West Ham’s Michail Antonio admits he couldn’t believe how fast Chelsea star Raheem Sterling was last Sunday in the Premier League.
West Ham took all three points last weekend with a 3-1 home win against Chelsea, but there were still some positives for the visitors at the London Stadium.
Raheem Sterling, 28, was certainly a massive bright spark for the Blues with his individual efforts.
The English attacker looked so threatening to the Hammers whenever he was on the ball, showing some explosive pace and close dribbling to ask questions in the final third.
It was certainly the kind of performance that reminded everyone of the player he was in Manchester City and Liverpool colours.
West Ham forward Antonio, 33, enjoyed a great day out against Chelsea with his first goal of the season.
He’s given massive credit to an opposition player in the aftermath a few days later, though.
“Raheem Sterling, yeah. I’m not going to lie, had an unbelievable… I don’t know what on earth this guy had been doing. But he was unreal,” Antonio told the BBC’s Footballer’s Football Podcast.
“After the game, yeah, mandem was calling him Sonic! I have not seen man move that quick with a football. It was a madness. He was driving everywhere!
“Lucas [Paqueta] has gone over to him and gone Eme (Emerson), I’ll take him! So he’s out there and he’s tackled him a couple of times but there was one time where he has faked left, gone right, chopped it back and Lucas has done a 360 spin! He has gone off and whipped it across and went Eme, ‘you take him’. I was dying. After the game we were talking about it and we were just laughing.
“I swear to God it’s the best game I have ever seen that guy play. He was on fire.”
There’s been a lot of positive responses in the past few days towards Sterling, which should give the player himself a boost.
The way he can dribble with the ball at such high speed makes him horrible to face 1v1.
Speaking on The Rest Is Football YouTube channel, Micah Richards noted that Sterling’s performance against West Ham reminded him of the player he was a couple of years ago.
At the age of 28, Sterling is hopefully entering his prime and is about to enjoy a big second year at Stamford Bridge. There’s no doubt that the winger hasn’t lost a yard of pace yet!
