West Ham’s understated front three provide the perfect contradiction to the club’s fickle transfer strategy

Jarrod Bowen broke through the middle of the Leicester City half, not for the first time, with two options. After a couple of looks, he decides against continuing on himself and chooses to find the teammate on his right. But the pass is not what it should be.

His usually trusty left foot has let him down. Not by much, but enough that teammate Michail Antonio has to readjust his stride to collect. Enough to allow the opposition a fraction more of a second to catch up. Having sorted his feet out effectively, Antonio would make the next mistake.

With a defender to shake off to ensure there is open turf between him and the goal, he opts for a heavier touch to allow him room to gallop beyond his marker. But this one is too heavy, allowing Kasper Schmeichel to come and dissipate any threat. Just like that, the moment is lost.

Both Antonio and Bowen puff in dismay. Both irritated that two relatively simple moves they usually execute perfectly were off-key. As one apologises to the other and their teammates, hands raised and heads bowed, both see Mark Noble and Sebastian Haller begin their enthusiastic on-the-spot jogs on the touchline. Before the fourth official has raised his board, they begin trudging over.

These did not look like satisfied men. Certainly not two who, along with Pablo Fornals, contributed one each of the 3-0 scoreline against a side who challenged for a Champions League spot last season and, more recently, turned over Manchester City 5-2. It was, however, reflective of the relentlessness attitude of this trio. That even though the game was won, their standards should not slip.

In the world of front threes, Antonio-Bowen-Fornals is hardly one to remember. It doesn't get the heart racing like the supercars of Salah-Mane-Firmino. Nor does it let your imagination run wild like the puppy love trio of Haaland-Sancho-Reyna. It barely makes its way off the tongue without making you double-take. Them? Really?

But for West Ham United fans existing in a constant state of paranoia, whether fearful of being a few dud results away from the anxiety of a relegation scrap or what the latest boardroom-induced drama might be, these three are doing their bit to soothe those souls. Sunday was the latest example of how and why.

On a weekend of freak results, this one at the King Power Stadium lies somewhere in the middle of the spectrum. West Ham had just over 30 per-cent possession but out-shot and out-hustled a Leicester side who had won all three of their first two matches. Of the 14 shots taken by the visitors, eight came from their front three, including five of the six on target.

The leader of this East End rat-pack is Antonio, the arch agent of industry. There is little mystery to his work, just unpretentious regard for football's whims. He will try what he's going to try and, if it doesn't work, he'll just try harder.

His performance was a snapshot of how he earned David Moyes' favour at the start of the 2019/20 resumption. No battle was shirked, whether on the floor (where he contested 18 duels) or in the air (11). The four fouls he sustained were textbook examples of where and when to take contact to quell any enthusiasm Leicester were trying to build.

Even his goal – a header rising at the back post after 14 minutes - came from being fouled, spreading the ball to the opposite wing and immediately darting into the box to make himself available for Aaron Cresswell's deep cross. It was his 10th goal since the return of the Premier League in June, and his fifth successive away match on the scoresheet.

A phase before the opener, Bowen had provided one of his highlight-reel moments. Seemingly blocked in at the right-back position by blue shirts, a drop of the shoulder, a roll of his boot and flick somehow maintained him as the centre of their attention yet with the ball safely out of danger and making its way up the West Ham right flank.

Bowen’s craft exists beyond a left foot that could sign his autographs. In an XI set-up for reliability, the 23-year old is encouraged to use his imagination, and trusted to use it sparingly. He attempted just 20 passes, 13 of them with a view to pushing things along in the opposition half.

What's more, he is responsible for providing almost all of the creativity from the right. And though sometimes that can be predictable given his penchant for cutting inside, once the game was stretched, it was here where his goal would come: picking up a perfectly weighted through-ball to neatly tuck past Schmeichel for the third, and his third of the season after a brace in the 4-0 win over Wolves.

That assist was one of three key passes made by Fornals. He now has seven assists since the start of 2019/20, the most of any West Ham player across this period. Not bad considering he is not on set-pieces.

Of the three, the Spaniard is perhaps the hardest to peg. At times over the last 12 months he has looked lost, an image not helped by the kind of ruddy-cheeked impishness that’s frowned upon in the fairylands of English football. But he has emerged as the counterpoint to the other two. Efficient with the ball at his feet, facilitating as best he can in the final third.

His emergence as a regular starter is probably the most surprising, and there will be some West Ham fans who will need to see more to commit themselves to him fully. But another busy performance capped off by a goal and an assist should help.

Beyond their starting positions and effectiveness under Moyes, Antonio, Bowen and Fornals are bound by something greater. They are all representations of how fickle transfer strategies are in modern football.

Fornals arrived from Villareal last summer, his £24m fee as a reflection of European ambition of Manuel Pelligrini. With the Chilean sacked and West Ham forced to look over their shoulders at relegation, Bowen arrived as a £20m-plus sticking plaster in January. All the while the club was hoping they could outgrow Antonio, a player whose linear ways saw him start 2019/20 in the shade of record-signing Haller, before he carried them to safety.

Yet here these glorious misfits remain. Not simply commanding their starting places but keeping out the £97m trio of Haller, Felipe Anderson and Andriy Yarmolenko while doing so.

After two defeats in the opening two league games and the sale of Grady Diangana, the discontent in east London was palpable even without the opinionated crowds at the London Stadium. And though these two wins does not mean West Ham fans will rally any less against the ownership of David Gold, David Sullivan and Karren Brady, it does offer them cautious optimism into the international break. As #GSBOut continues to stir, #ABF up top provide some much-needed relief from the woes upstairs.

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