It was arguably their most difficult Europa League assignment of the group stage, but the way in which West Ham dismantled Dynamo Zagreb on their own patch sounded a warning shot to the rest of the team’s in the competition.
David Moyes’ team aren’t just there to make up the numbers, and the fact that it took 14 minutes for Lukasz Fabianksi to touch the ball hints at how dominant the east Londoner’s were in Thursday night’s encounter.
Michail Antonio’s opportunism and Declan Rice’s marauding run and shot ensured that it was a comfortable match in the end.
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However, talkSPORT pundit and former Hammer, Trevor Sinclair, was none too happy with one particular aspect of the match.
He was furious with Manuel Lanzini for a tackle that the Argentinian made just before being substituted.
“I think Lanzini was very fortunate not to get sent off,” he said on talkSPORT, cited by West Ham Zone.
“He’d already been yellow carded when he put in a stupid challenge, didn’t get there. I thought he was lucky not to get sent off for a second yellow card but literally as soon as it was happening, you could see Benrahma was ordered to put his shirt on, ‘you’re coming on, get him [Lanzini] off his head’s not in it’, because he wouldn’t have made that challenge if it was.
“David Moyes again, [it’s] elite management. He’s got a lot of experience and he’s shown all that experience there, kept 11 players on the pitch, there was no uncomfortable end.”
Whether such an error of judgment in a big game will affect Lanzini’s position under Moyes in the future remains to be seen.