WEST HAM 3 CARDIFF CITY 1
FOR Cardiff City, it wasn’t so much that a former Swansea City favourite denied them a lead that might have brought their first Premier League away victory since promotion, but how they then proceeded to leave the floodgates open for West Ham United.
Neil Warnock has longed for his side to be awarded a penalty this season, but when it came for Joe Ralls it was Lukasz Fabianski who kept the beleaguered Bluebirds midfielder at bay from 12 yards.
Not how Warnock had envisaged, surely, but what came afterwards will have angered him more, a comedy of defensive errors allowing Lucas Perez to score two rudimentary strikes after the break, before another set-piece concession from which Michail Antonio benefited.
The punishment met the crimes on this occasion.
Because a competitive first-half Cardiff performance was followed by an aberration of a second half.
Warnock had kept his promise in avoiding a repeat of the wing-back system that stymied Wolves, but he did retain Friday night goalscorer Junior Hoilett, with Victor Camarasa given a wide role yet again.
Joe Bennett returned for the first time since the 1-0 home defeat to Leicester a month ago, with Bruno Manga reverting to right-back.
Yet, while Warnock came to east London to be compact, his opposite number Manuel Pellegrini was determined to be expansive and was rewarded with three goals from his side.
The Chilean plumped for Antonio – who can play as a striker – on the right side of defence with Cardiff, ironically, continuing with right-back-turned-striker Callum Paterson at the apex of their team.
And it was Antonio who was presented with the first sight of goal, but badly mistimed his header from Robert Snodgrass’ free kick.
The Scot had been a transfer target for Cardiff in the summer with his Hammers future seemingly on a knife-edge before Pellegrini arrived.
The manager’s decision to reintegrate Snodgrass looked justified, however, with the midfielder influential throughout at the London Stadium, jinking through defenders and exchanging passes with Issa Diop before seeing his early shot blocked.
That set the tone for the first 30 minutes, which were almost exclusively played in the Cardiff half and dominated by claret shirts.
Two more Snodgrass corners
brought two more West Ham chances on the 20-minute mark with Neil Etheridge saving from both Angelo Ogbonna and Declan Rice.
Marko Arnautovic tried to take matters into his own hands with a direct burst of pace to beat two Cardiff defenders, his shot cleared off the line by Sean Morrison.
The Bluebirds’ compact set-up was frustrating the dominant hosts, but they had lived very dangerous to do so. Too dangerously, it proved.
They remained reliant on the totemic figure of Paterson to hold up the ball and connect with teammates, as he did when Victor Camarasa was presented with a chance to test Fabianski from 25 yards and force the former Swansea keeper into a decent save.
It was an even better save from Fabianski minutes later, after Arnautovic was adjudged to have pushed Hoilett in the box.
Ralls stepped up as he always does for Cardiff. But this was a Premier League penalty, and the midfielder was found wanting, delivering a meek spot-kick that Fabianski simply gobbled up.
There was still time for the Poland international to save acrobatically from Camarasa’s free-kick just before the break, with the hosts losing their way as the half progressed and Cardiff – despite the penalty miss – feeling encouraged.
They briefly continued in the same vein upon resumption, Camarasa latching onto Bennett’s fine low cross, with only a sprawling Arthur Masuaku denying the Spaniard.
But they had only themselves to blame for the West Ham opener which came via substitute Perez in the 50th minute. That’s only half the story – some calamitous non-communicating between Morrison and Bennett was the gift the Hammers needed, with Perez volleying home from Snodgrass’ flick.
The former Arsenal man’s second goal was even simpler. Masuaku exploited the space vacated by an advanced Manga and fed the Spanish striker to drill beyond Etheridge. 2-0. Game over? It was soon to be.
There was more pain to come and again – for the umpteenth time this season – it came from a set-piece. Antonio was the beneficiary of some slack Harry Arter marking, nodding home at the near post to virtually kill the game after an hour.
The second half proved to be about as punishing a Premier League experience as Cardiff have endured this season and the resignation was written all over Warnock’s face, isolated on the London Stadium touchline.
As the Hammers went close numerous times in the final half hour, there was little joy for those who had travelled from South Wales except for in the final minute when a Josh Murphy consolation was just that.
West Ham: Fabianski; Antonio, Ogbonna, Diop, Masuaku; Noble, Rice, Snodgrass (Diangana, 76); Anderson, Arnautovic (Perez, 40), Hernandez (Carroll, 64). Subs not used: Adrian, Balbuena, Zabaleta, Obiang.
Cardiff City: Etheridge; Manga, Morrison, Bamba, Bennett; Arter, Gunnarsson, Ralls (Mendez-Laing, 64); Camarasa, Hoilett (Murphy, 64), Paterson (Harris, 70). Subs not used: Smithies, Peltier, Decordova-Reid, Madine. Referee: Graham Scott Attendance: 56,811