Two more years? Increasingly unlikely. If exiting the Europa League to Bayer Leverkusen, Europe’s most in-form team, was excusable, the manner of West Ham’s defeat to Crystal Palace may have put a line through David Moyes extending his stay. This was punishing and West Ham’s manager did little to hide his disappointment as a former nemesis came back to haunt him.
“Nothing to do with it,” Moyes said when asked if West Ham’s Selhurst shocker might derive from such uncertainty. “If it is, then it is,” he said when asked if his future was now out of his hands. Previously he has spoken of a contract unsigned through his personal choice.
Two seasons ago, Oliver Glasner’s Eintracht Frankfurt team denied Moyes’ Hammers in the Europa League semi-final, and had Palace not moved for the Austrian, he might have been in contention for the vacancy possibly opening up at the London Stadium.
Last week’s tactical coup at Anfield pointed towards Glasner’s progressiveness. The latter is the quality Moyes, for all he has delivered copper-bottomed security and a European trophy, is accused of lacking. If a Moyes team cannot supply solidity and shape then with entertainment off the menu, it has little to offer a fanbase craving thrills paired with devotion to the cause. That West Ham scored a second goal was down to a late comedy mix-up between Tyrick Mitchell and Dean Henderson.
“The first half was as bad as I’ve seen us play,” lamented Moyes. “I don’t think the teams I’ve had in three years have gone to the depths we have in three or four games this year.”
Glasner has been helped, where Roy Hodgson was hindered, by being able to field Eberechi Eze and Michael Olise in the same team. Palace’s flightiest Eagles soon hit their rhythm and their teasing of West Ham’s defenders often bordered on cruelty. Eze began a move from which Joachim Andersen, a rarely spotted overlapping centre-back, set up Olise to nod in the seventh-minute opener.
End-of-season carnival capers abounded in Palace’s play, particularly when Jean-Philippe Mateta was performing lollipops but here was an expressive, off-the-cuff football so seldom seen during Moyes’ reign. “An amazing performance and amazing win,” said Glasner. “The first half was nice to watch for me as a manager and everybody here at Selhurst Park.”
Mateta’s shot was saved by Lukasz Fabianski only to be converted by a flying volley from Eze, followed by hip-swivelling sexy samba celebration. West Ham were being cut to ribbons and Emerson Palmieri’s own-goal added farce to the already heady gumbo of fecklessness.
Moyes’ temper had long boiled over. He sat, arms crossed, swaddling himself as Mateta made it four. West Ham’s absentee defence looking to be now considering their holiday options amid freezing April weather. Adam Wharton, Palace’s deep-lying playmaker, excellent until leaving the field on the hour, was given space and time to spray the ball as he liked. “We didn’t compete,” said Moyes. “It was hard to explain.”
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“Sacked in the morning” could be heard from the away contingent during that early onslaught and even when Michail Antonio poked in a Hammers goal, Moyes’ expression remained rictal with desolation. “I am embarrassed to sit here and talk on behalf of that team,” he said, as if attempting disassociation.
If a slight Hammers improvement came after half-time, Palace remained more threatening. Olise and Eze continued to bob and weave as they pleased. Eze laid up Mateta for the fifth, the striker allowed time to pick his target. The chances of Moyes being handed such self-determination appear low.
