West Ham are celebrating putting some daylight between themselves and basement club Portsmouth after this Boxing Day victory courtesy of goals from Alessandro Diamanti and Radoslav Kovac.
It was their first win since November and leaves them four points ahead of Avram Grant’s strugglers.
This lunchtime kick-off brought together two of the Premier League’s most financially fraught clubs and the first half suffered from a poverty of chances and entertainment.
Hermann Hreidarsson went close early on for Portsmouth, who failed to take advantage of their brighter start and soon found themselves pinned back by West Ham pressure, of a sort.
The home side’s dominance stemmed from the industry of Scott Parker and the left foot of Diamanti – without these players, the first half would have been even grimmer fare.
It was Parker who found himself alone in the Portsmouth box when the right-back Julien Faubert pumped a long ball forward. The midfielder fed Guillermo Franco and, after the striker had an effort blocked, the substitute Luis Jimenez reacted quickest and was felled in the area by a combination of Michael Brown and former Hammer Hayden Mullins.
Diamanti’s left foot did the job from 12 yards out, his powerful shot going beyond the diving Asmir Begovic.
Thirty-five minutes had elapsed before Jamie O’Hara had the visitors’ first shot on target, but Robert Green was always behind the Tottenham loanee’s curling 30-yard free-kick.
Tal Ben Haim also had an effort from distance, but Portsmouth looked like the league’s bottom club and Jimenez and Jack Collison caused them some concern before the break.
West Ham went very close to scoring on the resumption. The lively Jimenez, a first-half replacement for the injured Mark Noble, had a shot from the edge of the area deflected off Steve Finnan and Asmir Begovic did brilliantly to tap it around his left-hand post for a corner.
Diamanti saw Begovic off his line and attempted a 40-yard lob, but it was a little wide of the target.
Nwankwo Kanu was introduced for the visitors at half-time, in place of Aruna Dindane, and his clever flick almost set Frédéric Piquionne free, but Green was alive to the danger. Another substitute, Kevin-Prince Boateng, hit the side netting and shot straight at Green as a retreating West Ham invited Portsmouth to attack.
With Kanu on the pitch, Piquionne was not so isolated and the Frenchman showed his quality on 79 minutes, when he controlled a high ball under pressure from James Tomkins and eluded Matthew Upson before shooting too close to Green.
West Ham finally awoke in the closing 10 minutes and Collison and Valon Behrami, back after a month out injured, went close. Behrami linked up exquisitely with Parker and squeezed a shot just wide as the match became more stretched.
West Ham put the game beyond Portsmouth – and increased the gap at the bottom of the table – when Kovac got above Ben Haim to head Jimenez’s free-kick home from five yards out.
Premier LeagueWest Ham UnitedPortsmouthMikey Staffordguardian.co.uk
