West Ham have rewarded Michail Antonio by extending the forward’s contract until 2023. The deal is recognition of Antonio’s fine efforts this year, with his goals playing a huge part in David Moyes’s side staying in the Premier League last season.
Although the 30-year-old’s contract was set to run out next summer, there has long been confidence on both sides that a new agreement would not be a problem. Antonio is happy at West Ham, who had an option in place to extend his deal by two years. As expected, the club have protected their position, tying down a player who joined them for £7m from Nottingham Forest in 2015.
“I’ve been here for five and a half years and by the time my contract expires it will be eight years,” Antonio said. “Before I signed here, the longest I had been at a club was two years, so it shows that I’ve been here, done my work, been able to secure my position and keep growing as a player.”
There was a willingness to offer Antonio, who was earning around £70,000 a week, improved terms because of his goalscoring exploits. Having arrived as a winger, Antonio has become a firm favourite up front, although injuries have held him back at times.
Antonio has not played since suffering a hamstring injury against Manchester City in October and is unlikely to feature again until the FA Cup tie against Stockport next month. Sébastien Haller is expected to lead the line at Chelsea on Monday.
Frank Lampard has said Chelsea do not regret missing out on Declan Rice, who was released from their academy aged 14 and joined West Ham. Rice has grown into one of the most capable young English players of his generation and is likely to be an irritant for the home side at Stamford Bridge.
“He’s a fantastic player for West Ham and England so fair play, because his journey there of leaving Chelsea and going to West Ham is a good story to hear because there are lots of those stories, for different reasons, to whatever level and that shows a strength of character,” said Lampard. “From our end, I certainly wouldn’t use the word ‘regret’.”
Rice, who made his 100th Premier League start against Crystal Palace on Wednesday, has met the responsibility of taking the captaincy by ascending to new levels in his game this season. Lampard, while praising the 21-year-old’s resilience for navigating a different route, noted the strength of the talent that Chelsea’s academy has retained.
“Our academy is one of the best in the world,” the manager said. “You look at our first team now, what players we have produced in and around the first team squad; we’ve got so many. It’s not easy. It’s not an exact science to pick whatever players but the academy worked brilliantly here and brought through a lot of good players. Declan Rice has given himself personal credit for going and having the great start to his career that he has had at West Ham.”
Chelsea will be looking to halt a run of two straight defeats following their 17-game unbeaten run and many eyes will be on Timo Werner, who has failed to score in eight consecutive games. “There has not been a striker in the history of the world that can manage to score game-in, game-out through a long career,” Lampard said. “There’s no problem on that front.”
