West Ham scores late to rescue point against Norwich

Gary Hooper (ankle) again misses out. What do they all have in common?

They travel to Old Trafford to take on a reinvigorated Manchester United side and we genuinely can’t see them nicking anything even if they were allowed to field 15 men.

The signs are that things are coming together at home as well after a slow start to their final season at Upton Park, and the quality that now exists within the squad is clear to see.

“You have to go back to March 1989 for Norwich’s last success at the Hammers”. Far from it. But they work hard as a team and as Liverpool found out last week, can be very hard to break down.

“They are not a spectacular team but they have everything – pace, ability, size. Now looking forward to the game tomorrow”. Tactically, it’s more challenging than the Championship.

“That is the department where we know we have to improve”, he said.

It was another good day at the office from Callum Wilson, who slotted home a goal in Bournemouth’s win over Sunderland. “Nobody hands you points in this league, you need to fight for everything”.

“After beating Arsenal, Liverpool and Man City away, people are expecting us to beat Norwich 6-0″. Dieumerci Mbokani and Nathan Redmond emerged from the bench to give the visitors greater impetus and the latter scored Norwich’s second on 83 minutes.

West Ham lost in extra-time to Leicester in the Capital One Cup third round on Tuesday night, with Andy Carroll playing over an hour in his first start since January and Bilic has been impressed wit the England striker’s application to overcome another serious injury.

Six of the last 10 league encounters have been drawn.

Few would have predicted that skipper Russell Martin would be their top scorer so far with three goals, but the central defender has been a hugely influential figure in the opposition penalty area.

“We’ve got loads of players who want to come inside and pass the ball, but with Jarv we’ve got someone who can run away and open the game up for us”.

But it has been a different story at Upton Park, and they were fortunate to escape with a point after a lacklustre display on Saturday. Instead it appears as though West Ham have recruited a player that has just approached his peak, and here’s hoping that Payet continues his form, as he is a joy to watch right now.

However, if that well-timed strike was meant to lead to a dramatic City comeback, Pellegrini’s team were just unable to find a way past a brilliant Adrian in the second period as West Ham’s ‘keeper made a string of brilliant saves to deny the league leaders.