West Ham United missed the chance to record their first Premier League win since February after being held to a 2-2 draw by Leeds United on Wednesday night.
Wilfried Gnonto gave the hosts the lead at Elland Road before Lucas Paqueta converted on the stroke of half-time from the penalty spot, his first for the Hammers, to level the tie.
Gianluca Scamacca scored his first away league goal early in the second half, only for West Ham to lose their lead with 20 minutes to go after Rodrigo’s strike. Here are the talking points from the draw.
READ MORE: West Ham player ratings: Lucas Paqueta and Gianluca Scamacca goals not enough in Leeds draw
The losing streak ends
For the first time since October 24’s win over Bournemouth, West Ham ended a Premier League match without coming away from it empty-handed.
Heading into their trip to Elland Road, they had been on a run of five straight league defeats, their worst run in England’s top-flight since April 2017.
That run looked to get even worse as five straight Premier League defeats was at risk of turning into a club-record equalling before the half hour mark when Gnonto exchanged the ball quickly with Crysencio Summerville to carve open West Ham’s defence. Before Lukasz Fabianski could even react to the move, Gnonto had fiercely shot past the Polish goalkeeper to make it 1-0.
That goal was the only real chance of the first half at that point. If anything, West Ham had looked more threatening and continued to do so after that goal. They got their rewards for that at the end of the first half, albeit with a delayed wait.
Jarrod Bowen had latched onto a cross and used his quick feet to steer away from Robin Koch, who fouled him. Referee David Coote initially waved play on, with Pablo Fornals steering wide when it seemed easier to hit the target. Fortunately, West Ham got the second bite of the cherry when after a VAR check, West Ham got their penalty, with Paqueta converting into the top corner to put the game level at the break.
While it took West Ham 45 minutes to score in the first half, it took about 45 seconds for them to score in the second half. A bad Brendan Aaronson pass was intercepted by Italian international striker Scamacca, who slotted a shot from 25 yards out off the inside of the post with a well-taken finish.
Leeds however got over that early half disappointment and shortly after Scamacca and Vladimir Coufal were taken off, Leeds levelled through Rodrigo. Off a quick passing move, substitute Jack Harrison got away from Declan Rice with ease, passing to Rodrigo who turned Nayef Aguerd before shooting across goal and in.
If there was to be a fifth goal in the game, it was going to be for Leeds; Rodrigo, shortly after scoring, came close again, only this time seeing his effort tipped over excellently by Fabianski.
Centre-back Liam Cooper came close in the dying embers from a corner, with a low header only denied by a block from substitute Michail Antonio. Even later, Rodrigo came close from point-blank range, but somehow, Fabianski denied him superbly.
On paper, coming away from Leeds with a point is a good result. However, considering the poor form and the current league position, combined with the fact West Ham led for over half of the second half, will leave them with a feeling of what could have been rather than what was.
Getting closer to Moyes’ dream
In the summer window, West Ham spent around £160m on eight new signings, and while the majority of them were for fees ranging between £10m and £17.5m, three marquee talents from Europe were acquired for £30m or more.
Around £96.1m (potentially rising to over £115m after add-ons) was spent on midfielder Paqueta (£35.6m), striker Scamacca (£30.5m) and centre-back Aguerd (£30m) from Olympique Lyonnais, Sassuolo and Stade Rennais respectively in the summer, yet it took until January, and West Ham’s 18th league game of the season, to start all three at the same time.
Paqueta and Scamacca have been regulars this, but after an injury-hit first half of the season, Moyes now has the luxury of being able to field all of his marquee acquisitions at the same time, adding Aguerd to the fold.
Only centre-back Kurt Zouma (knee) and winger Maxwel Cornet (calf) were missing from the squad against Leeds, a potential boost in knowing that West Ham are more likely to see a stronger side, on paper at least, in the second half of the season than they have done in the first.
The next part of the jigsaw now is getting Zouma back, with Moyes angling at playing Zouma and Aguerd together all season, albeit a tough decision considering Craig Dawson is also among the options there.
Midfield balance
Having played Rice and Paqueta as a midfield two in last Friday’s 2-0 defeat to Brentford, Moyes went back to a back four and recalled Tomas Soucek to play alongside Rice and Paqueta in the middle of the park.
However, rather than Rice and Soucek sat behind Paqueta, it was Rice sat in an anchoring role and Soucek and Paqueta playing higher up, with Soucek especially in the first half playing in a very advanced role.
That tactic suited Paqueta, who aside from his penalty, put in one of his better performances of the season and saw more of the ball as a result of West Ham’s midfield reshuffle.
Soucek meanwhile did not have the creative effect he would have liked. While a presence in the box in first half at crosses, he never really looked like meeting one, barring the chance he eventually scored but was a good few yards offside when doing so.
Moyes finds himself again trying to jig with the balance of his midfield, but a key take from it was that Paqueta can affect the game from a deeper role much better than he can when potentially isolated as a number ten. Soucek meanwhile gave away three fouls and had a pass accuracy of well less than 60%.
The Gianluca Scamacca dilemma
There was a third league goal of the season and a first in almost three months for Scamacca with his excellent second half strike, his seventh for the club in all competitions.
What however is surprising is the area of the pitch where his goals have often come from. It was his second league goal from outside of the box this term, only Leicester City’s James Maddison (three) has more.
He also has a wondergoal at Silkeborg in the Europa Conference League to add to that tally, meaning of his seven goals, three (42.9%) have come from 18 yards out or further.
At Sassuolo, he scored three of his 16 Serie A goals last season from outside the penalty area, with only six players from Italy’s top division last time doing this more often.
It is of course great that he can finish from range and is comfortable in doing so, but Moyes also wants him to be a fox in the box and take chances that more of a poacher-type striker would.
Speaking on Scamacca, Moyes told football.london : “Gianluca has got that type of goal in him. I need him to start scoring ones inside the box and headers and tap-ins and things off the goalkeeper.
“I’m really pleased for him and hopefully, it can give him confidence to build up and score more for us.”
As Moyes ends with, the encouraging thing of all is that he is back scoring. For West Ham and Moyes though, everyone will hope he can get into the penalty area more and put away chances, if and when they fall for him.
Yet another penalty taker
When Bowen was bundled over in the penalty area and eventually won a spot-kick, there was a debate over who should take one.
Said Benrahma has been the recent penalty taker, but was not in the starting line-up. Rice Bowen have already both taken and missed penalties this season, so Moyes turned to potential future club-record signing Paqueta to take one, which he scored.
For Paqueta, it was only his second ever career penalty. His other came for Lyon in November 2021 during a 4-1 drubbing against Rennes, with now West Ham teammate Aguerd against him that day.
West Ham have had nine penalties in all competitions this season, but Paqueta became the fifth different player to take one. The other two with perfect records this term, Benrahma and Manuel Lanzini, were not on the pitch when he took it.
It is encouraging for West Ham that they have already won six penalties in the league this season and three in Europe, they just need to be able to bank on someone to score it. Paqueta took his chance well though, and got his first Hammers goal in the process.
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