Michail Antonio condemned Norwich City to relegation from the Premier League with all four goals in a 4-0 win for West Ham that significantly bolsters their survival hopes. (More Football News)
Norwich City's relegation from the Premier League was confirmed as four goals from Michail Antonio pushed West Ham towards safety
Michail Antonio condemned Norwich City to relegation from the Premier League with all four goals in a 4-0 win for West Ham that significantly bolsters their survival hopes. (More Football News)
Bottom club Norwich needed all three points to have any hope of preserving their top-flight status but were undone by a superb individual performance from Antonio.
The 30-year-old opened the scoring with a back-post volley in the 11th minute and headed into the bottom-right corner in first-half stoppage time to give Norwich a mountain to climb.
Antonio nodded in on the rebound having been denied one on one by Tim Krul to complete his hat-trick nine minutes into the second half.
It was 4-0 in the 74th minute when Antonio flicked home at the near post on a miserable day for Norwich as their return back to the Championship was confirmed.
David Moyes' Hammers are six points clear of the bottom three with three matches to play, though 18th-placed Bournemouth have a game in hand.
Watford also have a six-point buffer to the Cherries after coming from behind to beat Newcastle United 2-1 with a pair of Troy Deeney penalties.
The Hornets were deservedly behind when Dwight Gayle tapped in from Federico Fernandez's header, but Newcastle did not take full advantage of their first-half superiority and paid the price after the restart.
Matt Ritchie was adjudged to have felled Kiko Femenia and Deeney thrashed home to level matters, a feat he repeated eight minutes from time following dreadful defending from Javier Manquillo to seal the points.