Javier Hernández on hand as West Ham recover from early blow to beat Fulham

Fulham have only themselves to blame for their season as a whole, confused decision-making and erratic management in all likelihood sending them straight back to the Championship. But on this one occasion they can feel genuinely aggrieved that their fate was unfairly decided by someone else.

The Cottagers were a goal ahead and things were looking promising against West Ham when Javier Hernández punched home a goal and changed the course of this game, which ended in a 3-1 defeat for Claudio Ranieri’s side.

Call it bad luck, call it refereeing inadequacy, call it just the sort of thing that happens when you are at the wrong end of the table. Ultimately, you can probably call it relegation. And to think it had all started so well.

Ryan Babel should have given Fulham the lead after 30 seconds but he dithered when clean through: no matter, though, as two minutes later he did find the net, sweeping home after Ryan Sessegnon’s low cross fell perfectly in the six-yard box.

For about 20 minutes Fulham were purposeful and in control. It seemed strange, like it could not last. And it did not, although legally speaking it should have. West Ham equalised just before the half-hour when Hernández turned the ball in at the far post following a poorly cleared Robert Snodgrass corner, but he did so with his left hand.

The referee, Lee Mason, seemed to have a clear enough view, although it did take four or five replays to be 100% sure the touch came from hand rather than head. Still, perhaps the forward’s guilty, child-with-his-hand-in-the-sweet-tin glance around after the deed, might have been proof enough. Fulham were outraged, but the officials were unmoved.

Five minutes before the interval West Ham were ahead, again from a Snodgrass corner but this time it was legitimate, Issa Diop given time and space to head past Sergio Rico.

At half-time Ranieri removed Sessegnon and Jean-Michel Seri: the former because the manager remains unconvinced by one of the brightest young talents in the country. On came the Liverpool loanee Lazar Markovic for his first competitive appearance in England since May 2017.

Fulham had the better of the play but the changes did not help them. Babel hit a weak shot from outside the area, Aleksandar Mitrovic was denied by a sensational saving tackle by the former Fulham defender Ryan Fredericks, and there seemed to be more fight in the stands than on the pitch: at least two fans were escorted from the away section, arms windmilling like Hernández’s.

West Ham were subdued after the interval, but the crowd were roused by the return of Manuel Lanzini, on as a substitute after missing the whole season with a cruciate ligament injury. And he was involved in the final goal, headed home by Michail Antonio from a Marko Arnautovic cross.

source: theguardian.com