals.

“I scored a nice goal against Swansea in my last game there and hopefully I can repeat that on Monday.

“It has been tough for us with the run of games we have faced. We had a hard run and then faced Burnley and Hull at home which were also tough games.

“We know it [Swansea] is going to be a hard game and every game in the Premier League is tough. You could see that when we played Burnley and Hull and they were probably as hard as any game we have faced.

“Hopefully we can go into the New Year with some more victories behind us and we just need to keep doing our best.

“We know we need to do better than what we have done in the first half of the season, and we know we can do better.

“As a team we want to move higher up the league and not give away sloppy points.”