David Moyes admitted Pablo Fornals has deserved more minutes for West Ham after his spectacular goal capped off a perfect afternoon against Bournemouth.
The Hammers moved further away from the relegation zone with a dominant 4-0 victory, as goals from Michail Antonio, Lucas Paqueta and Declan Rice put the visitors three goals up at half-time and effectively put the match to bed.
Fornals came off the bench after the break and scored a scorpion kick to seal the three points in style, with West Ham now six points clear of the bottom three having played a game fewer than their rivals.
It was just the second Premier League goal Fornals has scored this season, and the first since August, with the Spaniard starting only three League games since the World Cup..
“Let me tell you, he is a brilliant, brilliant team player,” Moyes said. “He’s a great lad.
“He’s probably not had enough minutes and I’ve found it difficult to find him [some]. It’s not because of his form, because he’s a really great player.
“I hope we can, I hope we can find a way of getting him more minutes because what Pablo does, Pablo scores goals as well as his all-round play and it’s been pretty difficult to give him as much as time.
“I’m sure he was emotional, because he wants to play and today, he deserved it.”
West Ham fans were serenading Rice for much of the afternoon, urging him to stay at the club and turn down the likes of Arsenal and Chelsea this summer. It is expected the midfielder will leave east London at the end of the season.
Rice scored in the Europa Conference League win over Gent on Thursday night too, with the Hammers skipped relieved to be back on the scoresheet and contributing at the top end of the pitch.
“I’m scoring again, two in a row, back-to-back,” Rice said.
“There have been a lot of question marks over my scoring ability. A few games to go and hopefully I can keep notching.
“The benchmark for a standard season is 40 points [for avoiding relegation], so it is important we don’t get too comfortable. We have Liverpool next and we relish those kind of nights.”
