Ian Wright raves about one West Ham star who was ‘fantastic’ vs Burnley

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Premier League legend Ian Wright singled out Mohammed Kudus for praise after a ‘fantastic’ display from the Ghana international during West Ham United’s 2-1 comeback victory over Burnley on Saturday. 

As Vincent Kompany’s side found out the hard way, simply deploying four markers on Mohammed Kudus and hoping that is enough to keep him quiet is a rather flawed plan. 

Even with almost half of the Burnley team closing him down, the Ghana international made wriggling through a forest of Clarets legs look as easy as taking a breath, a superb solo run preceding a cross which forced Dara O’Shea to put the ball into his own net under pressure from substitute Divin Mubama. 

“What you’ve got to understand with the Premier League, (to perform until) the 70^th, 75^th minute, it’s not enough,” Wright, the Arsenal icon, tells BBC’s Match of the Day (25 November, 10pm). 

“You can’t afford to let the ball go into somebody who is having a game like Kudus is having. He was fantastic. You’ve got four players around him and there’s not enough (effort) to try and win this ball off of him.

“In the end, he does really well for Mubama. Kudus does brilliantly there, and they don’t stop him.”

The best was yet to come too, Kudus turning a one-goal deficit into a 2-1 lead with two assists from the 86th to the 91st minute at Turf Moor, a sumptuous delivery from the right extending Tomas Soucek’s outstanding run of form in front of goal.

West Ham are sitting relatively pretty in ninth, four points above London neighbours Chelsea. 

‘He lit it up’

“In the last ten minutes, (Kudus) lit it up for us. He started to do better,” Hammers boss David Moyes tells the club’s official website, the summer signing from Ajax sprinkling his magic dust over an occasionally tedious contest. 

“He was quiet for long periods in the day today, but we were generally quiet and we didn’t play as well as we could have done, especially in the first half. In the second half, we played and looked more threatening.”