Watford 1 West Ham United 3
Goals: Andre Gray (£5.9m)| Sebastien Haller (£7.4m) x2 Mark Noble (£5.0m)
Assists: Will Hughes (£5.5m)| Michail Antonio (£7.0m) Felipe Anderson (£6.9m) Manuel Lanzini (£6.5m)
Bonus Points: Haller x3 Noble x2 Gray x2
Sebastien Haller (£7.4m) scored twice for West Ham United to consign Watford to a third straight defeat of a decidedly miserable start to the season.
Hammers skipper Mark Noble (£5.0m) celebrated his first action of the campaign by converting an early penalty, only for Andre Gray (£5.9m) to level for the hosts in an entertaining first half.
Excellent chances came and went for both sides before summer signing Haller’s brace sealed the deal for the visitors after the break.
West Ham’s win was a question of quality over quantity at Vicarage Road.
Watford had 23 attempts, but just three on target, compared to 16 and 10 respectively for Manuel Pellegrini’s side.
Gerard Deulofeu (£6.4m) epitomised that lack of a meaningful end-product from the Hornets, with a match-high seven attempts, only one of which was on target.
Haller, by contrast, had a shot accuracy of 75% and a conversion rate of 50% from the four chances he had.
His first league goal in English football came from a tap-in following smart work by Felipe Anderson (£6.9m).
He then doubled the advantage with an instinctive overhead kick after Ben Foster (£5.0m) could only parry Michail Antonio‘s (£7.0m) header from a corner.
Haller’s 13-point haul – he was awarded maximum bonus – furthers the Fantasy cause of yet another reasonably priced striker, with the majority of the top ten scoring frontmen in Fantasy Premier League currently costing less than £7.5m.
The appeal of the France Under-21 international, owned by just 2.9% of FPL managers for Gameweek 3, is also boosted by his schedule.
The Hammers will host a very obliging Norwich City defence next weekend and they have just two matches with a Fixture Difficulty Rating of more than ‘three’ over the next nine Gameweeks.
Pellegrini’s first job of the season has been to try and successfully integrate the abundance of attacking talent now at his disposal.
He might well have hit the jackpot at Vicarage Road, with Haller leading the line in a 4-2-3-1 formation that allowed Anderson and Manuel Lanzini (£6.5m) plenty of scope to get forward in support.
The latter earned a second consecutive assist of the season when he was brought down by Abdoulaye Doucouré (£5.9m) in the area after just three minutes.
Noble converted the spot-kick and West Ham were up and running.
Of the attacking midfield trio, only Andriy Yarmolenko (£5.9m) failed to impress, whereas his replacement Antonio, who came on after 55 minutes, set up one goal and could have had a couple himself.
Pellegrini’s post-match comments confirmed his continued commitment to progressive football, despite the 5-0 drubbing they received at the hands of Manchester City in Gameweek 1.
“It would be very easy for me, as a manager, to say after Manchester City to the players that we are going to play a different way and stay all back. I don’t think we would improve in that way. We did 45 minutes in a very good way against Manchester City. After that, we made an important mistake that decided the score. We’ve worked exactly the same though and we’ve won away, and now I hope we can win at home against Norwich City on Sunday.” – Manuel Pellegrini
That should increase the ownership figures of Haller, Lanzini and even the Fantasy troll that is Anderson.
Only Deulofeu had more penalty area touches (12) than the Brazilian’s 11, and he was unlucky not to score when his glancing header shaved the post at Vicarage Road. He also created two big chances for his teammates.
But if West Ham attackers are now looming larger on the Fantasy radar, their defenders deserve to remain out of sight and mind for now.
Three matches in and the Hammers have kept no clean sheets and only Aston Villa, with 55, have allowed more shots than the 53 they’ve conceded.
That they weren’t punished for this generosity on Saturday was down to Watford’s wastefulness.
Deulofeu, as already mentioned, was the main culprit, but the otherwise impressive Gray was similarly profligate.
He hit the target just the once in five attempts, although he at least had the decency to score from that one accurate effort.
Will Hughes (£5.5m) set up Gray’s goal with an astute pass before contriving to miss an open goal from two yards out that rather summed up the Hornets’ sorry afternoon.
Head coach Javi Gracia lamented that failure to convert chances into goals.
“We’ve lost 1-3.
That’s the final result. It’s true there were some moments in the game when we dominated, we created chances but if you don’t score with 23 shots then it’s difficult. We have to be more clinical when we dominate the game.” – Javi Gracia
His decision to partner Gray with Deulofeu in a tweaked formation was forced by a knee injury to Troy Deeney (£6.4m) that is likely to keep the captain out for the next couple of months.
“Without Troy, we tried a different formation, with four in a diamond and keeping two strikers with more mobility. In the first half, we did it well, with good chances after 10 minutes: two clear chances for Gerard. We tried a different way to find the balance, but not so well in the second half.” – Javi Gracia
The goals, you feel, will come for Watford – Gracia’s side
But investment in that promise should likely be kept on hold, at least until after matches with Arsenal and Manchester City over the next three Gameweeks.
And, like West Ham, their defenders should remain well off limits.
The only reason for cheer at the weekend was the two save points Foster managed from his seven stops as Watford failed to keep a clean sheet for the 18th straight match.
The Eye Test
Watford fan James Moseley:
“Watford looked very fragile at back against the counter but managed to dominate possession in the first half.
“They largely played through the middle nice with some nice one-two touch passing creating chances, asking some serious questions of the West Ham defence.
“Gray’s goal was fully deserved after Hughes drifted inside from the right and threading a ball behind the defence.
“However, the big problem was that the Watford full-backs were exposed to overloads in wide areas due to the diamond shape and lack of defensive width from the midfielders.
“Both Holebas and Femenía got forward themselves too to support the attack, although West Ham weren’t capitalising as much as they should, Anderson often drifting into the middle from wide.
“Also, Haller was largely anonymous before half-time, only really contributing a few headers from West Ham goal kicks.
“It was interesting to see that every Watford corner in the first half was aimed at Craig Dawson at the back post.
“He won a couple of headers but most of them were blocked and he didn’t look too dangerous.
“Watford continued to dominate possession in the second half although the game became a lot more open at this stage, West Ham only threatening on the counter.
“Hughes missed an absolute sitter while Antonio forced a decent save from Ben Foster in a one-on-one.
“Then Haller came to life after a quiet first half, tapping in from a few yards out. Watford were too easily opened up here, having looked fragile at the back all game. There was no challenge on Lanzini down the left either.
“At this point, it looked like Watford had given up but Welbeck and Sarr looked lively when they came on.
“It seems clear that Fantasy managers should avoid all Watford and goalkeepers. They have no chance of keeping a clean sheet against anyone.
“Holebas does get a lot of corners and wide free-kicks but none of them amounted to anything dangerous.
“Deulofeu looked dangerous and had chances but didn’t get many efforts on target. Hughes got in good areas and threaded good balls to Gray who looked threatening with lots of runs in behind.
“Lanzini was probably best West Ham player on Saturday and while Haller got two goals and one was a nice bicycle kick.
“Anderson was quiet until West Ham got the 2-1 lead then had loads of dribbling chances when Watford got stretched. Probably should have scored and then unlucky not to get assist.”
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Watford XI (4-2-3-1): Foster; Holebas, Cathcart, Dawson, Femenia; Doucouré, Capoue; Deulofeu (Welbeck 74′), Cleverley (Quina 86′), Hughes (Sarr 74′); A Gray.
West Ham XI (4-2-3-1): Fabianski; Masuaku, Ogbonna, Diop, Fredericks; Noble, Rice; Anderson (Fornals 78′), Lanzini (C Sánchez 88′), Yarmolenko (Antonio 55′); Haller.
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