A sprightly – and somewhat surprising – Maxwel Cornet cameo showed he can be the difference maker for one-paced West Ham.
Cornet has been out for five months but had barely featured prior to that following his £17.5m summer arrival at West Ham.
The pacy and versatile winger was expected to be out for a couple of weeks when he was forced off with a calf injury on his first Premier League start for West Ham back at the start of October.
He has not been seen in the claret and blue since. But that changed when the Hammers went to AEK Larnaca in the Europa Conference League last 16 first leg on Thursday evening.
Having recently returned to training, David Moyes confirmed Cornet was finally free from pain in his calf following specialist treatment in France.
Sprightly Maxwel Cornet cameo shows he can be the difference maker for one-paced West Ham
The Scot remarked that Cornet had looked sharp but needed time before being involved in first team action.
Speaking in his pre-match press conference, Moyes said Cornet would be going on the trip to Cyprus but was unlikely to feature until after the international break.
So it was something of a surprise to see him get on in the second half of West Ham’s 2-0 away win.
And a sprightly Cornet cameo shows he can be the difference maker for one-paced West Ham.
Cornet instantly stood out as having that acceleration, sharpness and speed West Ham have been sorely missing all season.
He was involved in some very neat exchanges which had commentators Peter Drury and Clive Allen purring.
One particular moment could and should have put the tie to bed. Cornet flicked the ball around his marker, ran the other side and played a perfect defence splitting through ball to Lucas Paqueta who could not apply the finishing touch.
It was another very one-paced display from West Ham who did a professional if unspectacular job. And they now have one foot in the quarter-finals.
Said Benrahma showed a great attitude after being substituted at half-time of the Brighton defeat.
Michail Antonio got a brace which can only be good for his confidence and Kurt Zouma made his comeback.
But Cornet’s lively return to action was perhaps the biggest positive for Moyes and the Hammers on the night.
He really could be the difference maker for us in the run-in.
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