Mark Noble has praises impact of West Ham teammate Michail Antonio

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West Ham captain Mark Noble has praised teammate Michail Antonio following his most recent performance.

Antonio scored yet another header for the Hammers during a 2-2 draw with Leicester City and completed 90 minutes for the first time since February.

The 29-year-old attacker was given a start on the right wing and asked numerous questions of England international Ben Chilwell.

He’s not always had regular minutes this campaign for Manuel Pellegrini’s side, but is up to six goals and five assists across all competitions for the season.

Noble hailed the impact of Antonio against Leicester and feels he was somewhere near his best.

“Michail works hard and he is strong. It was his best game for a long time and you could see that there is no end-of-season blues, because you could see what it meant to everyone,” Noble said, as quoted by the club’s official website.

“It was a case of hanging it up for him and he is that good in the air, I knew that he is going to win it 90 per cent of the time and it worked out well.

TBR’s View:

Antonio is a real powerhouse that is so effective when he’s on form in the West Ham team and his aerial ability can’t be rivalled by many in the Premier League.

His versatility to play in several positions is perhaps his undoing, but he does deserve some more starts on the right flank in the remaining three league games.

It will be intriguing to see if he features in the long-term plans of Pellegrini and no doubt his 35 appearances this season have been helped by the injury to Andriy Yarmolenko, who was looking a serious wide threat before his setback.