West Ham United duo Declan Rice and Michail Antonio both hit significant milestones in Wednesday night’s 1-1 draw with Tottenham Hotspur.
Hammers skipper Rice made his 200th appearance in Claret & Blue, while Michail Antonio reached the same mark in Premier League games since his summer 2015 arrival from Nottingham Forest.
Rice joins Antonio, Angelo Ogbonna, Manuel Lanzini and Aaron Cresswell as the current Hammers to complete a double century of appearances for the Club – and in the 23-year-old’s case the landmark has been hit in double-quick time.
Since debuting in a 2-1 win at Burnley on 21 May 2017, the England star has played in a further 171 of a possible 197 Premier League games, while adding 28 run-outs across the FA Cup, Carabao Cup and UEFA Europa League.
His first goal was a memorable one – slamming home following Samir Nasri’s pass to defeat Arsenal 1-0 at London Stadium on 12 January 2019, just two days before his 20th birthday.
Now following in the footsteps of Mark Noble as the Club’s captain, his first experience starting with the armband came in a 2-1 Premier League defeat to Leicester City on 28 December 2019, a game which proved to be Manuel Pellegrini’s final game as Hammers boss.
He has appeared most often against Tottenham Hotspur, winning four and drawing three of the 13 games against our north London rivals, while he has won most times (five) against Southampton, Aston Villa, Watford and Everton.
Last season was his most fruitful in front of goal, as Europa League strikes against Dinamo Zagreb, Rapid Vienna and Lyon, plus a Premier League goal in November’s 4-1 win at Aston Villa and a dramatic equalising strike in an FA Cup tie at Kidderminster Harriers, totalled five for the campaign.
Over his 200 West Ham appearances, Aaron Cresswell is the player he has appeared alongside most often – on 159 occasions – while Pierre-Emile Højbjerg and Son Heung-min are the opponents he has faced off against more times than any other, with 12 games on the opposite side.
Antonio, meanwhile, brought up his double-century of appearances across all competitions last December in our Premier League game at Arsenal, but by reaching 200 in the Premier League alone, he becomes just the fifth player in Hammers history to hit that mark.
Mark Noble (414), Cresswell (260), Carlton Cole (216) and Steve Potts (204) are the only men who sit above him in the list.
Antonio sits atop the list of Premier League goalscorers in the West Ham history books though, with his tally of 56 and counting only close to being matched by both Mark Noble and Paolo Di Canio (both 47).
The Hammers No9 memorably went past Di Canio’s record in an August 2021 4-1 demolition of Leicester City, when he celebrated the feat by holding a cardboard cutout of himself aloft.
Antonio has hit double figures in Premier League goals for each of the last three seasons, notching ten times in league action in all of 2019/20, 2020/21 and 2021/22, helping the team avoid relegation in the former and then qualify for Europe in both the two following campaigns.
His tally of four goals in our 4-0 win over Norwich City at Carrow Road on 11 July 2020 means he stands alone as the only Hammer to notch four times in a single Premier League match.
It is not Norwich he has scored his highest number of Premier League goals against, however, but Tottenham Hotspur, with six in twelve outings – including memorable winners at the Boleyn Ground and London Stadium, and unforgettably at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in April 2019 when he became the first opposition player to score – and for the team to win – at Spurs’ new ground.
Southampton are the team he has won most often against in league action (eight times) – while the Saints and Manchester City (14) are the teams he has featured most often against since making his top flight debut at Etihad Stadium in our 2-1 win back on 19 September 2015.
And it was against the Saints that his first Premier League goal arrived, three months later.
In all, like his teammate Rice, he has appeared alongside Cresswell most often in Premier League action, in 160 of his 200 games, while Oriel Romeu has been his most-faced opponent, on 13 occasions.
Plenty of achievements ticked off by the pair over their double century of games and plenty more to come too.
