Darren Bent has heaped praise on West Ham United keeper Roberto for his performance in the 2-0 defeat against Everton on Saturday.
The Sky Sports pundit acknowledged that the Spaniard made a clear mistake in the first goal for the Toffees’ when Bernard scored at his near post but admitted that was the only mistake he made all afternoon.
Bent singled out the save made from Tom Davies at point-blank range as an unbelievably world-class moment in the game, and suggested that he will be full of stress because it is no easy job to replace the injured Lukasz Fabianski this season.
“To be fair to Roberto, he made one unbelievably world-class save from Davies during the game and I think he played really really well,” he told Football Insider.
“I think that first goal, he should of kept out, but it’s a tough one as when you’re trying to replace Fabianski who has been brilliant since he went to West Ham, it’s tough.”
“But he did show signs yesterday that he can make that spectacular save, while he should have kept the first goal out, I think his overall play was good enough and the score could have been worse if it wasn’t for him making those saves.”
OPINION
There is no hiding from the fact that West Ham were absolutely dreadful on Saturday afternoon. Manuel Pellegrini’s side were lacking in ideas and didn’t offer much protection to Roberto, who was bombarded all the way through the game. The Spanish keeper would have admitted himself that he should have done miles better with the first goal in Merseyside, but he definitely more than made up for that by keeping the score as low as possible, with the second goal from Gylfi Sigurdsson simply unstoppable. The save from Davies was one of the best made by any keeper at the start of this Premier League season, and will surely give him more confidence in between the sticks after only played five times for the Hammers. Pellegrini will now have much more trust in the stopper and will have faith that he can continue to make a massive impact during the forced absence of Fabianski, who incidentally has left massive boots to fill after picking up the Hammer of the Year award at the end of last season.
