BURNLEY, England: Michail Antonio returned from injury to revive West Hams push for European qualification with both of the team’s goals in a 2-1 win at Burnley in the English Premier League on Monday.
Playing his first game in a month after a hamstring problem, Antonio scored in the 21st and 29th minutes as West Ham hit back following Chris Woods 19th-minute penalty for Burnley.
West Hams 17th league win of the season a club record in the Premier League era moved David Moyes’ team to within three points of the top four as it recovered from back-to-back losses against Newcastle and Chelsea.
West Ham’s players made the trip north having lost four of their last eight in the league as many as they had lost in the previous 23 and at risk of seeing a promising season unravel.
And they fell behind when Burnley was awarded only its third penalty of the season.
Ashley Westwoods floated pass forward to Wood flummoxed Issa Diop, who allowed the New Zealand striker to recover the ball on the byline and try to turn back toward goal. He was upended by Tomas Soucek as he did so.
And it was Wood, fresh from his hat trick in the 4-0 win at Wolverhampton last week, who stepped up to fire home his 11th goal of the season, though the advantage would prove short-lived.
After Dwight McNeil lost possession to Pablo Fornals close to his own area, Jesse Lingard laid the ball off for Vladimir Coufal to cross, and Antonio got between Matt Lowton and James Tarkowski to head home from close range.
The turnaround was complete before the half-hour mark. Antonio was the only West Ham player in a penalty area crowded by Burnley defenders, but was somehow allowed to ghost through and flick Said Benrahmas teasing cross beyond Nick Pope.
West Ham looked in the mood and almost got a third on the break, with Benrahma cutting in from the left and looking to bend a shot across the face of goal, only to see it bounce the wrong side of a post.
But, as the Hammers poured forward, they were nearly undone as Diop failed to deal with another high ball, allowing Matej Vydra to get on the end of Lowtons pass.
The ball would not sit down for the Czech striker and, as he tried to lift it over Lukasz Fabianski, Craig Dawson got back to head off the line.
Antonio could have been celebrating a hat trick 10 minutes into the second half when Fornals mis-hit shot came his way, but he kicked the ball against his own standing leg as he tried to turn it in.
Manager Sean Dyche sent on Jay Rodriguez just after the hour and it almost paid immediate dividends.
First, Fabianski made a superb save to keep out Josh Brownhills shot after Diop half-cleared McNeils cross then Rodriguez, who has been on 99 career goals since mid-February, blasted narrowly wide on the follow-up.
It was a rare sight of goal for the hosts as West Ham spent the final 20 minutes pushing for a third, Antonio curling wide from Benrahmas pass and Pope keeping out Lingards deflected shot, but they had done enough for the win.
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